Turning back to Sirius, she paled at the look on his face and gave him a good shove
to stop him in his tracks. His movements stilled, and she sighed in relief and asked, "What
happened?"
"He's gone!" Sirius snapped.
Hermione quickly realised what Harry had done. "Gone? You don't mean.. ."
"Yes, I mean!" Sirius growled and continued moving, side-stepping Hermione and
forcing her to trot along next to him. "Snape's memories showed Dumbledore telling the
greasy git that Harry's got to... My own godson cursed me! And now he's gone and―"
"It's inside him, isn't it?" Hermione asked.
Sirius stopped again, mid-stride, to turn and glare at her. "You knew? Of course you
knew," he said with exasperation as though this was so very typical of her.
His tone rankled, and she tilted her chin up in response. "Not until you just told me
what happened! Either way, I agree with you." She scowled, shoving past him, and made
her way toward the large front doors of the castle. "He's an arrogant arse!"
As Sirius caught up with her, she heard him mumble under his breath, "Wait 'til you
see his father," but surely must have misheard.
They made their way quickly through the grounds, heading toward the Forbidden
Forest, Sirius filled with stress and worry and anger over what Harry had done. At the
sound of murmurs behind them, Sirius turned and spotted nearly all the occupants of the
Great Hall falling in behind them.
"What are you all doing?" Hermione asked.
"Harry's in there?" Neville stood awkwardly, the Sword of Gryffindor in his hands.
"Oh yeah, you forgot this. Thought it could be important," he said with a small blush as
he approached Sirius and Hermione across the grass.
"You hang on to it for me, Neville." Hermione smiled. "And yes, we think Harry's
gone into the Forest."
"Then let's make haste," Minerva said as she stepped toward the shadows of the
trees in front of them. Everyone paused to stare at her, save for Sirius, who followed in