Harry Potter 05 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

didn’t kill her.’
    ‘She’s … gone?’ said Harry, shocked.
    The bell rang just outside the dormitory and he heard the usual distant rumbling of students starting to flood out into the corridors above and below him. He remained quite still, looking at Madam Pomfrey. Terror was rising inside him.
    There was nobody left to tell. Dumbledore had gone, Hagrid had gone, but he had always expected Professor McGonagall to be there, irascible and inflexible, perhaps, but always dependably, solidly present …
    ‘I don’t wonder you’re shocked, Potter,’ 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.
    He strode blindly from the hospital wing into the teeming corridor where he stood, buffeted by the crowd, panic expanding inside him like poison gas so that his head swam and he could not think what to do …
    Ron and Hermione , said a voice in his head.
    He was running again, pushing students out of the way, oblivious to their angry protests. He sprinted back down two floors and was at the top of the marble staircase when he saw them hurrying towards him.
    ‘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 Ron and Hermione the moment they were inside, and leaned against it, facing them.
    ‘Voldemort’s got Sirius.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘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!’
    Harry found his voice was shaking, as were his knees. He moved over to a desk and sat down on it, trying to master himself.
    ‘How’re we going to get there?’ he 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.
    He could not understand why they were both gaping at him as though he was asking them something unreasonable.
    ‘Harry,’ said Hermione in a rather frightened voice, ‘er … how … how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realising 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 towards 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?’
    ‘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!’ Harry shouted in her face, standing up and taking a step closer to her in turn. He wanted to shake her. ‘How d’you explain Ron’s dad then, what was all that about, how come I 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. ‘Harry, 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