Traitor: A Draco Malfoy Story

thirty-five

"Harry, can you please just listen!" Hermione was running after the two of us, Ron trailing after her. She was warning him about the dangers of going to rescue Sirius, but neither Harry nor I were very interested in what she had to say. "What if Voldemort meant for you to see this? What if he's only hurting Sirius because he's trying to get to her?"

"Yeah, and what if he is?" Harry said. "I'm supposed to just let him die because he wants something from me and Azalea? Hermione, he's the only family I've got left."

Hermione and Ron looked at each other before Ron said, "What do we do?"

I knew I liked Ron.

Harry smiled and bounded up the stairs we'd been standing on. "We'll have to use the Floo network."

"But Umbridge has the chimneys under surveillance," Hermione sighed.

"Not all of them!" Harry called as he ran ahead of us.

We went up two more flights of stairs before we reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Umbridge was out patrolling the hallways, though we weren't sure when she would be back. We had to move quickly.

"Alohomora," Harry whispered when we reached her office door, and the latch lifted so we could slip inside. The cat plates mewed in protest of our presence in the room, but each one of us ignored them.

"Alert the Order if you can," Harry ordered as he threw powder into the fireplace and the green flames grew.

"No, we're going with you!" Ron demanded.

"It's too dangerous!" countered Harry exasperatedly.

Hermione crouched down next to him. "When are you going to get it into your head? We're in this together!"

"That. You. Are."

I whirled around to see Umbridge, hair a mess, standing at her door, a furious expression twisting her face and making it more ugly than usual. The Inquisitorial Squad stood behind her.

"Sit," she demanded, though she pulled Harry into the chair in front of her desk herself with magic. She turned to the students positioned around her. "Go round up the rest of the students we found practicing Dumbledore's Army. Bring them here for questioning."

After ten minutes, Malfoy stumbled in holding the back of Neville's sweater. I looked directly at him, daring him to make eye contact with me, but he didn't so much as look my way.

"Found this one trying to help the Weasley girl," Malfoy spat, shoving the boy against the wall.

Umbridge leaned down towards Harry, a condescending smile on her face. "You were going to Dumbledore, weren't you?

"No," Harry said.

The smile dropped from her face and she slapped the boy across his, the smack of her palm against his skin lingering in the air.

"You sent for me, Headmistress?" A slow, drawling voice said from the door.

"Snape! Yes. The time has come for answers. Whether he wants to give them to me or not. Have you brought the Veritaserum?"

"I'm afraid you've used up all my stores interrogating students, the last of it on Miss Chang."

The rest of Dumbledore's Army looked around at one another. They hadn't known this though I'd found out from Malfoy.

A hand gripped my upper arm as a figure moved behind me. Lips hovered near my ear whispering, "What are you doing getting mixed up with Harry, Azalea?"