***
SHE DIDN'T TRY CONCENTRATE for the rest of her examination. Her mind was on Harry. As the examination went over, Grace didn't waste anytime to find Ron and Hermione and the three together went to find him. Rushing up the marble staircase, they were met halfway by a very pale looking Harry.
"Harry!" said Grace at once. "What is it? was it a vision?"
"What happened?" said Hermione looking frightened. "Are you all right? Are you ill?"
"Where have you been?" demanded Ron.
"Come with me," Harry said quickly. "Come on, I've got to tell you something. . . ."
He led them along the first-floor corridor, peering through doorways, and at last found an empty classroom into which he dived, closing the door behind Ron, Grace and Hermione the moment they were inside and leaning against it, facing them.
"Voldemort's got Sirius."
"What?" Grace exclaimed.
"How d'you — ?" said Hermione.
"Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam."
All the colour drained from her face, as she stared at Harry, hoping for this to not be true.
"But — but where? How?" said Hermione, whose face was white.
"I dunno how," said Harry. "But I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls, and they're at the end of row ninety-seven . . . He's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there. . . . He's torturing him. . . . Says he'll end by killing him . . ."
He moved over to a desk and sat down on it, trying to master himself.
"H-How're we going to get there?" Grace asked them, her voice and hands shaking.
There was a moment's silence. Then Ron said, "G-get there?"
"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!" Harry said loudly.
"But — Harry . . ." said Ron weakly.
"What? What?" said Harry.
"This is my dad we're talking about, Ron!" Grace shouted.
She could not understand why they were both gaping at her and Harry as though they was asking them something unreasonable.
"Harry," said Hermione in a rather frightened voice, "er . . . how . . . how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?"
"How do I know?" bellowed Harry. "The question is how we're going to get in there!"
"But . . . Harry, think about this," said Hermione, taking a step toward him, "it's five o'clock in the afternoon. . . . The Ministry of Magic must be full of workers. . . . How would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry . . . they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world. . . . You think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?"
"I dunno, Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something!" Harry shouted. "Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been —"
"You've never been there, Harry," said Hermione quietly. "You've dreamed about the place, that's all."
"They're not normal dreams!" Harry shouted in her face, standing up and taking a step closer to her in turn. He wanted to shake her. "How d'you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?"
"He's got a point," said Ron quietly, looking at Hermione.
"But this is just — just so unlikely!" said Hermione desperately. "Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?"
"Sirius might've cracked and just wanted some fresh air," said Ron, sounding worried. "He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages —"
"But why," Hermione persisted, "why on earth would Voldemort want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?"
"I dunno, there could be loads of reasons!" Harry yelled at her. "Maybe Sirius is just someone Voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt —"
"Oh my merlin." Grace said quietly. "the weapon."
"what?" said Harry, Hermione and Ron.
"The weapon," said Grace loudly. "Remember when Lupin mentioned a weapon? I thought it was me, but mom denied —"
"you're the weapon." said Hermione in a sort of awed voice.
"that's my guess too, as I'm supposed to be the most powerful or whatever." said Grace, thoughts racing in her mind. "But I don't think it's just me. I think there's something in the Department of Mysteries which Voldemort wants as much as me."
"This still doesn't make any sense!" said Hermione loudly.
"You know what, I've just thought of something," said Ron in a hushed voice, ignoring Hermione. "Sirius's brother was a Death Eater, wasn't he? Maybe he told Sirius the secret of how to get the weapon!"
"Yeah — and that's why Dumbledore's been so keen to keep Sirius locked up all the time!" said Harry.
"yes! Sirius was always really important in the meetings — that's what the guard duty was!" said Grace breathlessly.
"Look, I'm sorry," cried Hermione, "but none of you are making sense, and we've got no proof for any of this, no proof Voldemort and Sirius are even there —"
"Hermione, Harry's seen them!" said Ron, rounding on her.
"Okay," she said, looking frightened yet determined, "I've just got to say this. . . ."
"What?"
"You . . . This isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do . . . sort of . . . I mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people-thing?" she said.
He glared at her. "And what's that supposed to mean, a 'saving-people-thing'?"
"Well . . . you . . ." She looked more apprehensive than ever. "I mean . . . last year, for instance . . . in the lake . . . during the Tournament . . . you shouldn't have . . . I mean, you didn't need to save that little Delacour girl. . . . You got a bit . . . carried away . . ."
