Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

"Any more dreams about you-know-who?" Ron asked quietly as he, Harry and Hermione walked to the Tower after their last class of the day.

"No…at least nothing like the one I had two days ago," Harry said, almost shuddering as he remembered how his scar had hurt. "I did have a dream of an old looking house…dark and gloomy. I didn't see or hear anyone so it probably isn't related to Voldemort." He shrugged.

"Does your scar ache?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"No," Harry replied, though now that he thought about it, it did prickle a bit when he woke up. "Maybe I should tell my dad anyway," He said, feeling foolish for not doing so right away. They had another session of Occlumency scheduled for that evening, he would tell him then.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I think you should."

Ron visibly shuddered. "I hate that he is trying to come back." He said as they turned a corner and headed for the staircase.

"Oh, here we go again."

The trio turned to see McLaggen glaring at them. "You really are desperate for attention, aren't you Potter? Just give it a rest."

"How about you just stay out of our conversation?" Harry suggested.

McLaggen smirked at him. "I don't take orders from slimy snakes who are obsessed with You-Know-Who. You wish he was back don't you?"

Harry felt his face turn red with anger. "Wish he was back?" He hissed. "He killed my parents!"

"Your parents would probably be ashamed of you for being in Slytherin and being adopted by Snape!" McLaggen yelled. "You're a disgrace and everyone is finally starting to see it!"

The comment about his parents pushed Harry over the edge. Umbridge's cruelty, the threat of Voldemort returning, and the bullying was all too much. He didn't bother with his wand; he simply lunged at McLaggen and grabbed the front of his shirt. "Don't ever talk about my parents again. Ever. Understand?" He pushed him back and McLaggen stumbled back into a wall.

"Mr. Potter!"

Harry shut his eyes and sighed as he heard Umbridge approach.

"Such shameful behavior!" Umbridge scolded.

"Professor, McLaggen was bullying him and saying mean things about his parents," Hermione objected.

"Stay out of this Miss. Granger," Umbridge snapped. "Detention Mr. Potter and I think a ban from Quidditch for the year will teach you a lesson as well." She said almost gleefully. She had been waiting to administer this particular punishment, knowing it would really hurt the boy. She grinned at the shocked and angry look on Potter's face.

McLaggen smirked.

"What? You can't do that!" Ron said, looking horrified.

"I assure you I can," Umbridge gave a mean smile. "I have permission from the Ministry to handle this school any way I see fit. Tonight after dinner Mr. Potter," She said as she walked away.

"I wouldn't look so smug McLaggen," Ron said angrily. "We have a game against Ravenclaw coming up and I'm going to tell our housemates the reason we don't have our best seeker is because of you!"

McLaggen's grin faded somewhat. He shrugged. "Your sister is the reserve seeker. She's pretty good isn't she?"

"You are so hateful! Just stay away from Harry, all right?" Hermione said with a glare.

McLaggen rolled his eyes and walked away.

HP

Sirius walked through the halls of Hogwarts, memories of his own school days swimming through his head. The Marauders, Sirius thought fondly. Well, except for Pettigrew. He didn't want to remember how he had believed that rat was a friend. After meeting with Fudge, Sirius had wanted to see Harry and be reassured that his godson was happy, that there was no reason to try getting custody. He knew it would be futile anyway. Harry had made his decision over a year ago.

"Sirius Black, do my eyes deceive me?" Minerva smiled as she saw her former student walking towards her.

"Professor McGonagall," Sirius grinned. "It's been awhile. I've come to repeat my seventh year. What do you say, can I be Head Boy?" He teased.

Minerva rolled her eyes. "Merlin forbid. As fond as I am of you, seven years was more than enough." She smirked.

"Oi!" Sirius pretended to look offended for a moment and then grinned. "Do you know where Harry is? Thought I would pay him a visit. I know it is almost dinner time so I won't stay long."

Minerva's smile faded. "Perhaps a visit from you would be good."

"Why?" Sirius asked worriedly. "Is he okay?"

