Sirius's head suddenly vanished from the fireplace, replaced by a hand that shot out of the flames.
Crookshanks, who had been crouching beside the fireplace, gave a startled screech and sprang far away, the fur on his back standing on end.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all jolted in fright too. They watched the hand groping around inside the fireplace, seemingly trying to reach something.
It was a hand with five short, thick fingers, wearing several ugly, old-fashioned gemstone rings. It was Umbridge's hand.
The three exchanged glances, then hurried away. Though they were unsure how Umbridge had discovered something was wrong here, and did not know whether she could climb out of the fireplace, they were all certain that staying was not a good choice.
"How did Umbridge know we were talking to Sirius?" Harry asked Ron in bewilderment on their way back to the dormitory.
Ron shook his head too. They had arranged their communication with Sirius through Kreacher.
Thanks to Percy's warning, they had learned that all their owls were being watched, and had barely used them lately.
They used house-elves to deliver any truly useful messages.
Even Hermione, who had always been unhappy about the misuse of house-elves, had made no comment on it for once. It was therefore impossible for their information to have been discovered beforehand. The fact that Umbridge had not noticed immediately also made that clear.
But there had to be a reason she had managed to find them.
"Could it be..." As they entered the dormitory, a possibility occurred to Ron. "Umbridge, or rather the Ministry of Magic, has started monitoring the fireplaces at Hogwarts?"
"Well..." Harry's expression turned odd. "Is that necessary? Isn't the fireplace in the Headmaster's Office the only one people can enter and leave Hogwarts through?"
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