twenty-five. interrogations

                                    

                                          
-CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE-
~interrogations~

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
WHEN VIOLA, HERMIONE AND Ron finally handed up their exams and dashed out of the Great Hall, it did not take long to find Harry. He was halfway down the marble steps, almost running straight into them in his haste.
"Harry, what happened —?" Viola began; the worries over Harry's scene had built during the last few minutes of the exam, so that now they were less of a pile and more of an overflowing heap.
"Come with me," he said breathlessly. "Come on, I've got to tell you something."
He turned away from their concerned faces and quickly led them along the first-floor corridor, peering into classrooms and ignoring their questions. When at last he found an empty room, Harry ushered them inside and shut the door, leaning against it like a blockade.
"Voldemort's got Sirius."
"What?" Viola and Hermione and said at the same time. Whatever any of them had been expecting, it was not that.
"How d'you —?" Ron asked.
"Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam."
"But — but where?" said Hermione. "How?"
"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..."
His voice was shaking, as were his hands pressing against the door. Viola's stomach plummeted with each word he said, confusion and worry fogging her mind as she struggled to follow it all. 
"How're we going to get there?" he asked, walking across the room to sit on one of the desks.
This confused her even more.
"G-get there?" Ron asked, voicing Viola's — and, judging by the look on her face, Hermione's — thoughts.
"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!" said Harry. 
His voice was rising and Viola knew that never led to anything good. Just like during the summer, his frustration only seemed to be building beyond capacity. But, despite the circumstances of what he just said, she wasn't sure what he meant. The Department of Mysteries was in London. They couldn't just... hop on the Hogwarts Express and demand to be taken to the Ministry over an absurd idea.
Because, no matter how sure he sounded, it was an absurd idea.
"But — Harry," said Ron weakly.
"What? What?"
"Harry," said Hermione quietly, "er... how... how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realising he was there?"