Trust Me (Drarry)

Chapter 36

HARRY POV

I felt sick as I threw some Floo powder into Umbridge's fire. I wanted so badly to believe Hermione; the vision I had seen was just a trick of Voldemort's, Sirius was actuallly safe at home, yelling at Kreacher, snuggling on the sofa with Remus...

But when I spoke to the house elf, he confirmed my worst fears almost immediately. Sirius was in the Department of Mysteries, held and tortured by Voldemort.

Before I could get any more information out of him, however, I was being dragged backwards out of the fireplace. I soon found myself face to face with Umbridge, who looked unsurprisingly, murderous.

"Did you think I was going to let one more foul, scavenging creature get into my office without my knowledge?" She hissed, practically throwing me into a chair. "Take their wands," she snapped at someone. I felt an uncertain, familiar hand reach into my robes, and I automatically lifted a hand and slapped the person's cheek. Draco recoiled, one hand grasping my wand, the other nursing his face.

I glared at him as he went over to Hermione, whose face mirrored mine. We watched in horror as more Slytherins appeared in the room, dragging Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville behind them.

"This one," Warrington, the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team, pointed at Neville, "tried to stop me taking her," he pointed at Ginny, who was trying to kick the shins of Blaise Zabini as he held her tightly, "so I brought him too."
"Good, good," Umbridge smiled unpleasantly. "It looks as though Hogwarts will soon be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?"

The members of the Inquisitorial Squad snickered as Umbridge turned back to me and began to question my actions. I was determined not to tell her anything, but Hermione soon put a stop to that.

In less than five minutes, Hermione and I found ourselves leading Umbridge down into the Forbidden Forest to show her "Dumbledore's secret weapon". I was furious with Hermione; she had managed to get us into an even bigger mess than when we started, and I had no idea how we were going to pull this off.

As we walked, I thought about Draco. I had thought that we were getting somewhere, that he had realised he was being an idiot. But obviously not. He was still following Umbridge's orders and doing her dirty work for her, so he obviously didn't care about us as much as he said he did.

He changed his mind more times than a child in a sweet shop. One minute he was all for being my friend, the next he was back to being a slave to my worst enemy. It was beginning to make my head hurt, and I couldn't decide whether it was worth the stress anymore. Maybe it was time to-

I was yanked from my thoughts by a sharp jab in the back from Umbridge's wand. I looked around in surprise, and realised that we were standing in the clearing that belonged to Hagrid's half brother, Grawp. Grawp was very small for a giant, but that hadn't stopped him from ripping the tree to which he was tied out of the ground.

"Well? Where is this weapon?" She looked between us, and I realised what Hermione's plan had been. But Grawp was gone. "There isn't one, is there? You were trying to trick me!" We didn't say anything. "Do you know, I really hate children."

A few leaves and twigs crunched to our left, and Umbridge spun round, lifting her lit wand higher. My heart thumped as the light fell on about five centaurs, all of whom were aiming bows and arrows at us. As we turned, we saw more on every side of us; we were surrounded.

"You have no business here, centaurs," Umbridge called shakily. "This is ministry busine-" She was cut off by an arrow flying through the arm and embedding itself into a tree. She looked horrified. "Filthy half-breeds!" She cried. "Incarcerous!"

Hermione rushed forwards as a thick black rope enveloped the centaur who had shot the arrow. "Stop!" She tugged at the rope, trying to loosen it from the flailing centaur. "Please!"
"I will have order!" Umbridge looked hysterical, and I found myself wishing desparately for something, anything, to save us.