UnExpected

Chapter 66

McGonagall had been transferred to St. Mungo's. Hagrid had escaped into the Forest. Dumbledore was gone. There was no one left to turn to. No one from the Order was there to help him, to help Sirius. Harry was on his own and it was terrifying. He felt hopeless. Who was he to turn to now?

The moment the question popped into his head, so did the faces of the two people he could always rely on, who stood by his side while others turned away. What a surprise it was to Harry when Ron and Hermione didn't exactly jump on the bandwagon once he told them about his vision.

Hermione had said he had a saving people thing. Harry's temper did not agree. She then went on about how maybe Voldemort had discovered their connection and sent him a vision about Sirius to trick him, and then proceeded to remind him, no, wait, scold him on the fact that if he had closed off his mind like he was supposed to, he wouldn't have seen any of it. Once again, Harry's temper did not agree.

They argued loudly in an empty classroom, so loudly, in fact, that Ginny and Luna, who had been passing by and heard Harry's shouting, entered the room wondering what was going on and if there was any way they could help.

It took some pleading on Hermione's part to convince Harry that they should at least check and make sure that Sirius wasn't at Grimmauld Place before they went running off to the Ministry. With great resistance, Harry agreed, and then they formed a plan.

Umbridge's office contained the only fireplace that wasn't under surveillance. It was risky, but there was no other way to contact Grimmauld Place directly; it had to be through the Floo Network. Ron would distract Umbridge by telling her that Peeves was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration Department, and Ginny and Luna would keep everyone away from the office corridor by warning passers-by that someone had let off a load of Garroting Gas.

After a quick dash, Harry retrieved his Invisibility Cloak, and beneath it, he and Hermione snuck into Umbridge's office.

Hermione kept a lookout while Harry stuck his head into the green flames of the fireplace. What a disappointment it was when he found no one in the kitchen but Kreacher.

"Where's Sirius, Kreacher?" Harry demanded.

The house-elf gave a wheezy chuckle. "Master has gone out, Harry Potter."

"Where's he gone? Where's he gone, Kreacher?"

Kreacher merely cackled.

"I'm warning you!" said Harry, fully aware that his scope for inflicting punishment upon

Kreacher was almost non-existent in this position. "What about Lupin? Mad-Eye? Ms. Summers? Any of them, are any of them there?"

"Nobody here but Kreacher!" said the elf gleefully, and turning away from Harry, he began to walk slowly towards the door at the end of the kitchen. "Kreacher thinks he will have a little chat with his mistress now, yes, he hasn't had a chance in a long time, Kreacher's master has been keeping him away from her –"

"Where has Sirius gone?" Harry yelled after the elf. "Kreacher, has he gone to the Department of Mysteries?"

Kreacher stopped in his tracks. Harry could just make out the back of his baldhead through the forest of chair legs before him.

"Master does not tell poor Kreacher where he is going," said the elf quietly.

"But you know!" shouted Harry. "Don't you? You know where he is!"

There was a moment's silence, then the elf let out his loudest cackle yet.

"Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries!" he said gleefully. "Kreacher and his mistress are alone again!"