". . . I mean, it was really great of you and everything," said Hermione quickly, looking positively petrified at the look on Harry's face. "Everyone thought it was a wonderful thing to do —"
"That's funny," said Harry in a trembling voice, "because I definitely remember Ron saying I'd wasted time acting the hero. . . . Is that what you think this is? You reckon I want to act the hero again?"
"No, no, no!" said Hermione, looking aghast. "That's not what I mean at all!"
"Well, spit out what you've got to say, because we're wasting time here!" Harry shouted.
"I'm trying to say — Voldemort knows you, Harry! He took Ginny down into the Chamber of Secrets to lure you there, it's the kind of thing he does, he knows you're the — the sort of person who'd go to Sirius's aid! What if he's just trying to get you into the Department of Myst — ?"
"Hermione, it doesn't matter if he's done it to get me there or not — they've taken McGonagall to St. Mungo's, there isn't anyone left from the Order at Hogwarts who we can tell, and if we don't go, Sirius is dead!"
"But Harry — what if your dream was — was just that, a dream?"
Harry let out a roar of frustration. Hermione actually stepped back from him, looking alarmed.
"You don't get it!" Harry shouted at her. "I'm not having nightmares, I'm not just dreaming! What d'you think all the Occlumency was for, why d'you think Dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? Because they're REAL, Hermione — Sirius is trapped — I've seen him — Voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but I'm going, understand? And if I remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my saving-people-thing when it was you I was saving from the dementors, or" — he rounded on Ron — "when it was your sister I was saving from the basilisk —"
"I never said I had a problem!" said Ron heatedly.
"But Harry, you've just said it," said Hermione fiercely. "Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done Occlumency properly you'd never have seen this —"
"IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN —"
"Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!"
"WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST —"
The classroom door opened. Grace, Harry, Ron, and Hermione whipped around. Ginny walked in, looking curious, followed by Luna, who as usual looked as though she had drifted in accidentally.
"Hi," said Ginny uncertainly. "We recognized Harry's voice — what are you yelling about?"
"Never you mind," said Harry 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," said Harry shortly.
"You're being rather rude, you know," said Luna serenely.
Harry swore and turned away.
"Wait," said Hermione suddenly. "Wait . . . Harry, they can help."
Harry, Grace and Ron looked at her.
"Listen," she said urgently, "Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left headquarters —"
"I've told you, I saw —"
"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 —"
"But if this is a trick of V-Voldemort's — Harry, we've got to check, we've got to —"
"How?" Grace 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, everybody ignored her.
"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."
"Okay," said Hermione, "well then, Harry and Grace will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius —"
"He's not there, Hermione!"
"I mean, you can — can check whether Sirius is at home or not while Grace keep watch. Lee's already proved the window's a weak spot, sending those nifflers through it."
"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.
"Of course now!" said Grace angrily. "What did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, my dad is being tortured right now!"
"I — oh all right," she said desperately. "You and Harry go get the Invisibility Cloak and we'll meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor, okay?"
Hand in hand, Grace and Harry flung themselves out of the room and began to fight their way through the milling crowds outside. Two floors up they met Seamus and Dean, who hailed them jovially and told them they were planning a dusk-till-dawn end-of-exams celebration in the common room. Grace barely heard them. She and Harry scrambled through the portrait hole while they were still arguing about how many black-market butterbeers they would need. Harry made his way toward his dorm to get the invisibility cloak and Grace rushed to her dorm to get Sirius's knife. They met again in the common room, before rushing out.
They teared away back along the corridor, and a couple of minutes later were jumping the last few stairs to join Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, who were huddled together at the end of Umbridge's corridor.
"Got it," he panted. "Ready to go, then?"
"All right," whispered Hermione as a gang of loud sixth years passed them. "So Ron — you and I will go and head Umbridge off. . . . Ginny, Luna, if you can start moving people out of the corridor. . . . Harry and Grace will get the cloak on and wait until the coast is clear. . . ."
Hermione and Ron strode away, Ron's 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 Grace, tugging at Harry's wrist and pulling him back into a recess where the ugly stone head of a medieval wizard stood muttering to itself on a column. "Dad will be alright, Harry. I know it. . . he will be. . ." It was more to assure herself than to Harry, who was as white as her.
