CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO;

A MUGGLE'S FELONY

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Harry was too stubborn to admit something was wrong, that much was clear to Cassie as the pair of them struggled down the corridors to the hospital wing. Cassie, positioned behind Harry and attempting to push his back so he would move, finally gave up after five minutes. She was breathless.

   "Fine," she panted, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "You don't need to see Madam Pomfrey. But I know something is wrong. What is it?"

   Harry had been uncharacteristically quiet and avoiding her eyes – which would have worried her, if he had not been doing the same thing for the past two days in order to avoid awkwardness.

   "Hello?" she said, waving a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Harry?"

   "It's Sirius," he said quietly, his eyes suddenly boring into hers with urgency. "Voldemort's got Sirius."

It felt as though the entire world collapsed within three words. Cassie could not breathe. Her father.. the father she only had for two years. Suddenly, the seed of doubt Umbridge had planted in Cassie's mind seemed insignificant, as the teenager felt nothing but burning worry for Sirius. She had just gotten him, how could she lose him? The decision was easy:

"We've got to go get him, then," she said tightly, grabbing Harry by the hand and racing back toward the Great Hall.

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Luckily, O.W.L.s had just finished. Hermione and Ron, eager as always, found Cassie and Harry immediately and dragged them off to an empty classroom.

    "What happened?" Hermione insisted, slamming the door shut with her foot without even removing her eyes from Harry. "Are you alright? Are you ill?"

   "Voldemort's got Sirius," said Harry at once.

   "What?" Hermione's jaw dropped. "How do you–"

   "I saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep."

   "But–but where? How?" said Hermione, pale-faced and breathing quickly.

   "He's in a room at the Ministry," said Harry so quickly that he stumbled over his words. "Theres 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, and he's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there.. Says he'll end by killing him.." Harry looked up to Ron and Hermione, almost shaking with emotion. "How're we going to get there?"

   "Get there?" Ron repeated, his eyebrows high on his forehead.

   "W-we can't.. go," said Hermione meekly. "We've still got to–"

   "It doesn't matter!" Cassie exclaimed. "Nothing matters except that if we don't get to him in time, my dad's gonna die–and if you think I'm allowing someone else that I care for to die at the hands of Voldemort, both of you can turn around and leave me and Harry to do this alone!"

   Hermione and Ron fell silent, and Cassie could not tell it this satisfied or worried her. They should at least be as angry as she and Harry felt, right? It was unfair that they were so unfazed, whilst Cassie felt as though the world were falling apart as long as they stood there arguing about it.

   "Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind," Hermione pointed out quietly. "If you'd done Occlumency properly you'd never have seen–"

   "If you think I'm just going to act like I haven't seen–!" Harry shouted, but Hermione raised her voice.

   "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 seen!" Harry protested in a loud shout.

   All four teenagers whipped their heads to the door as it opened, and in walked Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Atticus Forbes. The youngest Weasley looked curious, whilst Luna seemed as though she had wandered in by accident. Atticus was looking between Harry and the other fifth years quickly, as though trying to piece something together in his mind.

   "Sorry, I heard Harry's yelling and was only wondering whether I could help," said Ginny, raising her eyebrows and tilting her head to the side slightly.

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

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

   Harry swore and turned away, rubbing his face and exhaling an angry huff of air. Cassie collapsed onto a nearby stool and attempted to steady her shaking body.

   "They can help," said Hermione after a moment, her eyes widening with a realization. "Harry, you need to check if Sirius actually is in Grimmauld Place."

   "He's not! Voldemort's got–"

   "I know, I know," said Hermione quickly, waving a hand. "But we need to know if the vision is real or not, right? So.."

"So we need to get into Umbridge's office," said Ginny defiantly, holding her chin high. Nearly everyone looked to her in alarm – except for Luna, who was examining an old quill, and Cassie, who was absolutely keen on the idea.

"She's right," said Cassie, looking to Harry with earnest, wide eyes. "We've got to check if he's at home, right? All the fireplaces are disconnected. We've got to break into Umbridge's office."

Hermione now was the only one who seemed appalled by the idea. Ginny nodded confidently and said, "Yeah, Luna and I'll distract her."

"I've got some leftover Pocket-Swamps from Fred and George. I can help," said Atticus, nodding and moving toward Luna and Ginny. "Plus, I'm not letting these two face Umbridge on their own."

"I'll keep watch outside of Umbridge's office," said Hermione, "while Harry checks to see if he's at home. Cassie, you and Ron–"

"Send Umbridge barking up the wrong tree?" Ron suggested with a suppressed grin. "C'mon, Cassie, let's send her to the east wing."

He dragged her off without even waiting to hear the rest of the plan. Cassie stayed silent, a slow pit of dread swallowing her whole as she imagined the many ways their plan could go wrong.

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And go wrong, it did.

Umbridge saw right through the thorough lie that Ron had cultivated wherein Peeves was smashing up the Transfiguration classroom and, instead of sending the two teenagers off so she could deal with it, the Headmistress demanded she had just seen Peeves and he was flying in the opposite direction from the east wing.

   She dragged them back to her office in quietude, the only sound being the click-clack of her kitten heels on the tiles that seemed, to Cassie, at least, to mimic the clock ticking down on the amount of time they had to save Sirius.

"I want to know why you are in my office!" shrieked Umbridge a few moments later, her hand gripping Harry's head so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. "Your head was in my fire, Potter. With whom have you been communicating?"

