[Book 2]
"Nobody realizes how fast time goes, until time ends"
Dumbledore finds his way over to Victoria Potter, to confess that he may have concealed a secret from her about her family.
(All rights go to JK Rowling, I only take credit for the cha...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"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?" Luna asked, looking mildly surprised. "But how are you going to get there?"
Harry ignored her, his focus solely on saving Sirius.
"Right," Hermione said, twisting her hands together and pacing between the desks. "One of us has to find Umbridge and send her off in the wrong direction. We need to keep her away from her office. Maybe we can tell her that Peeves is up to something awful, as usual..."
"We'll do it," Ron said at once, looking over at Eleodora, who reluctantly agreed. "I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something. It's miles away from her office. I could probably persuade Peeves to do it if I see him on the way..."
Hermione, showing the seriousness of the situation, made no objections to the idea of the Transfiguration department being targeted. "Okay," she said, her brow furrowing 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 tip her off..."
"Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor," Ginny said promptly, "and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas." Hermione looked surprised at the ease with which Ginny came up with this lie. Ginny shrugged. "Fred and George were planning to do it before they left."
"Okay," Hermione said, "Well then, Harry, you, Ms. Blake, and I will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll sneak into the office to check if Sirius is home. I don't think you should go in alone—Lee's already shown that the window's a weak spot, sending those nifflers through it."
"He's not there, Hermione!" Harry protested.
"I mean, you can check if Sirius is at home while I keep watch," Hermione continued. "You shouldn't be alone."
"I... okay, thanks," Harry muttered, visibly relieved by Hermione's plan.
"Even with all that, I don't think we'll have more than five minutes," Victoria said, looking more relieved now that Harry seemed to have accepted the plan. "Not with Filch and the Inquisitorial Squad floating around."
"Five minutes will be enough," Harry said. "Come on, let's go—"
"Now?" Hermione asked, looking shocked.
"Of course now!" Harry snapped. "What did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!"
"Alright, alright," Hermione said desperately. "You go get the Invisibility Cloak and we'll meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor, okay?"
With their plan set, the group split up, each taking their assigned task. The urgency of the situation fueled their movements, and every second counted as they raced against time to save Sirius and uncover the truth.