chosen - harry potter

Chapter 16 - Padfoot Taken

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Cassia watched with horror as Professor Tofty, who had been overseeing the exam, pulled Harry up under his arms and helped him out of the entrance hall. Harry kept mumbling and yelling, and though Cassia couldn't make out the majority of it, she did hear one recurring name.

Sirius.

Professor Tofty returned after a moment, and Cassia scribbled down nonsense answers to the rest of her exam, hoping to rush out of the exam as quickly as possible.

"Time is up!" Professor Tofty cried. 

Cassia, Ron, and Hermione locked eyes before running to the front and dropping their exams before hurrying out of the hall, looking for Harry. He stood at the top of the marble staircase, his face pale.

"Harry," Cassia said breathily, walking quickly up the staircase. "Are you alright? What's happened?"

"Come with me," Harry said as Ron and Hermione approached. "Come on, I've got to tell you something..."

He led them through the first floor, finding an empty classroom and pulling the door closed behind them.

"Voldemort's got Sirius."

"What?"

"I saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls, and they're at the end of row ninety-seven...He's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there...He's torturing him...Says he'll end by killing him..."

He shook violently. He stumbled to a desk, sitting down carefully. 

"How're we going to get there?" he asked.

"G-get there?" Ron said quietly.

"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!" Harry said loudly.

"Harry, I'm certain that he's messing with your head," Cassia said steadily. "There's no way that Voldemort is in the Ministry without anyone noticing. In the middle of the day, at that. Please listen to me."

"The Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty when I've been-"

"You haven't been there. You've dreamed about it."

"They're not normal dreams!" he shouted. "How d'you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what happened to him?"

Cassia hesitated, closing her mouth.

"He's got a point," Ron said quietly.

"But why," Hermione said, making Cassia grateful, "why on earth would Voldemort want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?"

"I dunno, there could be loads of reasons!" Harry yelled. "Maybe Sirius is just someone Voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt!"

"Okay, I've just got to say this," Hermione said, looking frightened but determined. "But you do...sort of...I mean, don't you think you've got a bit of a...saving-people-thing?"

"And what's that supposed to mean, a 'saving-people-thing'?" Harry said, glaring.

Cassia looked at Hermione nervously, wondering where exactly she was taking this.

"Well...you...I mean...last year, for instance. In the lake, during the Tournament...you shouldn't have...I mean, you didn't need to save that little Delacour girl. You got a bit...carried away...I mean, it was really great of you and everything. Everyone thought it was a wonderful thing to do-"