Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries [Book 5]

92) Umbridge Gropes

Thanks to some vomiting candy, I got out of detention with Umbridge for the night. I may have conveniently aimed at Umbridge when vomiting up my guts (I had eaten a concerning amount of Froot Loops, so it came out rainbow), which nearly got Draco out of it as well, seeing as she was so embarrassed. He had laughed though, and so she'd made him stay.

I made my way to the Gryffindor common room for the meeting with Sirius in spite of the prominent taste of Froot Loops and bile, and flopped onto the open armchair waiting for me.

"How'd you get out of detention?" Hermione asked.

"Puking Pastille," I said, reaching over and stealing Harry's water, downing it in one gulp. "Umbridge said to go to Pomfrey's and to make it up tomorrow."

"What if she asks Madame Pomfrey about you?" Hermione looked concerned.

"She'll cover for me — she's done it before, she'll do it again. I haven't missed Snuffles, have I?"

"No," Harry said. "He should be here soon, though."

As if on cue (but really it was ten minutes after Harry had said that), Ron jolted awake from his doze and stared blearily into the flames, "Sirius!"

"Hi," Sirius said, grinning up at us.

"Hi," the four of us chorused, kneeling down on the carpet in front of the hearth.

"How're things?" Sirius said.

"Not that good," Harry said, watching Hermione pull Crookshanks away from the fire. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams —"

" — or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" Sirius raised his eyebrow.

"I've got both of those things," I said quietly.

"How do you know about that?" Harry questioned.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," Sirius said, though he was still grinning. "The Hog's Head, I ask you..."

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione said protectively. "That's always packed with people —"

"— which means you'd have been harder to overhear," Sirius explained. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" I asked.

"Mundungus, of course," Sirius said, which earned him some puzzled looks. "He was hiding in the bathroom."

"He was the guy grunting in there?" I blinked. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing?" Sirius said. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"I'm still being followed?" Harry scowled, because we all knew it was really him who was being watched.

"Yeah, you are," Sirius nodded, "and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group." He didn't look particularly angry or worried, though.

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" Ron asked sadly. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago," Sirius said, "and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been hiding in bathroom's a lot lately.... Anyway... First of all, Ron — I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" Ron was cringing already.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also" — Sirius turned to look at the rest of us — "advised Harry, Hermione, and Percy not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over any of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."