Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [43]
“Well Ron,” answered Hermione, “over the Summer, I found that there are some very large idiots out there, and to continue with S.P.E.W. would be hopeless as long as they exist on this planet.”
“Does this have something to do with Krum?” asked Ron slyly, and leaning his elbow across the table. Hermione, however, became very interested in polishing her prefect badge with a napkin.
Throughout breakfast, Harry kept wondering about the note he got. Who had sent it? How had he seen him? Then, it hit him. Who was the only other person that could’ve known what he had done?
It was Tci. He was walking by while they were leaving, and he probably saw the door shut by some invisible force, and ran over to investigate. Harry also remembered he forgot to lock the door! Tci must’ve gone up to Dumbledore’s office too! He might’ve used his advanced magic to see that Fawkes had just been copied or something.
Harry’s blood just went cold, and he began to sweat. He looked over at the Slytherin table, and looked at Tci, next to Malfoy, pretending not to like it over there. Oh, Tci was the most appropriate person for Slytherin Harry ever saw.
Just as Harry was about to walk over to Tci and tell him he knew that the letter was from him, an explosion of owls appeared in the Great Hall. Hundreds of them swooped in, and delivered their parcels to the right person. A brown owl came to Hermione with a newspaper attached to its leg. She put some money in the owl’s sack, and it flew away. Hermione took out the newspaper, and began to read. The second her eyes met the paper, though, her face turned into an expression of terror. She turned the paper around, and in big letters at the top, it read: “Sirius Black and Remus Lupin Found Guilty of Murder and Conspiracy”. Harry grabbed the paper, and read the rest:
Today, the ministry judge sentenced both Sirius Black (convicted of murder) and Remus Lupin (convicted of conspiracy of knowing where Sirius Black was while he was being tracked, and not alerting the authorities) to a life sentence in Azkaban. Despite the believable ‘stories’ coming from both Black and Lupin, the judge still found reason to convict them: “I just don’t see how a large group of trusted wizards and witches witnesses can be wrong. They all saw the same thing: Sirius Black killed Peter Pettigrew.” Despite the fact that both Black and Lupin said Peter is an Animagus and transformed into a rat to escape Black’s curse, there is no evidence to support that claim. Their life sentence begins today, no visitors are allowed.
The cold blood that Harry felt inside him before now started boiling. How could they do that? Sirius was the only adult that Harry could confide in, tell everything to. What was he going to do? What was he going to do? He couldn’t live his life without Sirius, as odd as it sounded, he needed him. Suddenly, Harry had an idea. A insane, crazy idea that could not work… or could it?
“Where is it?” asked Harry quietly. Ron and Hermione looked at him in question.
“Where is… where is what Harry?” asked Hermione. He looked at her coldly.
“Where is Azkaban?” he asked slowly. They other two looked at him curiously, and then their eyes widened with realization of what he was suggesting.
“You- you want to… rescue them from there?” asked Ron slowly.
“Yes, Ron, I do. I don’t think innocent people deserve to have their minds sucked out, do you?” asked Harry impatiently.
“No, of course not Harry, it’s just that… well… how are we-” Ron was cut off.
“Don’t you understand!” yelled Harry, causing some people to look at him. “It doesn’t matter if we can, or if we can’t! We have to try!”
“Why though Harry?” asked Ron. “I mean, I know Sirius is your godfather, and Lupin was a great teacher, but why do we have to risk getting killed to try and rescue them? I mean, there‘s almost no chance that it would work.”
How could Harry respond without telling them the truth, without telling them about the Order of the Phoenix?