In The Shadows [Book Two]

Chapter Seven:

Chapter Seven:

I was in a daze, confused and dizzy and feeling slightly nauseous, up until the moment Harry was pulled away from me, his hand dropping mine lightly onto the ground as if afraid to hurt me even more. Since when did Harry care, my mind wondered, he abandoned me last chance he had, with an abusive family.

Don't be stupid, I replied to my own thoughts, he's your brother, of course he cares you nitwit.

I watched as Hermione, Harry and Professor Umbridge left the room. Panic swept over me at seeing them, wandless, leaving the room with the woman who obviously had no qualms with causing immense pain to get exactly what she wanted.

You're no different, a voice inside my head said with great pride, as if being similar to the Toad was something amazing. My mind was a dark, terrible place to be. I hated it.

The spinning of the room stopped slowly but surely, leaving me feeling steadier as I lifted myself off the ground and used my arms to hold myself upright. Suddenly, cold hands with long fingers, made for instruments and caresses, grasped my upper arms and helped me to sit at a desk.

"That was stupid," Draco whispered, obviously trying not to be overheard by all his 'friends'.. wouldn't want to look uncool, talking to Harry Potter's sister, and a Gryffindor at that. "You could have been seriously injured."

"Oh like you'd care, you said as much earlier D. I'm not a friend, I'm not family.. and in case you hadn't realized, I was seriously injured. I'm pretty sure my head is still bleeding, I can feel dried blood covering my teeth and lips, oh and lets not forget that one of the Unforgiveable curses were practically thrown at me by someone who is supposed to protect the students!"

By the end of my rant, I was practically screaming, one hand clutching the back of my head as I felt around for the gash that was definitely there since Umbridge had shoved me into a desk. Finding it, I grimaced at the pain that radiated from it. "Give me my wand so I can heal myself, you idiot!"

It was at about this point that I noticed Looney Lovegood going around, taking the gags out of Ron, Ginny and Neville's mouthes. Pansy, who was supposed to have been keeping an eye on her, was too busy watching Draco and I, probably to make sure I didn't put any moves on her man. As if that would happen.

Ron muttered something about being hungry, asking if his captor, Crabbe, would let him get some sweets out of his pocket. Crabbe mostly ignored Ron, simply hearing the part where Weasley had candy in his pockets and began digging around for them. Soon, he had shoved two into his own gob and passed a few more around to the other Slytherin's who wanted them.

Draco passed the offer, but Pansy and Millicent, Goyle and one of the unknown boys accepted; leaving me smiling down at my desk as I barely made out the WWW on the packages. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  Whatever those sweets were, they didn't bode well to the half of Slytherin's who were currently unwrapping them and placing them upon their tongue.

While Draco was leaning over me, I quickly slipped my hand into his pocket, letting my fingers close around two different pieces of wood. Harry and my own wand. I pulled them out and hid them in my long-sleeved shirt.

Moments later, I could see boils erupting on Crabbe, while Millicent began vomiting into the trashcan. Goyle seemed to begin to swell like a balloon.

Neville, now released, as was Ron, grabbed their wands and began tossing spells back and forth, until finally Ginny Weasley joined in. In this time, Draco had managed to move away from me, at first hiding behind another Slytherin but once Ginny was overcome with another enemy, he decided it would be a good time to attack her.

In a split second, Ginny had turned to Draco and knocked him down with a Bat-Bogey hex. I laughed at the sight of Malfoy with the great big flapping creatures over his face, and managed to stand up, muttering 'Incarcerous' after each of the Slytherin's were taken care of. Draco came first, just to spite him, and I got a nice kick of enjoyment from seeing the shock and betrayal in his eyes as I tied him up.

"Next time, don't try so hard to be cool in front of your friends. If you'd concentrated on me, your one real friend, I would be helping you right now, but instead.. here I am, helping the enemy, just because.. well, you're an arse." I grinned, feeling my lip split all over again at the sudden movement. I turned back to the others, noticing that they'd finished up and even Filch was down for the count.

We finished tying them up before Ron noticed something in the window.

"They're going to the Forbidden Forest," He muttered, before we all seemed to crowd towards the door. It was like a hive-mind, we all knew exactly what to do, we had to help Harry and the muggleborn, Granger, get away from that terrible woman.

And now that I had my wand back, and the room had stopped spinning, I would kill her, just as I planned.

***

By the time we'd met up with Harry and Hermione, Umbridge had -apparently- been.. carried off by a herd of centaurs, who were then chased off by the giant oaf, Hagrid's, younger brother, Grawp. The whole thing sounded crazy and I was half sure that they'd just killed Umbridge and left her in the woods and didn't want to admit it.

"Anyway, Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Did You-Know-Who have Sirius or-?"

"Yes," Harry replied, "And I'm sure he's still alive but I don't see how we can get there to help him."

"Wait wait.." I muttered, staring around at the group of Gryffindors (and the single Ravenclaw girl). "Who's Sirius?"

"He's our Godfather, Voldemort is torturing him at the Ministry of Magic, we were using Umbridge's fire to try to contact him to see if he was safe, but he isn't. He's being held captive.. but we have to get to London, we have to help him and we don't have time for more questions besides this one. How do we get to London?"

Ice cold water seemed to be thrown over me. I had a Godfather? Harry knew and never told me? I had more family than just him and an abusive aunt, uncle and cousin? Why.. why would he keep that from me? My eyes burned with tears that I shouldn't be shedding, betrayal was hot and cold at the same time, a fierce betrayal was what I felt when I realized that Harry had kept this vital piece of information from me.

How long had he known? How long had he been keeping this from me? Who else knew and never told me? Draco? Dumbledore? The Dursley's?

Family was something that couldn't be replaced, family was something sacred and though I was angry at this secret having just come to light, I would do anything to help save my family, even if I didn't know him. He was my Godfather and I would even go against the Dark Lord to save him.

"Well, we'll fly there, of course."