Briar watched him with curiosity as he shuffled closer. He stumbled when he neared her but managed to steady himself before he fell. He slightly blushed and stuck out his hand with the dandelion in it. He murmured, "For you."
She felt something odd...
Briar was currently beaming as she followed her classmates outside the school to watch the Weasley twins fly away. She had never been prouder of those two annoying gits before. They had started to give Umbridge a bit of what that foul woman deserved, and she couldn't have felt happier about it.
She couldn't wait to talk to Neville about it in their tutoring session later that afternoon. She was positively giddy over the horrified look on Umbridge's face, and she knew she wasn't alone in this sentiment. The wide smiles on the faces of her peers told her that everyone was pleased to see this dictator face a little resistance.
It reminded all of them that they still had power too.
Briar carried that excitement all the way to the library where she would be meeting Neville for their tutoring session that day. She plopped into a seat at their usual table and pulled out all of her usual studying materials. Usually, Neville beat her here, but occasionally he would arrive after her in a panic. Often he would be extra clumsy and frazzled on those days, and she presumed today would just be another one of those days.
After 20 minutes passed by and Neville still hadn't appeared, Briar became worried, and she quickly gathered her things. She hurried out of the library and stopped the first Gryffindor she saw. She panted, "Have you seen Neville Longbottom?"
The younger Gryffindor just slowly shook their head at her with wide eyes, and she sighed before hurrying on in hopes of finding someone who knew him better. When she spotted Seamus Finnegan, she joggged up to him and questioned, "Hey, have you seen Neville anywhere?"
Seamus pursed his lips and admitted, "We were just talking about that ourselves. Rumor is that he's in Umbridge's office with some of the others. I reckon that all is-"
Briar didn't want to hear the rest of what he said. She broke into a cold sweat and sprinted towards Umbridge's office. She didn't want Neville anywhere near that pink-coated monster. She skidded to a halt in front of the door and heard Ronald Weasley talking to Crabbe and Goyle, mentioning that he was hungry.
She heard their snippy response, and a shocked noise from Neville, so she didn't hesitate any longer. She broke into the office with her wand out and pointed it at Crabbe and Goyle as soon as she spotted them.
As soon as she opened the door, they bent over and began puking. Briar threw her hand over her mouth and tried not to gag at the sight. Neville ran over to her first and rushed her out of the room. He wrapped an arm around her instinctively and questioned, "Are you okay?"
Briar was turning green, but she managed to murmur, "That's what I'm supposed to ask you."
"Yes, yes, I'm okay. You look like you're going to be sick though," Neville murmured as he scanned her face rapidly. He held a hand on each of her arms, and Briar felt shivers run down her spine at the contact. She still wasn't used to that.
She shook her head and stepped away from the room a few steps more. She weakly insisted, "I'm fine, I'm fine, but we need to get out of here."
Just then, Ron, Ginny, and Luna came tumbling out of the room with their wands in hand and pale expressions on their faces. Ron tossed Neville his wand, and Briar was impressed with how easily he caught it. With how clumsy he usually was around her, she figured that he would have dropped it, but his face was focused as he questioned the others, "Where did Umbridge take Harry and Hermione?"
Briar noticed for the first time that two of their clan were missing. She was too fixated on finding Neville to notice, but now she realized that something important must have been happening. She looked at everyone's tight expressions and demanded, "What's going on?"
"You-Know-Who has Sirius, and we were going to save him, but Umbridge stopped us before we could get out of here," Ron explained in a rush as the group of them started to move down the corridors.
Her stomach dropped. She clenched her fists and announced, "Well, I'm coming with you."
Neville halted in his steps and looked at her then. He rapidly shook his head and argued, "No, no. It's too dangerous. I can't stand the thought of you being in danger, Briar."
Briar blinked at him before she took a step closer and drawled, "I'm going, Neville. You aren't trying to stop the others, and you aren't stopping me."
He blew air through his lips, but he didn't have a chance to protest since Briar had broken into a light run to catch up with the others who had kept going. They all met up with Harry and Hermione on the bridge.
Harry and Briar made worried eye contact, and understanding passed between them. They needed to act, and they needed to do it now. Their plan came together rapidly, and before long, they all arrived at the ministry. Briar and Harry pushed to the front to look for Sirius where Harry had last seen him.
When someone appeared behind them moments later as Briar was still trying to call for Sirius, everyone whipped around in a panic. She had casted a transfiguration spell on herself before they came, so she didn't look like herself luckily.
The others were stiff with shock when the death eater before them was Lucius Malfoy, but Briar took a deep breath and knew that her father would be here shortly then. She started to feel numb as realization hit her.
This was all a trap.
———
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