Hi everyone! I know you have wondering if this is going to become one of those stories that ever gets done, but I promise it isn't. Been really busy so here is the 'mostly' finished chapter. I hope to have the rest of it up... at some point.

I am not sure about the quality of the editing.. but i hope you enjoy either way.

xxxx

Elsa yawned loudly and stretched her arms wide until she felt her spine give a satisfying 'pop'. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes the girl rose from bed feeling better than she had all term. The last two weeks had flown by without any more mishaps, for which Elsa could not be more grateful. Due to their fast approaching O.W.L.s, her teachers were throwing as much information at them as possible in order to make sure all topics with the potential to show up in their examinations were covered. Elsa's days were now spent hunched over assignments and essays, facts buzzing around in her head and ink stains on her gloves. Naturally, since she was being kept busy with her studies Elsa had no time to dwell on the way Anna had looked at her or the things people still whispered about her behind her back like the incessant hum of a beehive.

As she dressed, Elsa recalled that she would be finding out how she had done on her potions assignment today and, hopefully, would get a better idea of how she might perform on her exams.

'I worked on it for 5 days straight, that should at least get me an Acceptable,' she thought as she made her way to the Slytherin common room. The young witch was interrupted from her thoughts however when she noticed a crowd of students standing next to the common room noticeboard. Elsa wondered what they were all looking at, as she didn't recall putting anything up in the last few days.

"Do you think that means Quidditch teams too?" she heard a student ask as she walked up behind them.

"Well if it does, the Slytherin team will get approved straight away," Elsa heard Draco sneer from somewhere near the head of the group. "My father works closely with the Minister, so Professor Umbridge already knows his influence." Elsa rolled her eyes magnificently.

Most of the students dispersed as Elsa approached and she pointedly ignored the wary looks some of them gave her as they did. When Draco caught sight of her his lip curled.

"See the new notice yet, Arendelle? I guess this means you and those other swots won't be able to meet up and draw your little pictures for a while, hmm?"

"What?"

"Take a look," Draco said cryptically, gesturing his head toward the large sign that practically took up the entire noticeboard.

BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS

All student organizations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henseforth disbanded. An organization, society, team, group or club is herby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students. Permission to reform may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge). No student organization, society, team, group or club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor. Any student found to have formed, or belong to, an organization, society, team, group or club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four.

Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor

Elsa frowned in confusion as she read and re-read the sign. Why was Umbridge banning all clubs? Was there one in particular she was targeting or was she just doing this to flaunt her new power over the students. Either way, it made Elsa's fingers itch.

"I hope she is okay with the four of us studying together in the library," Amish chuckled as he walked up behind her. "Or are we going to split our group into pairs and pass notes back and forth like we did in first year?" His hand shot up into the air, "I call Elsa!"

Elsa brought her hand up to conceal her laughter. Draco scowled, making a small noise of exasperation before walking away in a huff, Crabbe and Goyle following in his wake like two well trained hounds.

Once Draco was out of earshot Amish frowned. "She is doing this for a reason," he said grimly. "And I have a feeling it's not a good one."

Elsa nodded before leaving with Amish to go find Selena and Tabitha. She pushed the ominous feeling this new decree woke inside her and instead focused on her stomach's rumbling request for breakfast.

As Elsa hurried through the dungeon hallways toward Professor Snape's classroom the young witch heard shouting. Rounding the corner, Elsa was met with a scene that was more than a little shocking. Both Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were restraining a scarlet-faced Neville who was waving his fists frantically in the direction of a group of Slytherins. Unsurprisingly, the boy seemed to be aiming his fury toward Draco who was smirking at the irate Gryffindor from behind his two bodyguards.

Before Elsa had time to react, the door next to the group of students flew open, revealing a less than impressed Professor Snape. Immediately his gaze swept over to the two boys still struggling to calm their friend. "Fighting, Potter, Weasley, Longbottom?" he sneered. "Ten points from Gryffindor. Release Longbottom, Potter or it will be detention. Inside, all of you."