"I hope," he said shortly, tugging the Invisibility Cloak from out of his bag. "Here," he said. He threw the Invisibility Cloak over both 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 swiveling 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 colorless," 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, Grace 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, Grace whispered, "you're brilliant . . . 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 Grace, as she inserted the blade of Sirius's knife in the crack between door and wall. The lock clicked open, and they entered the office.
The garish kittens were basking in the late afternoon sunshine warming their plates, but otherwise the office was as still and empty as last time. Grace breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thought she might have added extra security after the second niffler. . . ."
They pulled off the cloak. Grace squeezed Harry's hand and 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!"
Everything was quiet as they waited for the chorus of 'Weasley is our king'. not a long time passed, nothing was moving. She tried to not think of what Voldemort must be doing to Sirius, as she waited for the signal or Harry to come out.
However, just as she turned to peer onto the grounds again, someone grabbed her roughly from behind. She tried to fight back, but this person was unnaturally strong. Nevertheless, she persisted. The person who grabbed her place their over her mouth, and in moment of pure spite, she bit it. They reeled back quickly and let her go.
"Harry! Harry!" Grace tried calling as the person again grabbed her, this time more roughly. But it was no use as Umbridge had already yanked him by the head and began to drag him out of the fire.
"You think," she whispered, bending Harry's neck back even farther, so that he was looking up at the ceiling above him, "that after two nifflers I was going to let one more foul, scavenging little creature enter my office without my knowledge? I had Stealth Sensoring Spells placed all around my doorway after the last one got in, you foolish boy."
"Take his wand," she barked at Draco. "And hers too."
Before Grace could react, Draco restrained her again in a fight for her wand.
"And I thought you were better than someone's pet." Grace spitted.
"Piss off." sneered Draco, yanking her wand away.
He restrained her again, and tried to place a gag in her mouth.
"Try it, and I'll bite you so hard that your hand will be permanently injured." snarled Grace.
There was hesitation, and he thought better than to gag her, before restraining her.
"I want to know why you are in my office," said Umbridge, shaking the fist clutching Harry's hair so that he staggered.
"I was — trying to get my Firebolt!" Harry croaked.
"Liar." She shook his head again. "Your and Black's Firebolt is under strict guard in the dungeons, as you very well know, Potter. You had your head in my fire. With whom have you been communicating?"
"No one —" said Harry, trying to pull away from her.
"Liar!" shouted Umbridge. She threw him from her, and he slammed into the desk.
"You fuckin' old bitch —"
Grace's exclamation of anger was interrupted by a commotion outside and several large Slytherins entered, each gripping Ron, Ginny, Luna, and — to Grace's bewilderment — Neville, who was trapped in a stranglehold by Crabbe and looked in imminent danger of suffocation. All four of them had been gagged.
"Got 'em all," said Warrington, shoving Ron roughly forward into the room. "That one." he poked a thick finger at Neville, "tried to stop me taking her," he pointed at Ginny, who was trying to kick the shins of the large Slytherin girl holding her, "so I brought him along too."
"Good, good," said Umbridge, watching Ginny's struggles. "Well, it looks as though Hogwarts will shortly be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?"
Draco laughed loudly and sycophantically. Grace raised her leg and swung it backwards. He inhaled sharply. Umbridge gave her wide, complacent smile and settled herself into a chintz-covered armchair, blinking up at her captives like a toad in a flowerbed.
"So, Potter," she said. "You stationed lookouts around my office and you sent this buffoon," she nodded at Ron, and Draco laughed even louder, "to tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly well that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes, Mr. Filch having just informed me so."
"Clearly, it was very important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she is still too ill to talk to anyone. . . ."
Draco and a few of the other members of the Inquisitorial Squad laughed some more at that. Grace found she was so full of rage and hatred she was shaking.
"It's none of your business who I talk to," harry snarled.
Umbridge's slack face seemed to tighten.
"Very well," she said in her most dangerous and falsely sweet voice. "Very well, Mr. Potter . . . I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Pansy — fetch Professor Snape."
Pansy strutted out of the room smirking, but Grace hardly noticed. She had just realized something; she could not believe she had been so stupid as to forget it. She had thought that all the members of the Order, all those who could help her save Sirius, were gone — but she had been wrong. There was still a member of the Order of the Phoenix at Hogwarts — Snape.
