SCARLETT: THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

Chapter 23: A betrayal

It was just a normal DA meeting.

Everything in the room suddenly felt like it was at a standstill when the doors to the Room of Requirement opened up suddenly and closed just as quickly. From the hallway came Dobby who seemed to be in a bit terrified.

Everyone in the room that had been talking before went silent when they spotted the elf standing at the door and we all became very confused. I glanced over at Harry and he looked even more clueless than everyone else. What was Dobby doing in here? Why did he look so scared? Was something wrong?

"Dobby...what is it?" I asked when no one else spoke up.

"The elves been told not to tell Harry Potter or Scarlett Carran," he said with wide eyes as he shook his head. "But Dobby had to come - Dobby had to warn you."

"Had to warn us of what?" Harry asked.

"She told us not to tell," Dobby said in a panic.

He suddenly threw his hands over his mouth and then began to beat his head into the floor below him. Hermione let out a shriek and Harry and I ran quickly over to him so that he would stop hurting himself.

"Dobby - STOP!" I shouted.

"Dobby is being bad - " he started.

"Who is 'she?'" Harry asked.

Then it suddenly dawned on me. Who else in this school would give orders to the house-elves regarding either myself or Harry?

"Umbridge?" I suggested. "What did she tell you not to say?"

"Dobby can't say," he said weakly.

"Oh no," Harry said suddenly.

"What is it?" I asked him.

Harry's face suddenly began to look very panic-stricken and I couldn't understand why. The only thing that my brother seemed to be able to focus on was Dobby's saddened and confused face.

"Umbridge knows, doesn't she Dobby?" Harry asked in a hallow tone. "She knows what we're doing in here, doesn't she?"

Dobby nodded his head quickly and everyone in the room looked at each other in horror, unable to process what we had just figured out.

"We need to get out of here," I said quietly. "Everyone - run, NOW!"

"Get out of here!" Harry yelled.

There was suddenly a mad scramble to get out of the door and we were quick to do so. Harry and I made sure that every single person was out of the room before we closed the door behind us and took off down the hallways with everyone else. The only thing that I could concentrate on at this point was putting as much distance between myself and the Room of Requirement as possible.

"AHHH!"

My head spun around and I immediately stopped in my tracks when I found Harry on the ground. His eyes grew wide and he looked directly at me when I began to run towards him.

"No Scarlett - RUN!" he yelled.

"There they are - I knew I got one of them!"

Draco came running towards us and Umbridge was following far behind him. He had that smirk of achievement on his face that I had seen so many times on his face that should how proud he was that he had caught us in the act of something we weren't supposed to be doing.

"Scarlett," Draco said with his face suddenly dropping and his voice lowered. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not leaving Harry," I said. "How could you go on her side Draco - I wouldn't even expect you be that low."