elara's head was spinning. harry was gibbering beside her, trying to pull away from professor tofty, who was looking at the both of them with much concern, and who had just helped elara and out into the entrance hall while the students all around them stared.

"i'm — i'm fine, sir," harry stammered, wiping the sweat from his face. "really . . . i just fell asleep. . . . had a nightmare . . ."

"me — me too," said elara shakily. "i'm all right."

"pressure of examinations!" said the old wizard sympathetically, patting Harry shakily on the shoulder. "it happens, it happens! now, a cooling drink of water, and perhaps you will be ready to return to the great hall? the examination is nearly over, but you may be able to round off your last answer nicely?"

"yes," said harry wildly. "i mean . . . no . . . i've done — done as much as i can, i think. . . ."

"i finished," lied elara through her teeth.

"very well, very well," said the old wizard gently. "i shall go and collect your examination paper, and i suggest that you go and have a nice lie down. . . ."

"we'll do that," said harry, nodding vigorously. "thanks very much."

elara waited for the second when the old man's heels disappeared over the threshold into the great hall to talk to harry.

"what did you see?"

"voldemort was torturing sirius."

elara blanched.

"i — i saw someone kill him. harry, we have to stop it. we have too."

"mcgonagall," said harry.

they ran up the marble staircase and then more staircases toward the hospital wing, hurtling along the corridors so fast that the portraits they passed muttered reproaches, and burst through the double doors like a hurricane, causing madam pomfrey, who had been spooning some bright blue liquid into montague's open mouth, to shriek in alarm.

"potter, tonks, what do you think you're doing?"

"we need to see professor mcgonagall," gasped harry. "now . . . it's urgent. . . ."

"she's not here," said madam pomfrey sadly. "she was transferred to st. mungo's this morning. four stunning spells straight to the chest at her age? it's a wonder they didn't kill her."

"she's . . . gone?" said elara, stunned.

the bell rang just outside the dormitory, and she heard the usual distant rumbling of students starting to flood out into the corridors above and below her. she remained quite still, looking at madam pomfrey. unusual terror was rising inside her.

there was nobody left to tell. dumbledore had gone, hagrid had gone, but she had always expected professor mcgonagall to be there, irascible and inflexible, perhaps, but always dependably, solidly present. . . .

"i don't wonder you're shocked, tonks," said madam pomfrey with a kind of fierce approval in her face. "as if one of them could have stunned minerva mcgonagall face on by daylight! cowardice, that's what it was. . . . despicable cowardice . . . if i wasn't worried what would happen to you students without me, i'd resign in protest. . . ."

"yes," said harry blankly.

elara strode blindly from the hospital wing into the teeming corridor where she stood with harry, buffeted by the crowd, the panic expanding inside her like poison gas so that her head swam and she could not think what to do. . . .

remember who the fuck you are, she screamed at herself, you need to be calm. fear will get you no where.

she took several deep breaths before a new though popped in her head. ron and hermione.

she grabbed harry's hand and began running again, pushing students out of the way, oblivious to their angry protests and shouts. they sprinted back down two floors and was at the top of the marble staircase when elara saw them hurrying toward her and harry.

"harry! lara!" said hermione at once, looking very frightened. "what happened? are you all right? are you ill?"

"where have you been?" demanded ron.

"come with us," harry said quickly. "come on, we've got to tell you something. . . ."

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

"voldemort's got sirius," said elara and harry together.

"what?"

"how d'you — ?"

"i had a vision," said elara.

"saw it. just now. when i fell asleep in the exam," said harry.

"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 . . ."

harry's voice was shaking, as were his knees. he moved over to a desk and sat down on it, trying to master himself.

"and i — i saw him getting killed. so, we need to figure out how we're going to get there," said elara authoritatively as she paced along.

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 . . ." said ron weakly.

"what? what?" said harry.

elara could not understand why they were both gaping at them as though they were asking them something unreasonable.

"harry, lara," said hermione in a rather frightened voice, "er . . . how . . . how did voldemort get into the ministry of magic without anybody realizing he was there?"

"i don't know," said elara anxiously. "its voldemort! we don't know what he can and can't do!"

"but . . . think about this," said hermione, taking a step toward them, "lara... you see the future. this could be years from now... it could've been a coincidence you had a vision the same time harry had his dream... besides, 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?they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world. . . . you think they could get into a building full of aurors undetected?"

"i dunno, voldemort used an invisibility cloak or something!" harry shouted. "anyway, the department of mysteries has always been completely empty whenever i've been —"

"you've never been there, harry," said hermione quietly. "you've dreamed about the place, that's all."

"they're not normal dreams!" elara shouted loudly, standing up and taking a step closer to hermione in turn. "we have the same dreams sometimes. how do you explain ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come harry knew what had happened to him?"

"he's got a point," said ron quietly, looking at hermione.

"but this is just — just so unlikely!" said hermione desperately. "how on earth could voldemort have got hold of sirius when he's been in grimmauld place all the time?"

"sirius might've cracked and just wanted some fresh air," said ron, sounding worried. "he's been desperate to get out of that house for ages —"

"but why," hermione persisted, "why on earth would voldemort want to use sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?"

"i dunno, there could be loads of reasons!" harry yelled at her. "maybe sirius is just someone voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt —"

"oh my god," said elara quietly. "the weapon."

"what?" said harry, hermione, and ron.