Minerva sighed. "I don't know what is wrong with him. He has been temperamental at times with his friends, snapping at professors, and arguing with Severus. He's also on the bad side of Dolores Umbridge yet won't simply bite his tongue around her." Her voice was filled with frustration. She had just found out about the detention and Quidditch ban for fighting and was furious at Harry's inability to stay out of trouble. She had just come from speaking to Harry about his behavior and telling him how disappointed she was in him and how he had let both of his Quidditch teams down. The boy had simply mumbled an apology and said he was going to take a walk on the grounds before dinner.

"Maybe having Snape adopt him wasn't the best idea then," Sirius suggested with a frown. "There's no reason for the kid not to be happy."

"Honestly Sirius, I do not believe it is anything Severus did," Minerva said in disapproval. "He's confused about Harry's attitude as well."

"Harry's attitude has always been fine," Sirius insisted. "It must be Snape." He scowled when Minerva simply rolled her eyes at him.

"Let go of the past once and for all," Minerva said. "Severus is a good father to Harry. Now, why don't you make yourself useful and see if Harry will open up to you?"

"Where is he?"

"Taking a walk outside," Minerva answered curtly.

Sirius nodded and turned to leave.

HP

Harry was glumly staring at the lake, watching the squid float lazily around as he thought about the scolding McGonagall had given him. She didn't even want to hear his side; she had just gone all mental at him! Harry scowled as he remembered how livid she had looked when talking about the Quidditch ban. It's not fair, Harry thought angrily. He pulled at the grass beside him absently. Now he had another detention with the toad and then Occlumency after that. How was he going to hide that from his dad?

He was suddenly startled by a big black dog running up to him. He grinned when he realized it was Sirius. "Padfoot!" He laughed as the dog jumped on him. He shook his head in amusement as the dog ran in circles around him, wagging his tail and barking before transforming.

"Hey pup," Sirius grinned, plopping down next to him.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.

Sirius shrugged. "I just wanted to visit you. I ran into McGonagall and she said you were having a hard time. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Harry lied with a shrug.

"She mentioned your defence teacher," Sirius continued.

"She's a toad and we all hate her," Harry said bitterly.

Sirius grinned a little. "A toad huh? You mentioned in your last letter she didn't believe you needed to learn defence?"

"All we do is read out of a useless book," Harry complained. "We aren't learning anything but dad and Dumbledore say we have to put up with her." He didn't mention the D.A., not wanting to risk anyone overhearing them even though he didn't see anyone around.

"Can't you just ignore her?" Sirius asked lightly, though he noted the tense tone when Harry had mentioned Snape.

"She's hard to ignore," Harry muttered. "She practically assigns me detentions for breathing."

"Hmm, like Snape used to?" Sirius snorted. He cleared his throat at Harry's glare. "Sorry. I just hate seeing you unhappy pup." And apparently Snape isn't doing anything about it, Sirius thought angrily. He ignored the voice in his head that told him he didn't know what he would do differently.

"I know," Harry sighed. "She banned me from Quidditch." He complained.

Sirius's eyes widened. "What? Can she do that? Merlin, what did you even do?"

"McLaggen was bullying me again and I shoved him into a wall," Harry admitted.

"Oh," Sirius frowned. "You've written to me about him right? You've had incidents with him before?"

Incidents? Harry snorted to himself. "Yeah."

"A ban is pretty harsh though," Sirius commented. "Maybe you could talk to Dumbledore about it?"

Harry shook his head. "He's letting Umbridge do what she wants. He says he'll be able to get rid of her sooner if we just let her do whatever," He rolled his eyes. Let her carve up students as long as it makes her happy… Harry felt his temper spike up again. "I hate her! And I can't even tell my dad that she…I mean; he just says to put up with her like Dumbledore says." Harry said in frustration. He knew his dad would be livid if he knew the truth, but Harry was determined to protect his dad's job.

Ah ha! Sirius thought triumphantly. So Snape wasn't being a good father…how shocking, he thought smugly. All Sirius was hearing was that Snape was neglecting Harry and not standing up for him. Maybe Fudge was right after all…

Sirius patted Harry on the back. "Things will look up, don't worry. Maybe you just need a change in your life." He said absently as he thought about what to do next.

Harry barely registered what Sirius was saying and merely nodded as he gazed back at the lake. He didn't see the calculating look on Sirius's face.

HP

It turned out that Harry hadn't needed to worry about Occlumency as he and Snape had gotten into an argument instead when Harry had showed after his detention, his hand glamoured to hide the newly carved words into his skin.