Harry was saved from having to make up a lie yet as a commotion sounded from outside. A second later, several Slytherins shoved Ginny, Luna, Atticus, and Neville inside. Atticus sported a mean black eye and busted lip whilst Neville was being held round the neck so tightly that his face was turning purple.

Cassie, from her position of being pinned against the wall by Graham Montague, couldn't see much besides the door. Every once in a while, she would inch her fingers closer to her wand, which Montague held lazily at his side. If only her arms were a bit longer...

"Were you speaking to Albus Dumbledore?" Umbridge insisted. There was a short silence, then the sound of a forceful slap echoed around the office. Cassie winced, but straightened her face quickly as Montague smirked.

"It's none if your business who I talk to," said Harry angrily. Cassie shared his feelings – the longer they were stuck in this stupid office, the closer Voldemort got to killing Sirius.

"Very well, Mr. Potter," said Umbridge in a dangerous voice. "I have given you multiple chances to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco, fetch Professor Snape."

There was a deafening and awkward silence between the inhabitants of the office as Malfoy went out in search of Snape, the only noise being Neville's labored breathing and the occasional hitch of breath when Ginny's captor shifted her position into a much more uncomfortable one for the redhead.

The door opened again – Montague had obstructed Cassie's view, but it had to have been Snape.

"I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can," said Umbridge promptly.

"You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter and Black," drawled Snape. "Surely you did not use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient."

"You can make some more, can't you?" said Umbridge in a very strained voice.

Cassie's fingers inched even closer to her wand.. Montague still hadn't noticed...

"It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I shall have it ready for you in a month," said Snape. The door opened again, but did not close, as Harry suddenly shouted out.

"He's got Padfoot!" he cried. "He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"

   "Padfoot?" repeated Umbridge in an eager fashion. "What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? Where is Padfoot?"

   There was a horrifying moment of silence in which Cassie believed Harry's last plan had failed, but Snape just said, "No idea," flatly, and walked out.

   "Very well," said Umbridge, her voice seemingly just on the verge of breaking. "I have given you a multitude of chances... This is a Ministry matter now.... yes, I think the Minister will understand that I had no choice... The Cruciatus Curse might loosen your tongue."

   "NO WAY! YOU CAN'T–" Cassie shouted, but Montague slammed a thick hand over her mouth and muffled the rest of her words. Hermione continued the shrieking for her, anyway.

   "The Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor!" she cried. "Don't do it! Tell her, Harry!"

"What? Tell me what?" Umbridge pressed, but Hermione had wrenched her arms from Millicent Bulstrode's grip and buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs. "What is it, girl?"

"I'm sorry everyone–I just can't stand it," sobbed Hermione, shaking her head. "He was trying to speak to Professor Dumbledore..."

Ron froze, his eyes wide; Ginny stopped trying to stamp on her captor's toes; Luna seemed mildly surprised; even Atticus had paused his brawl with Crabbe to look shellshocked.

"Dumbledore?" said Umbridge urgently. "What did you need Dumbledore for?"

"We.. we wanted to tell him it's r-ready!" choked Hermione. Cassie caught Harry's eye from behind Montague's big head – his face was impassive, but she knew him well enough to see the confusion in his eyes.

"What's ready?" Umbridge demanded, shaking Hermione by the shoulders. "What's ready?"

"The... the weapon," said Hermione.

"Weapon? What weapon?"

"We don't r-r-really understand it," said Hermione, sniffing theatrically, "and we just did what P-P-Professor Dumbledore told us t-t-to do..."

"Lead me to the weapon!" said Umbridge, her eyes widen with a resurgence of excitement.

"I'm not showing them!" said Hermione shrilly, looking around to the Slytherins through her fingers.

Umbridge paused. She seemed to weigh her options. She watched Hermione closely and contemplatively, while Hermione's body shook with loud sobs... But, as Cassie looked closer, she realized there were no tears leaking from Hermione's eyes. What was she planning?

"All right, dear," said Umbridge finally. "Let's make it just you and me... and we'll take Potter too, I think."

And so, Harry and Hermione left Umbridge's office whilst being prodded in the back with her wand, leaving a band of Dumbledore's Army members and helpless Slytherins alone.

   The first step of the plan Cassie improvised on the spot came in the form of Ron's leftover Skiving Snackboxes that he pulled out "to snack on", which Crabbe and Goyle swiftly confiscated and began to scarf down as though they had never eaten in their lives. Within a moment, both Slytherins had vomited on Pansy Parkinson's shoes, forcing her to release her grip on Luna, who then distracted Montague whilst Cassie peeled her wand from his grip. Finally, Cassie hit Malfoy and Millicent Bulstrode with two Stunning Spells.

   Harry'd be proud of those, she thought with a pleased smile – but the time for pleasantries was long over with. She did not wait for the others before bursting out of Umbridge's office and racing toward the Forbidden Forest. There was no doubt in her mind that Harry and Hermione could have been able to outsmart Umbridge, the only question was if they needed her help doing it..

Thankfully, she ran into them on the rickety wooden bridge leading to the forest. Both parties were breathless but full of adrenaline as they skidded to a stop in front of each other.

"So how're we getting to my dad?" said Cassie, handing Hermione her wand whilst Ron did the same for Harry.

"I thought that bit was obvious," said Luna dazedly. "We fly, of course."