There was silence in the office except for the fidgetings and scufflings resultant from the Slytherins' efforts to keep everyone under control. Grace was finding way to hurt Draco discreetly in hopes he'd recoil and she'd be free. Ron's lip was bleeding onto Umbridge's carpet as he struggled against Warrington's half nelson. Ginny was still trying to stamp on the feet of the sixth-year girl who had both her upper arms in a tight grip. Neville was turning steadily more purple in the face while tugging at Crabbe's arms, and Hermione was attempting vainly to throw Millicent Bulstrode off her. Luna, however, stood limply by the side of her captor, gazing vaguely out of the window as though rather bored by the proceedings.
Grace kept struggling until footsteps were heard in the corridor outside and Pansy Parkinson came back into the room, holding open the door for Snape.
"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" said Snape, looking around at all the pairs of struggling students with an expression of complete indifference.
"Ah, Professor Snape," said Umbridge, smiling widely and standing up again. "Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can, please."
"You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter and Weasley," he said, observing her coolly through his greasy curtains of black hair. "Surely you did not use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient." Umbridge flushed.
"You can make some more, can't you?" she said, her voice becoming more sweetly girlish as it always did when she was furious.
"Certainly," said Snape, his lip curling. "It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in around a month."
"A month?" squawked Umbridge, swelling toadishly. "A month? But I need it this evening, Snape! I have just found Potter and Weasley using my fire to communicate with a person or persons unknown!"
"Really?" said Snape, showing his first, faint sign of interest as he looked around at Grace and Harry. "Well, it doesn't surprise me. Weasley and Potter has never shown much inclination to follow school rules."
"I wish to interrogate him!" shouted Umbridge angrily, and Snape looked away from Harry back into her furiously quivering face. "I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!"
"I have already told you," said Snape smoothly, "that I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter — and I assure you I would have the greatest sympathy with you if you did — I cannot help you. The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling. . . ."
Snape looked back at Harry, who stared at him frantically.
"You are on probation!" shrieked Professor Umbridge, and Snape looked back at her, his eyebrows slightly raised. "You are being deliberately unhelpful! I expected better, Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of you! Now get out of my office!"
Snape gave her an ironic bow and turned to leave.
"He's got Padfoot!" Harry shouted. "He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"
Snape had stopped with his hand on Umbridge's door handle.
"Padfoot?" cried Professor Umbridge, looking eagerly from Harry to Snape. "What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What does he mean, Snape?"
Snape looked around at Harry. His face was inscrutable. Grace could not tell whether he had understood or not.
"I have no idea," said Snape coldly. "Potter, when I want nonsense shouted at me I shall give you a Babbling Beverage. And Crabbe, loosen your hold a little, if Longbottom suffocates it will mean a lot of tedious paperwork, and I am afraid I shall have to mention it on your reference if ever you apply for a job."
He closed the door behind him with a snap, leaving Grace in a state of worse turmoil than before: Snape had been their very last hope. She looked at Umbridge, who seemed to be feeling the same way; her chest was heaving with rage and frustration.
"Very well," she said, and she pulled out her wand. "Very well . . . I am left with no alternative. . . . This is more than a matter of school discipline. . . . This is an issue of Ministry security. . . . Yes . . . yes . . ."
She seemed to be talking herself into something. She was shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot, staring at Harry, beating her wand against her empty palm and breathing heavily.
"You are forcing me, Potter. . . . I do not want to," said Umbridge, still moving restlessly on the spot, "but sometimes circumstances justify the use . . . I am sure the Minister will understand that I had no choice. . . . the Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue," said Umbridge quietly.
"No!" Grace yelled. " — don't." She struggled against Draco's grip on her arm. "don't — not Harry! take me — "
Umbridge raised her wand.
"The Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor Umbridge!" cried Hermione.
"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him," said Umbridge, who was now panting slightly as she pointed her wand at different parts of Harry's body in turn, apparently trying to decide what would hurt the most. "He never knew I ordered dementors after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same. . . ."
"It was you?" gasped Harry. "You sent the dementors after me?"
"Somebody had to act," breathed Umbridge, as her wand came to rest pointing directly at Harry's forehead. "They were all bleating about silencing you somehow — discrediting you — but I was the one who actually did something about it. . . . Only you wriggled out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, though, not now . . ."
And taking a deep breath, she cried, "Cruc —"
"NO!" shouted Hermione in a cracked voice from behind Millicent Bulstrode. "No — Harry — Harry, we'll have to tell her!"