"remember," said elara quickly, "before term started, and harry was asking all those questions? sirius and lupin mentioned a weapon. do you remember what i said?"

"'its not a something, but a someone'," said harry without a moment's hesitation.

"yes, exactly. i'm not supposed to tell you this, but — "

"you're the weapon, aren't you?" said hermione in a sort of awed voice.

harry and ron stared at elara.

"and what's more... the key to unlocking everything is in the department of mystery," said elara quietly.

"this still doesn't make any sense!" said hermione loudly, "how're we even supposed to get there?"

"you know what, i've just thought of something," said ron in a hushed voice, ignoring hermione. "sirius's brother was a death eater, wasn't he? maybe he told sirius the secret of how to get the key!"

"yeah — and that's why dumbledore's been so keen to keep sirius locked up all the time!" said harry.

"yes! sirius was always really important in meetings — thats what the guard duty was! ron, i bet your dad was guarding the key when he got attacked!" said elara breathlessly, excited that for the first time, something made sense.

"look, i'm sorry," cried hermione, "but none of you are making sense, and we've got no proof for any of this, no proof voldemort and sirius are even there —"

"hermione, harry and elara've seen them!" said ron, rounding on her.

"lara saw just sirius! she didn't see voldemort!"

"yeah, she saw sirius dying!"

"okay," hermione said, looking frightened yet determined, "i've just got to say this. . . ."

"what?"

"you . . . this isn't a criticism, harry! but you do . . . sort of . . . i mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people-thing?" she said.

he glared at her. "and what's that supposed to mean, a 'saving-people-thing'?"

"well . . . you . . ." she looked more apprehensive than ever. "i mean . . . last year, for instance . . . in the lake . . . during the tournament . . . you shouldn't have . . . i mean, you didn't need to save that little delacour girl. . . . you got a bit . . . carried away . . ."

harry looked angrier than ever.

". . . i mean, it was really great of you and everything," said hermione quickly, looking positively petrified at the look on harry's face. "everyone thought it was a wonderful thing to do —"

"that's funny," said harry in a trembling voice, "because i definitely remember ron saying i'd wasted time acting the hero. . . . is that what you think this is? you reckon i want to act the hero again?"

"no, no, no!" said hermione, looking aghast. "that's not what i mean at all!"

"well, spit out what you've got to say, because we're wasting time here!" harry shouted.

"i'm trying to say — voldemort knows you, harry! he took ginny down into the chamber of secrets to lure you there, it's the kind of thing he does, he knows you're the — the sort of person who'd go to sirius's aid! what if he's just trying to get you into the department of myst — ?"

"hermione, it doesn't matter if he's done it to get me there or not — they've taken mcgonagall to st. mungo's, the only person from the order at hogwarts is lara, and if we don't go, sirius is dead!"

"but harry — what if your dream was — was just that, a dream?"

harry let out a roar of frustration. hermione actually stepped back from him, looking alarmed.

"you don't get it!" harry shouted at her. "i'm not having nightmares, i'm not just dreaming! what d'you think all the occlumency was for, why d'you think dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? because they're REAL, hermione — sirius is trapped — me and lara've seen him — voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but i'm going, understand? and if remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my saving-people-thing when it was you i was saving from the dementors, or" — he rounded on ron — "when it was your sister i was saving from the basilisk —"

"i never said I had a problem!" said ron heatedly.

"but harry, you've just said it," said hermione fiercely. "dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done occlumency properly you'd never have seen this —"

"IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN —"

"sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!"

"so if harry had closed his mind, and it was just me seeing sirius getting killed, the response would've been much different!" protested elara.

the classroom door opened. elara, harry, ron, and hermione whipped around. ginny walked in, looking curious, followed by luna, who as usual looked as though she had drifted in accidentally.

"hi," said ginny uncertainly. "we recognized 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. elara moved to calm him down.

"wait," said hermione suddenly. "wait . . . harry, they can help."

elara, harry and ron looked at her.

"listen," she said urgently, "harry, lara, we need to establish whether sirius really has left headquarters —"

"we've told you, we saw —"

"lara, 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 and stop you, i'll come, i'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him —"

"sirius is being tortured NOW!" shouted harry. "we haven't got time to waste —"

"but if this is a trick of v-voldemort's — harry, we've got to check, we've got to —"

"how?" elara 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.

"okay," harry said aggressively to hermione, "okay, 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, everyone 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. "okay," she said, her brow furrowed as she continued to pace.

"now, we need to keep students 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 garroting gas." hermione looked surprised at the readiness with which ginny had come up with this lie. ginny shrugged and said, "fred, george, and rori were planning to do it before they left."

"okay," said hermione, "well then, lara and harry will go under the invisibility cloak, and sneak into the office and you can talk to sirius, i'll go with ron —"

"he's not there, hermione!" protested harry.

"i mean, you can — can check whether sirius is at home or not while lara keeps watch, or vice versa."

harry opened his mouth to argue again, but elara squeezed his hand tightly.

"i . . . okay, 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 elara. "c'mon, let's go —"

"now?" said hermione, looking shocked.

"of course now!" said elara angrily. "what did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner or something? hermione, sirius is being tortured right now!"

harry squeezed elara's hand in turn.

"i — oh all right," she said desperately. "you and harry go and get the invisibility cloak and we'll meet you at the end of umbridge's corridor, okay?"