Elsa located her friends who all shared a collective look of disbelief and practically ran over. " What on earth happened?" Elsa whispered as she took her seat. "I've never seen Neville act like that before."

Tabitha looked blankly at her for a few seconds before collecting herself. "I… I have no idea. One second, Draco was bragging about getting the Slytherin Quidditch team approved, the next, Longbottom just… lost it."

Elsa gave her friends a confused look. "Wait, he can't have become that angry for no reason."

Selena looked thoughtful. "Well Malfoy did have a go at Weasley's father again and said something about the ministry wanting to cart Potter off to the loony bin at St. Mungos, but nothing actually about Longbottom," she replied with a shrug.

Elsa risked a glance at Neville who was still rather red in the face and breathing heavily through his nose. The boy was staring forward at nothing and resolutely refused to look at anyone, especially the friends who had restrained him. Deciding it was none of her business Elsa pulled out her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and some parchment. When Professor Snape let the classroom door slam shut, anyone still whispering about the incident immediately fell silent. It was then that Elsa noticed the familiar figure in the corner and her stomach dropped. It seemed Selena's wish had come true.

"You will notice," Snape drawled, "that we have a guest with us today." He gestured toward the lump of pink in the dimly lit corner, sitting primly and clipboard in hand. Umbridge flashed the class her signature fabricated smile.

Elsa cast a sideways look at Tabitha. She wasn't sure how she felt about this interesting development. On one hand, Elsa dreaded being once again trapped in a room with the one teacher that truly disliked her, but on the other she wondered if Umbridge might be the one to knock Professor Snape down a few pegs.

"We are continuing our Strengthening Solution today. You will find your mixtures as you left them last lesson; if correctly made they should have matured well over the weekend," he waved his wand at the chalkboard, "instructions on the board. Carry on."

For the first half hour of the lesson Umbridge stayed in her seat taking notes and Elsa did her best to ignore the woman while she worked.

"Ha." Elsa looked up at the sound to find Harry staring in rapt attention at Umbridge who was now speaking to a ramrod straight Snape. His expression was unreadable. Elsa whipped her gaze back to her potion and the salamander blood she had been meticulously adding to it, but no matter how hard she tried to tune them out the girl found herself distracted by their conversation. She had a feeling that she wasn't the only one.

"Now… how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" she asked, raising her clipboard.

Snape blinked down his hooked nose at her. "Fourteen years," he replied.

"You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe? Umbridge continued, writing something down as she did so.

"Yes," Snape said softly.

Elsa looked down and slowly stirred her potion counterclockwise.

"But you were unsuccessful?"

The man paused and Elsa could almost hear his lip curling. "Obviously." Elsa tensed when she heard someone at the back of the room snicker.

"And you have applied regularly for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?" Umbridge asked, the scratching of her quill filling the stretch of silence that followed.

"I suggest you ask him," Snape growled.

"Oh I shall," Umbridge said sweetly.

"I supposed this is relevant?"

Umbridge paused in her note taking. "Oh yes. The Ministry wants a thorough understanding of teachers' – er – backgrounds."

Elsa felt her shoulders relax somewhat when she heard Umbridge move from the Potions Master to question Pansy Parkinson. Elsa flicked her eyes in Professor Snape's direction, he looked very angry. Suddenly his attention shifted and his eyes narrowed. Harry Potter quickly lowered his head just as the Potions Master started striding towards him. Elsa winced.

xxx

Anna scratched out yet another line in her essay on crystal gazing and rubbed her eyes in order wake herself up a bit. She had been going at the Divination assignment for over two hours now and she was still only half way done, the steady ache at her elbow was definitely not helping matters. She'd made the mistake of taking a nap after lunch and had tripped over her own robes while running full tilt to her charms lesson. Naturally, she'd fallen right on top of her bad arm, aggravating her previous injury. Hermione had lent her some muggle pain medicine so that she wouldn't have to go back to the hospital wing but Anna could feel it starting to wear off. Maybe I could use a freezing charm on my sleeve.

