HARRY POV
I felt sick as I threw some Floo powder into Umbridge's fire. I wanted so badly to believe Hermione; the vision I had seen was just a trick of Voldemort's, Sirius was actuallly safe at home, yelling at Kreacher, snuggling on the sofa with Remus...
But when I spoke to the house elf, he confirmed my worst fears almost immediately. Sirius was in the Department of Mysteries, held and tortured by Voldemort.
Before I could get any more information out of him, however, I was being dragged backwards out of the fireplace. I soon found myself face to face with Umbridge, who looked unsurprisingly, murderous.
"Did you think I was going to let one more foul, scavenging creature get into my office without my knowledge?" She hissed, practically throwing me into a chair. "Take their wands," she snapped at someone. I felt an uncertain, familiar hand reach into my robes, and I automatically lifted a hand and slapped the person's cheek. Draco recoiled, one hand grasping my wand, the other nursing his face.
I glared at him as he went over to Hermione, whose face mirrored mine. We watched in horror as more Slytherins appeared in the room, dragging Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville behind them.
"This one," Warrington, the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team, pointed at Neville, "tried to stop me taking her," he pointed at Ginny, who was trying to kick the shins of Blaise Zabini as he held her tightly, "so I brought him too."
"Good, good," Umbridge smiled unpleasantly. "It looks as though Hogwarts will soon be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?"
The members of the Inquisitorial Squad snickered as Umbridge turned back to me and began to question my actions. I was determined not to tell her anything, but Hermione soon put a stop to that.
In less than five minutes, Hermione and I found ourselves leading Umbridge down into the Forbidden Forest to show her "Dumbledore's secret weapon". I was furious with Hermione; she had managed to get us into an even bigger mess than when we started, and I had no idea how we were going to pull this off.
As we walked, I thought about Draco. I had thought that we were getting somewhere, that he had realised he was being an idiot. But obviously not. He was still following Umbridge's orders and doing her dirty work for her, so he obviously didn't care about us as much as he said he did.
He changed his mind more times than a child in a sweet shop. One minute he was all for being my friend, the next he was back to being a slave to my worst enemy. It was beginning to make my head hurt, and I couldn't decide whether it was worth the stress anymore. Maybe it was time to-
I was yanked from my thoughts by a sharp jab in the back from Umbridge's wand. I looked around in surprise, and realised that we were standing in the clearing that belonged to Hagrid's half brother, Grawp. Grawp was very small for a giant, but that hadn't stopped him from ripping the tree to which he was tied out of the ground.
"Well? Where is this weapon?" She looked between us, and I realised what Hermione's plan had been. But Grawp was gone. "There isn't one, is there? You were trying to trick me!" We didn't say anything. "Do you know, I really hate children."
A few leaves and twigs crunched to our left, and Umbridge spun round, lifting her lit wand higher. My heart thumped as the light fell on about five centaurs, all of whom were aiming bows and arrows at us. As we turned, we saw more on every side of us; we were surrounded.
"You have no business here, centaurs," Umbridge called shakily. "This is ministry busine-" She was cut off by an arrow flying through the arm and embedding itself into a tree. She looked horrified. "Filthy half-breeds!" She cried. "Incarcerous!"
Hermione rushed forwards as a thick black rope enveloped the centaur who had shot the arrow. "Stop!" She tugged at the rope, trying to loosen it from the flailing centaur. "Please!"
"I will have order!" Umbridge looked hysterical, and I found myself wishing desparately for something, anything, to save us.
Umbridge screamed as she was lifted into the air by two enormous stubby fingers, and found herself practically nose to nose with Grawp. The centaurs went wild, shooting arrows at the giant, who simply looked offended and plucked them out of his arms like they were toothpicks. In doing so, he dropped Umbridge, who was quickly swept up by the centaurs. They gathered together and galloped away, leaving us alone with Grawp.
Well that went well.
-/\-\/-/\-\/-/\-
RON POV
Eventually we managed to escape the Slytherins and ran down to the Forbidden Forest to meet Harry and Hermione, who had miraculously shaken off Umbridge. Harry was dead set against us going with him to the Ministry, but Neville got through to him, asking him what the point of the DA was if we weren't actually going to fight Voldemort. It was a good moment.
I only just stopped myself from snorting with laughter when Luna suggested we fly to the Ministry.
"We can't all sprout wings whenever we feel like it!" I said sarcastically, earning me a glare from Hermione.
Turned out, she was talking about flying on Thestrals, those weird invisible things that Hagrid taught us about in Care of Magical Creatures. I was horrified - how was I supposed to ride on something I couldn't see?
A terrifying, uncomfortable, cold journey later, we were outside of the Ministry. This was it.
-/\-\/-/\-\/-/\-
Why the bloody hell did I decide to become friends with Harry Potter? Of ALL the people in that bloody train, I chose the kid with the darkest background, and therefore most likely the darkest future. Well done, eleven-year-old-Ronald.
I love him, obviously. He's my best mate, and I wouldn't change him for the world. But he sure has gotten me into some scary situations.
"Harry, look, there are brains in theren isn't that weird?" I was barely aware of what I was saying, my eyes drawing me to the tank of brains. Dolohov had hit me with something - I wasn't sure what - and everything was a bit fuzzy and disorientating. I couldn't stop giggling, and something in my brain was telling me it would be a good idea to touch a brain.
