The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 168 - Percy - Distracting and Sneaking

"How was that?" Alex grinned at Annabeth as we came out of the History of Magic exam.

"Oh.. not bad," Annabeth answered. 

"I wouldn't even pass if it wasn't for you, Anna," Alex pulled her into a hug. "Especially with Binns teaching.."

"No problem, honey."

"Hey, is my eyesight gone bad," I said, "or is Harry, Ron and Hermione going into that class suspicious?"

"Yes, it's curious," a new voice said. I turned around to find Ginny Weasley staring at the door with Luna Lovegood. "Let's find out."

The classroom door opened. Harry, Ron and Hermione whipped around. 

"Hi," said Ginny uncertainly. "We recognised Harry's voice. What are you yelling about?"

"Never you mind," said Harry roughly.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "There's no need to take that tone with me," she said coolly, "I was only wondering whether I could help."

"Well, you can't," said Harry shortly.

"You're being rather rude, you know," said Luna serenely.

Harry swore and turned away. 

"Wait," said Hermione suddenly. "Wait... Harry, they can help."

Harry and Ron looked at her.

"Listen," she said urgently, "Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left Headquarters."

"Wait. What's happened?" I asked, frowning. 

"I've told you, I saw--"

"Harry, I'm begging you, please!" said Hermione desperately. "Please let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London. If we find out he's not there, then I swear I won't try to stop you. I'll come, I'll d--do whatever it takes to try and save him."

"Guys!" Alex yelled at them. "This is regarding our uncle, so how about we start off by telling us what's happened?"

"Sirius is being tortured NOW!" shouted Harry. "We haven't got time to waste."

"But if this is a trick of Voldemort's, Harry, we've got to check, we've got to," Hermione said.

"How?" Harry demanded. "How're we going to check?"

"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him," said Hermione, who looked positively terrified at the thought. "We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny and Luna."

Though clearly struggling to understand what was going on, Ginny said immediately, "Yeah, we'll do it," and Luna said, "When you say "Sirius", are you talking about Stubby Boardman?"

Nobody answered her.

"OK," Harry said aggressively to Hermione, "OK, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now."

"The Department of Mysteries?" said Luna, looking mildly surprised. "But how are you going to get there?"

Again, Harry ignored her.

"Right," said Hermione, twisting her hands together and pacing up and down between the desks. "Right... well... one of us has to go and find Umbridge and--and send her off in the wrong direction, keep her away from her office. They could tell her--I don't know--that Peeves is up to something awful as usual..."

"I'll do it," said Ron at once. "I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something, it's miles away from her office. Come to think of it, I could probably persuade Peeves to do it if I met him on the way."

It was a mark of the seriousness of the situation that Hermione made no objection to the smashing up of the Transfiguration department.

"OK," she said, her brow furrowed as she continued to pace. "Now, we need to keep students right away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off."

"Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor," said Ginny promptly, "and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garrotting Gas." Hermione looked surprised at the readiness with which Ginny had come up with this lie; Ginny shrugged and said, "Fred and George were planning to do it before they left."

"OK," said Hermione. "Well then, Harry, you and I will be under the Invisibility Cloak and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius--"

"He's not there, Hermione!"

"Wait- I'm coming too," I said, stepping forward. "He's my uncle."

Hermione frowned. "Percy-- OK. I mean, you can --can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch, I don't think you should be in there alone, Lee's already proved the windows a weak spot, sending those Nifflers through it."

Even through his anger and impatience, Harry recognized Hermione's offer to accompany him into Umbridge's office as a sign of solidarity and loyalty.

"I... OK, thanks," he muttered.

"Right, well, even if we do all of that, I don't think we're going to be able to bank on more than five minutes," said Hermione, looking relieved that Harry seemed to have accepted the plan, "not with Filch and the wretched Inquisitorial Squad floating around."

"Five minutes'll be enough," said Harry "C'mon, let's go--"

"Now?" said Hermione, looking shocked.

"Of course now!" said Harry angrily. "What did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!"

"I--oh, all right," she said desperately. "You go and get the Invisibility Cloak and we'll meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor, OK?"

Harry didn't answer, but flung himself out of the room and began to fight his way through the milling crowds outside, and came back with Sirius' knife and his Invisibility Cloak.

"Got it," he panted. "Ready to go, then?"

"All right," whispered Hermione as a gang of loud sixth-years passed them. "So Ron and Luna--you go and head Umbridge off... Ginny, Alex, if you can start moving people out of the corridor... Harry and I will get the Cloak on and wait until the coast is clear..."

Ron strode away, his bright-red hair visible right to the end of the passage; meanwhile Ginny's equally vivid head bobbed between the jostling students surrounding them in the other direction, trailed by Luna's blonde one. Alex's dark hair was seen to be nowhere.

"Get over here," muttered Hermione, tugging at Harry's wrist and pulling him back into a recess where the ugly stone head of a medieval wizard stood muttering to itself on a column. "Are--are you sure you're OK, Harry? You're still very pale."

"I'm fine," he said shortly, tugging the Invisibility Cloak from out of his bag. 

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