"No way!" yelled Harry.
"We'll have to, Harry, she'll force it out of you anyway, what's . . . what's the point. . . ?"
And Hermione began to cry weakly into the back of Millicent Bulstrode's robes. Millicent stopped trying to squash her against the wall immediately and dodged out of her way looking disgusted.
"Well, well, well!" said Umbridge, looking triumphant. "Little Miss Question-All is going to give us some answers! Come on then, girl, come on!"
"Er — my — nee — no!" shouted Ron through his gag.
Ginny was staring at Hermione as though she had never seen her before; Neville, still choking for breath, was gazing at her too. But Grace had just noticed something. Though Hermione was sobbing desperately into her hands, there was no trace of a tear. . .
"I'm — I'm sorry everyone," said Hermione. "But — I can't stand it —"
"That's right, that's right, girl!" said Umbridge, seizing Hermione by the shoulders, thrusting her into the abandoned chintz chair and leaning over her. "Now then . . . with whom was Potter communicating just now?"
"Well," gulped Hermione into her hands, "well, he was trying to speak to Professor Dumbledore. . . ."
Ron froze, his eyes wide; Ginny stopped trying to stamp on her Slytherin captor's toes; even Luna looked mildly surprised. Fortunately, the attention of Umbridge and her minions was focused too exclusively upon Hermione to notice these suspicious signs.
"Dumbledore?" said Umbridge eagerly. "You know where Dumbledore is, then?"
"Well . . . no!" sobbed Hermione. "We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and the Three Broomsticks and even the Hog's Head —"
"Idiot girl, Dumbledore won't be sitting in a pub when the whole Ministry's looking for him!" shouted Umbridge, disappointment etched in every sagging line of her face.
"But — but we needed to tell him something important!" wailed Hermione, holding her hands more tightly over her face, not, Grace knew, out of anguish, but to disguise the continued absence of tears.
"Yes?" said Umbridge with a sudden resurgence of excitement. "What was it you wanted to tell him?"
"We . . . we wanted to tell him it's r-ready!" choked Hermione.
"What's ready?" demanded Umbridge, and now she grabbed Hermione's shoulders again and shook her slightly. "What's ready, girl?"
"The . . . the weapon," said Hermione.
"Weapon? Weapon?" said Umbridge, and her eyes seemed to pop with excitement. "You have been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"
"Y-y-yes," gasped Hermione. "But he had to leave before it was finished and n-n-now we've finished it for him, and we c-c-can't find him t-t-to tell him!"
"What kind of weapon is it?" said Umbridge harshly, her stubby hands still tight on Hermione's shoulders.
"We don't r-r-really understand it," said Hermione, sniffing loudly. "We j-j-just did what P-P-Professor Dumbledore told us t-t-to do . . ."
Umbridge straightened up, looking exultant.
"Lead me to the weapon," she said.
"I'm not showing . . . them," said Hermione shrilly, looking around at the Slytherins through her fingers.
"It is not for you to set conditions," said Professor Umbridge harshly.
"Fine," said Hermione, now sobbing into her hands again, "fine . . . let them see it, I hope they use it on you! In fact, I wish you'd invite loads and loads of people to come and see! Th-that would serve you right — oh, I'd love it if the wh-whole school knew where it was, and how to u-use it, and then if you annoy any of them they'll be able to s-sort you out!"
These words had a powerful impact on Umbridge. She glanced swiftly and suspiciously around at her Inquisitorial Squad, her bulging eyes resting for a moment on Draco, who was too slow to disguise the look of eagerness and greed that had appeared on his face.
Umbridge contemplated Hermione for another long moment and then spoke in what she clearly thought was a motherly voice. "All right, dear, let's make it just you and me . . . and we'll take Potter and Black too, shall we? Get up, now —"
"Professor," said Malfoy eagerly, "Professor Umbridge, I think some of the squad should come with you to look after —"
"I am a fully qualified Ministry official, Malfoy, do you really think I cannot manage two wandless teenagers alone?" asked Umbridge sharply. "In any case, it does not sound as though this weapon is something that schoolchildren should see. You will remain here until I return and make sure none of these" — she gestured around at Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna — "escape."
"All right," said Draco, looking sulky and disappointed.
"And you three can go ahead of me and show me the way," said Umbridge, pointing at Harry, Grace and Hermione with her wand. "Lead on. . . ."