Wish Upon A Star

Fight Then

Their final exam, History of Magic, was not to take place until that afternoon.

Ashlyn paced back and forth the dormitory, as memorized the dates from a huge chart she had made which was levitating as she walked around it, trying to forget her rage, from last night's incident. This did not work as well as she had expected it to, as she would stop suddenly, and yell curses at Umbridge.

The fifth years entered the Great Hall at two o'clock and took their places in front of their overturned examination papers.

"Turn over your papers," said Professor Marchbanks from the front of the Hall, flicking over the giant hourglass. "You may begin . . ."

The paper was better than how she thought it would be.

When she was rounding off her last answer, there was a loud thud from behind, followed by screaming. Harry was screaming.

The heads in the Great Hall swivelled around to see what was going on. Harry was screaming his head off.

Professor Tofty pulled him away, while Harry muttered something about nightmares.

Ashlyn sighed. Harry would now go to the hospital wing, find out McGonagall did go to St. Mungo's and then come to the common room. She picked up her quill again, dotted an 'i' she had forgotten to before, and scanned her paper.

After finishing this paper, she'd have to go rushing to find Harry, and then to Umbridge's office, and then fly to the Ministry...

"Harry!" said Hermione at once, looking very frightened. "What happened? Are you all right? Are you ill?"

"Where have you been?" demanded Ron.

"Come with me," Harry said quickly. "Come on, I've got to tell you something . . ."

He led them along the first-floor corridor, peering through doorways, and at last found an empty classroom into which he dived, closing the door behind them the moment they were inside and leaning against it, facing them.

"Voldemort's got Sirius,"

Ashlyn sighed. When should she tell them?

"What?" Hermione said

"How d'you — ?"

"Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam."

"But — but where? How?" said Hermione, whose face was white.

"I dunno how," said Harry. "But I know exactly where. 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 . . ."

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

There was a moment's silence. Then Ron said, "G-get there?"

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

"But — Harry . . ." said Ron weakly.

"What? What?" said Harry.

"Harry," said Hermione in a rather frightened voice, "er . . . how . . . how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?"

"How do I know?" bellowed Harry. "The question is how we're going to get in there!"

"But . . . Harry, think about this," said Hermione, taking a step toward him, "it's five o'clock in the afternoon. . . . The Ministry of Magic must be full of workers. . . . How would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry . . . they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world. . . . You think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?"