"Is there a reason why you cannot control your temper?" Snape snapped as soon as Harry entered his quarters. "What is it going to take?"

"McLaggen started it!" Harry protested.

"Of course he did and you responded exactly the way he wanted you to!" Snape returned. "Fighting like that is not the answer; all it got you was detention and a ban on Quidditch." A ban I am going to demand the Headmaster overturn, Snape thought silently. He wasn't going to tell Harry that though, maybe thinking the ban would stick would get him to realize he needed to handle things differently.

"And McLaggen gets away with what he says?" Harry asked incredulously. "I'm not allowed to defend myself at all? That's mental! I guess I'll just start bullying students too since it's clearly allowed," Harry said sarcastically.

Snape's face darkened. "It is not allowed and if you would let me talk –" He wanted to tell Harry that he was going to deal with McLaggen's bullying himself but the boy continued talking before he could finish.

"I can't believe Umbridge and idiots like McLaggen are allowed to do whatever they please and I'm just supposed to sit here and take it!" Harry practically shouted.

"Lower your voice!" Snape growled. "You know better than to –"

"Apparently I know nothing!" Harry knew he was way out of line but he couldn't stop himself. His hand hurt worse than ever and he felt hot and slightly dizzy. Everything was wrong and it was too late for him to say anything about Umbridge, everyone would be angry with him for keeping silent this long. Before he could continue yelling, Harry turned towards the door.

"Where do you think you are going? Come back here!"

Harry slammed the door shut behind him, leaving Snape standing furiously in his sitting room and wondering how he and Harry's relationship had come to this.

HP

The next few days were tense; Harry was not speaking to his dad which made for very uncomfortable potion classes. It was almost like they had gone back in time with the way Harry glared at Snape and the way the potions professor snarled at Harry. Snape even resorted to taking points off of Harry, even though it meant Slytherin losing points as well. Harry's friends had questioned him on the matter but Harry just snapped at them to leave him alone. He spent most of his time in the owlery, content to not talk to anybody. He had skipped the last D.A. lesson as he had not been feeling well enough to teach. He was feeling quite sick actually and his hand was not healing like it had been.

It was almost curfew and Harry wearily headed to the Gryffindor Tower from the owlery where he had been sitting with Hedwig resting on his shoulder, as if she was trying to comfort him. It painfully reminded him of when he lived at the Dursley's and Hedwig had been his only friend during the summers.

Part of Harry wanted to go to the Slytherin dungeons to see Daphne but he was sure she was fed up with him and he couldn't handle her officially dumping him. I've ruined everything, he thought with a pain in his heart as he walked down a hallway.

"The heir of Slytherin!"

Harry gritted his teeth as he heard Jeremy Stretton and Grant Page whisper about him as he passed. Ignore them, ignore them, Harry chanted to himself. The two Ravenclaws were the ones that led to Harry being put in Slytherin, ultimately changing his life for the better. They didn't like him and enjoyed putting him down anytime he was near.

"Even the other Gryffindors hate him," Stretton said loudly. "They know he is nothing special."

"He's just a liar who is desperate for attention," Page snickered. "Hey everyone, You-Know-Who is back! Focus on me!" He mocked in a whiny voice, causing those who were listening to laugh.

Harry stopped and spun around. "I never said Voldemort was back!" He said angrily.

"Don't say the name you evil little snake!" Jeremy snapped.

"Why? If you really believe he is gone for good," Harry shrugged with a smirk.

"He is gone, everyone knows that. But that doesn't mean we want to hear the name," Grant said with a glare.

Harry rolled his eyes and continued walking.

"I hear he is now dating a fellow Slytherin," Jeremy said loudly. "Greengrass may be pretty but she is nothing more than a slimy little snake. So pathetic."

Harry whirled around, his green eyes flashing dangerously. "Do not talk about her like that," He warned in a low voice.

Jeremy pointed his wand at Harry with a smirk on his face. "Or what?" He mocked.

"What is going on here?"

Harry groaned when he heard Umbridge's voice. Most of the students immediately scattered when they heard her voice.

"We were defending ourselves Professor," Jeremy said innocently.

Harry stared at him. "Against what?"

"Potter was threatening us," Grant added.