Anna was pulled from her thoughts when a group of very gloomy, very sodden, students came trudging through the portrait hole looking like they'd just taken an leisurely stroll through a hurricane.

"Still raining?" Anna asked sympathetically as Ginny flopped down on the couch next to her, throwing her soaked Quidditch uniform on the floor, which landed next to the fireplace with a loud slap.

The girl pushed a clump of damp hair out of her face and let her head fall back. "Just misting," she said sarcastically.

Anna snorted as she watched the rest of her defeated teammates trudge off to bed. "Bless Angelina for making me stay back. How did it go?"

"Couldn't see a bloody thing past my nose, even with the water repelling charm Angelina used," Ginny groused. "And I almost fell off my broom when Fred hit a Bludger right at my head. He says he didn't see me over the rain but I'm not so sure."

Anna snorted again but quieted when she noticed something was off. "Where are Harry and Ron?"

Ginny lifted her head and shrugged. "Dunno. They hung back when we left." She looked thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, they were both acting strange." She glanced down at the pile of parchment in Anna's lap and the stack of books at her feet. She winced. "Which one are you doing?"

Anna made a face like she'd just bitten into a lemon and lifted the book closest to her so that Ginny could read the title.

"Trelawney's essay, still!? You were working on that when I left!" Ginny groaned loudly and pressed the heels of her palms against her eyelids. "You know the only reason Trelawney even gave us that stupid paper is because she is mad about what Umbridge said. Why does she have to take it out on us?" the girl grumbled.

Anna nodded in agreement. Everyone knew about the Divination professor's evaluation and how she'd been put on probation, it had left the woman – somewhat understandably - in a near constant state of ill temper. She nearly went into hysterics when Colin Creevey admitted to not finishing the assigned reading.

"It's really not that bad," Anna said in a tone that was not at all convincing. "Just… long." Ginny gave her a sour look. "Okay it's awful, but I'll help you."

The Weasley girl gave a weak smile before breaking out into the longest, most dramatic yawn Anna had ever seen. "I don't think I'm going to be able to get much done tonight," she said over Anna's snort of laughter. "You coming?"

Still giggling, Anna nodded. "I just got to get all this," she gestured vaguely to the mess in front of her, "stuff, packed up."

"Alright. See you tomorrow," Ginny said, jumping up from her seat and heading up to the girl's dormitories.

Just as Anna had finished gathering up all her homework, shoving it all back into her bag, she heard the portrait swing open.

Both Harry and Ron stumbled into the common room, neither of them looking particularly cheerful. Harry seemed to be very deep in thought while Ron watched him anxiously.

"Hey guys," Anna called warily, not liking then uneasy feeling the boys had brought in with them.

"Hey, Anna." They replied in unison.

"Is everything ok?" she asked. "Ginny told me about practice, hope you're not too waterlogged.

"Yeah," Harry said absentmindedly. Ron continued to look distressed.

Anna narrowed her eyes, unconvinced. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yep," Harry replied, his tone clipped as he pulled out his books and sat down forcefully in his favourite armchair, refusing to look up at her.

Anna glanced over at Ron, sending him a questioning look.

When it was clear Harry wasn't paying the other two Gryffindor's any attention, Ron touched his forehead. When Anna shook her head in confusion he traced something on his forehead that looked a lot like a lightening bolt.

Anna finally nodded in understanding and the uneasy feeling twisted into a knot in her stomach. Harry's scar was hurting him again.

The girl frowned and desperately wanted to say something but decided to let the matter rest for now, since it was very obvious that Harry didn't want to talk about it.

"Okay, well… Goodnight then," Anna said as she left the boys to their homework. Throwing one last anxious look over her shoulder before climbing the staircase to her dormitory.