chap19pg2

Chapter 19 - The Plan
Continued

Mrs. Figg�s office was very tidy and organized. There were several neat stacks of papers on her desk, and two filing cabinets in the corner. He tiptoed over to the desk at looked at the papers. Most of them were un-graded essays and quizzes. Harry carefully went through all the papers on her desk, but none of them were suspicious. He stepped over to the cabinet, and looked through, only finding teaching materials.
Frustrated, he walked back over to the desk and opened the small drawer in front of it. In it were several quill pens as well as some muggle pencils. A blue folder marked �Plans� was lying in the other section of the drawer. Harry picked it up and opened it. A paper with several dates and numbers was in front. Confused, he flipped to the next page. Harry saw a map of Hogwarts with several markings on it next, and he pulled it out. He saw the layout of the school, the Quidditch field, the lake, and the Dark Forest drawn on the large sheet of white paper. He also noticed a small bulls-eye shaped object in the corner of the map. It looked like the edges of the rings were raised slightly. Harry ran his finger along the mark, and suddenly felt it sink in. Puzzled, he ran his finger over it again. Suddenly, the paper shot out of his hands onto the desk, becoming flat as a board. It expanded in size several times, and then the paper seemed to bulge out in the middle.
Alarmed, Harry tried to push the bulge back down, but it kept growing. He backed up, expecting some sort of an explosion. But abruptly, the paper made a small popping noise, and the bulge turned into a 3-D version of the map. A complete model of Hogwarts rose out of the paper, complete with windows, towers, and shingles on the roof. Hundreds of tiny trees sprouted out of the paper, and the lake turned into real water, along with a tiny lake creature. Microscopic owls fluttered around the roof of the school, and even the Quidditch arena had its house banners flying. The markings on the paper popped out, and showed arrows and several words. Harry looked in the Dark Forest, and saw the words �Meeting Vicinity� with an arrow pointing at the part of the forest. He pushed aside the trees, and gasped at what he saw.
A miniature group of Death Eaters stood in a circle, much like the ones he saw in his dream. In the center of the ring were three hooded beings. Harry peered closer at one of them, and saw a glint of purple hair hanging out from the hood.
�Mrs. Figg�� Harry said quietly. Suddenly, Harry heard footsteps coming towards the room, and a feminine voice. Franticly, he rubbed his finger across the bulls-eye twice, waiting for it to shrink back to normal. Nothing happened. Harry worriedly kept rubbing his finger across the bulls-eye in the same direction. The footsteps were coming closer, and there was still no movement from the map.
Harry began to freak out. If he couldn�t get the map back into its normal state, Mrs. Figg would catch him in her office. He tried to think what he could do to cause the map to return to its original state.
Harry suddenly realized what he was supposed to do. He rubbed his finger across it the opposite direction two times. The model collapsed into a small crumpled ball of paper in Harry�s palm, then folded out into its original form. Harry shoved it back in the folder and threw the folder in the drawer. He scrambled into the corner as the door latch jiggled.
The door burst open, and Mrs. Figg strolled in, with Sirius trotting at her heel. Harry noticed that his fur had many gray hairs in it, instead of the normal black that he was used to. Mrs. Figg�s hair was frizzled, but she still looked in a pleasant mood. She sat down in her large chair, and Sirius�s body started to shudder. Harry could tell he was morphing back into a human. His body elongated, the hair reduced to nothing, and his paws changed into hands and two feet covered by an old pair of shoes. After he was fully changed, Harry could tell that Sirius was not concerned with his appearance lately. His black robe was fraying at the edges, and his khaki pants had spots of dirt on them. He plopped into the other chair, and sighed heavily.
�How much time until the meeting?� he asked impatiently. Mrs. Figg looked up at her clock, which was shaped like a black cartoon cat, its eyes and tail ticking back and forth. The time was 10: 07.
�Three minutes,� Mrs. Figg said calmly. Sirius rubbed his face with his hands, massaging his temples. The circles under his eyes had reappeared, and his hair looked as dirty as ever.
�I know you�ve been stressed lately, I don�t blame you,� Mrs. Figg said, �But I need you to keep your temper controlled tonight, alright? You two are going to learn to have to work together.� Sirius�s lip curled slightly at Mrs. Figg�s comment. He looked back up at the clock. The hands showed that the time was 10:09. One minute until the �meeting� was going to take place, Harry thought to himself. He wondered who they were meeting with, and what the meeting would be about. A fizzing noise emanated from the fireplace on the other wall. Sirius and Mrs. Figg got up quickly and stood over by the fireplace. Harry strained to see what they were looking at, when a turquoise flame appeared. In the center of the flame, was someone�s head. Harry crawled closer to see who it was.