"Was he now?" Umbridge looked at Harry with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, he said You-Know-Who was back and that we better watch out," Jeremy added. He had heard about the confrontations in Defence between the new professor and Harry through the other students.

"I did not!" Harry snapped. "I was –"

"Please Mr. Potter," Umbridge said with a sigh. "I do not need to hear anymore lies. Detention with me tonight after dinner, as apparently you did not learn anything from your last one."

Harry's eyes widened slightly. His hand had not recovered from his last detention! "No," He said in a firm voice. Enough was enough.

Umbridge excused the two Ravenclaws, who walked away smirking and smiled that irritating fake sweet smile of hers at Harry. "I am trying to help you be a better person Mr. Potter. Now, it would show your maturity in taking your punishments like an adult but if you want to complain to your father or the Headmaster…" She trailed off.

Harry paused. He could tell, should tell, but what if it really did just cause more trouble? Plus, he couldn't stand the thought of giving Umbridge the impression that she had broken him. "No professor," He said finally.

"Tonight then," Umbridge smirked as she walked away.

Harry turned around to continue to Gryffindor Tower.

HP

Harry reluctantly made his way to Umbridge's office, feeling tired and sore all over. He had ended up skipping dinner, not feeling well enough to eat anything. He dreaded his detention as his hand was inflamed enough as it was. He had almost reached the toad's office when he spotted a girl with dark blonde hair standing in the middle of the hallway looking at her hand curiously. He recognized her from the D.A. "Are you okay?" Harry asked her.

Luna Lovegood looked up, a dreamy look in her silver eyes. "Oh, hello Harry Potter. I'm fine except for my hand. I just had the oddest experience with a quill."

"What?" Harry's eyes dropped to her hand and to his horror he could see cuts on her hand. "Did you have detention with Umbridge?" Harry had thought Umbridge was only using the quill on him! He would have said something right away if he had known that other students were being subjected to the quill. "Why did she give you detention Luna?" Harry asked after she nodded.

"Well, I was there when Jeremy and Grant were taunting you and my friends dragged me away when Professor Umbridge walked up," Luna said as she studied her hand. Her voice had a dreamy tone to it and she didn't look upset at all. "I heard that they lied about what happened so I went to tell her before dinner started."

"You stuck up for me?" Harry asked guilty.

"I just told the truth," Luna shrugged. "That they were saying mean things to you and pulled their wands out on you, that you never said You-Know-Who was back but that I believed you when you said he was getting stronger and would be back someday."

"You really believe me?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, my father has his own paper and is going to write about it so that others can start to prepare. Professor Umbridge wasn't happy to hear that though," Luna said thoughtfully. "I also told her that the Wrackspurts were probably affecting Jeremy and Grant for them to be acting so horribly to you."

Harry stared at her. "Um, the what?"

Luna widened her eyes. "You haven't heard of them either? They're invisible and they can affect your brain by floating through your ears. Well, after I told her all of that, the Professor assigned me detention right then and there, although the quill she used didn't have any ink."

"It cut the words into your skin," Harry said quietly, holding his own injured hand closer to himself.

"It did," Luna held up her hand, still looking at it thoughtfully. "Odd, isn't it? I've never had a quill do that before." She eyed his hand and a sympathetic look came into her eyes as she realized how he knew about the quill.

It was faint but Harry could make out the words, I must not act insane. Harry felt a surge of anger at not only Umbridge but himself. "I'm so sorry Luna," He said softly.

"Don't be silly, it's not your fault," Luna said. "You're very strong Harry, and I'm enjoying the D.A., although we missed you at our last lesson."

Yes it is my fault, Harry thought. And I'm not strong at all. "Listen, she won't hurt you again okay? You should go to Madam Pomfrey and show her your hand." Harry urged.

Luna's eyes dropped to Harry's hand, where the glamour he had cast was fading. She then looked back at him silently.

"I'm going to tell my dad about it right now," Harry assured her. "He can take care of it or he'll send me to the infirmary."

Luna nodded. "All right Harry."

She started to walk towards the infirmary, a skip in her steps. "Thank you for sticking up for me," Harry called after her. He sighed. I shouldn't have been so stubborn and foolish; he berated himself as he walked to his dad's office. He just hoped the man wouldn't be too disappointed in him.

TBC: