Chapter 229: Explosion

Well, not exactly beaming. Chris and Harry expected him to be happy but Sirius was looking very worried.

"Harry!" Sirius said, looking thoroughly shocked. "What are you — what's happened, is everything all right?"

"Yes," said Harry automatically.

"No," Chris elbowed Harry hard and took the mirror from him.

"Christina?" Sirius looked more worried.

"Sirius, this is very serious — that sounded weird — but everything is not alright, I need to talk to Dumbledore without Umbridge interfering," Chris said urgently. "Do you think you can help with that? I mean could you tell Dumbledore about this?"

"It's about the mass Azkaban breakout, isn't it?" Sirius said gravely.

Chris nodded.

"Yes, of course," Sirius said nodding to himself. "Your Dementor friend must have told you or did he join Voldemort too?"

"He didn't," Chris said louder than she meant. "He never would have —"

Chris caught herself before she could start yelling at Sirius. Harry got close to Chris and looked at Sirius through the mirror.

"Dames, the Dementor died, Sirius," said Harry. "He tried to stop Voldemort but failed. He didn't join him."

Sirius looked a little uncomfortable then said, "Sorry to hear that."

"So do you think you can talk to Dumbledore?" asked Chris dismissively.

"Yes, I'm in Grimmauld Place, so I can inform him right away," said Sirius.

"Thanks," Chris handed the mirror to Harry. "You two talk, I have Ancient Runes class, so bye."

Chris left in a hurry though it was early for her class. She was finding it hard to decide whether she wanted to be with people or not. She didn't want to show herself vulnerable but from inside she was regretting not telling anyone about how upset and hurt she felt.

After dinner, Chris went to meet Dumbledore as he asked her too. As she stopped in front of the oak door of Dumbledore's office, she heard there were voices coming from inside the room, a positive babble of them. It sounded as though Dumbledore was entertaining at least a dozen people. Maybe for the first time, Chris didn't want to eavesdrop. She rapped three times with the griffin knocker, and the voices ceased abruptly as though someone had switched them all off. The door opened of its own accord and Chris stepped inside.

"Christina, I thought you would like to meet me."

Dumbledore was sitting in a high-backed chair behind his desk; he leaned forward into the pool of candlelight illuminating the papers laid out before him.

"But still you didn't ask me to come," said Chris flatly.

"Ah. . . I knew you would find a way —"

"Dames died," growled Chris over Dumbledore. "Riddle went to Azkaban himself. Almost every Dementor supported me died, Professor."

"But not all of them, am I right?" Dumbledore said quietly.

"How do you know?" Chris said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yesterday's temperature," said Dumbledore coolly. "Anyways, I think you want a place for the survived Dementors?"

Chris' mouth fell open, she hadn't thought about it but it wasn't a bad idea. 

"Yes," Chris said composing herself.

"The forbidden forest will be the finest place but I will have to talk to the Centaurs before giving you the permission," said Dumbledore thoughtfully. "Anything else?"

"Fudge is under the Imperious Curse," replied Chris.

"I know," said Dumbledore grimly. "It is a matter of time before the others realise this too."

Chris noticed that many of the headmasters and mistresses on the walls, though snoring and drooling most convincingly, kept sneaking peeks at her under their eyelids, and she suddenly understood who had been talking when she had knocked. 

"Alright, I'll get going then," said Chris. 

"Very well," Dumbledore leaned back on his chair.

Feeling more frustrated, Chris left. On the way back she saw Umbridge walking in distance. The emotions inside Chris exploded. She took out her wand and before Umbridge could see her, she threw almost five or six kinds of jinxs and hexs towards her. It was as though someone had exploded a box of fireworks. A shocked Umbridge went flying backwards and hit the wall hard. Unconscious. Feeling a little better, Chris strolled past her with a smirk on her face.

There was only one topic of conversation in the corridors for days: the ten escaped Death Eaters, whose story had finally filtered through the school from those few people who read the newspapers. Rumours were flying that some of the convicts had been spotted in Hogsmeade, that they were supposed to be hiding out in the Shrieking Shack and that they were going to break into Hogwarts, just as Sirius Black had done.

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Those who came from Wizarding families had grown up hearing the names of these Death Eaters spoken with almost as much fear as Voldemort's; the crimes they had committed during the days of Voldemort's reign of terror were legendary. There were relatives of their victims among the Hogwarts students, who now found themselves the unwilling objects of a gruesome sort of reflected fame as they walked the corridors.

Chris, Harry and Cedric were the subject of much renewed muttering and pointing in the corridors these days, but now, there was a slight difference in the tone of the whisperers' voices. Now they almost believed them.

To students more satisfaction, Umbridge was in the hospital wing for a week. But to Chris' surprise when Ginny asked her what Curses she put on Umbridge, she couldn't answer. Weirdly enough, Chris couldn't remember how she had done that.

"It just sort of came over me and I did it. . ." 

It was her only answer. 

Dumbledore also gave permission for the Dementors to live in the forest, though the Centaurs weren't happy with it.

"It's a good thing she was in the hospital wing," said Aurelia at their next Occlumency class. "I would have liked to see her suffer a little more."

"That makes two of us," said Harry.

Aurelia grinned, she was wearing her square-working-glasses and looked a lot more cheerful than last time.

"Ok, Harry, let's get down to business," she said briskly pointing her wand at Harry. 

Chris was sitting on a chair in a corner.

"I KNOW! I KNOW!" 

Suddenly, Harry screamed triumphantly. Aurelia pulled back from his head.

"What is it, Harry?" Aurelia said looking confused.

"I saw — I remembered," Harry panted. "I've just realized . . ."

"Realized what?" asked Chris.

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To be continued. . .