"Honest, Harry. They're actual brains - look - Accio brain!"
All of the others paused in their fight as a brain burst out of the top of the tank and flew towards me. I giggled as it span through the air, with what looked like moving images unravelling from it. I was captivated as it landed in my hands, starting to wrap its 'tentacles' around my arms.
I panicked as they got tighter, creeping all around my body and starting to squeeze my chest...
I looked at the corresponding scars now on my arms as Hermione unfolded a newspaper.
"'He Who Must Not Be Named returns'," she read out loud, sitting down on the end of my bed in the hospital wing.
We all listened quietly as she read out the whole article. I felt a great satisfaction knowing that the whole world now knew the truth.
Thanks to us. We ran off to the ministry by ourselves like the crazy children that we are, forcing the rest of the Order to come and rescue us.
Harry and Neville had filled the rest of us in on what happened when we had all been knocked out, and we felt so terrible that they had to deal with it by themselves.
"How's school, then?" Hermione asked when we got bored of discussing the article and the Department of Mysteries.
"Well, Flitwick cleared away Fred and George's swamp," Ginny said, "although he left a tiny bit in the corner and roped it off. Said it was a really good bit of magic."
"I reckon he left it as a monument to Fred and George," I chortled, picking up a few chocolate frogs from the mountain next to my bed. "They sent me all these, you know. Must be doing alright with the joke shop."
I threw a couple to Hermione, who looked thoughtful and slightly sad. She was really missing Fred, I could tell. Though she would never admit that to us.
It had freaked me out, at first - the thought of my best friend going out with my brother. But after seeing them together and seeing how happy they both were, I couldn't really find a reason for them to not be together.
Although I HAD warned them that they weren't allowed to be all soppy and kissy-kissy while I was in the room or I might throw up.
Neville, Ginny and Luna left soon after that, needing to get back to lessons. Technically, Harry should've gone too, but Dumbledore had excused him from lessons for a while on account of everything that had happened.
I was just settling down to eat some more chocolate frogs when the doors of the hospital wing burst open, and Malfoy rushed in.
"Mr Malfoy! No running in the hospital wing!" Madam Pomfrey called to him, but he was already by my bed at this point. He pulled Harry into a tight hug, before holding him at arms length and inspecting him. Harry didn't meet his gaze until Malfoy put two fingers under his chin and lifted his face up.
"Are you alright?" He asked, and Harry nodded. "What happened? All sorts of rumours have been flying around."
Hermiome gave him a quick break down of the night, hesitating when she reached the bit about Malfoy's dad. His fists clenched as she explained, and he looked furious.
"That son of a bitch," he fumed, "Harry, you have to understand that I want nothing to do with him. I never have and never will. Please believe me."
Harry stayed silent for a few seconds, and then shook his head. "You don't have a choice," he said quietly, his eyes glistening. "Your father has been put into Azkaban for serving Voldemort. You can't just brush that aside and get on with your life."
"But that's exactly what I want to do! I want to show people that I'm not just going to follow my father - now that he's out of the way I can make some of my own decisions."
Hermione gave Harry a sad smile as he looked at us. She knew it wasn't as simple as Malfoy thought. Even I knew that. And Harry did too.
"Draco-"
"I love you, Harry."
I had just had a sip of water, which I spat out all over the bed. "You what?"
Everyone ignored me. "I love you so much," Draco continued. "You're the most important person in my life, and I don't know how to prove it to you."
He cupped Harry's face and brought their lips together on a passionate kiss, and Harry returned it with just as much force. I just gaped at them.
Harry pulled away. "Draco, I can't do this. As much as I want to... This is still so dangerous. Even more so now that everyone knows your father is a Death Eater."
"But that means he's still controlling my life, Harry. I can't let him do that."
"You have to. At least for now."
"I want to be with you, Harry..."
There were tears forming in Malfoy's eyes now, and I was feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Hermione obviously was too, because she helped me up and led me over to her bed, which was far enough away that we weren't listening in.
My head was spinning. Harry and Draco? A... thing? Like... together? Kissing and hugging and... Ewww.
So Harry is gay? Or bisexual? Or pansexual? Or what? I had too many questions, and the look that Hermione was giving me was one that said "don't ask me any questions because I'm not giving you any answers". So for the time being, I just sat and twiddled my thumbs.
"I love you too, Draco," Harry sighed, and I couldn't help but keep listening to the conversation. "So much. Which is why I know this is the right thing to do."
"So, what? We can't be together at all?"
Harry shook his head. "At least until all this is over. I can't put my best friends in danger."
Draco just sat in silence, staring at his lap. Harry reached for his hand, but he snatched it away.
"Please understand," Harry practically begged him.
"I do understand..." Draco whispered. "I just hate the world."
They both laughed, tears falling down their cheeks. Harry pulled Draco into a tight hug, and they stayed like that for a good few minutes.
Then Draco pulled away and left. Harry watched as he walked out and closed the door behind him, before punching my pillow really hard.
Hermione and I walked back over to him in silence, and she placed a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. I sat back onto my bed, and decided I couldn't hold it in anymore.
"You're gay?"
Hermione punched me.