I had to admit, I liked this idea of a Defense group more and more the happier Harry's mood got. For the rest of the weekend he was joking around and in high spirits. It was a little odd, but nice to witness since the Harry I know is usually brooding and gloomy.
Everything changed Monday morning though when Education Decree number twenty-four was posted everywhere disbanding all organizations, societies, teams, groups or clubs. Then, unfortunately, his mood was back. I was waiting outside the Gryffindor Common Room to meet them when two girls came out giggling. "Oh, I bet he was going to see Hermione Granger."
"I can't believe he didn't know the stairs would do that. You would think since they're so close, he would have tried to see her before."
At that the two let out a bunch of loud giggles.
A few moments later the Portrait door opened again and Hermione, Harry and Ron came out looking slightly disheveled. "Have a nice fall, Ron?" I teased as Harry wrapped an arm around me.
"Shut-up," he mumbled under his breath as Hermione giggled.
"So, I assume you all saw this?" I said pointing to a poster of the Educational Decree on the wall.
They all nodded.
"Do you have any idea how she could have found out? Because I would love for it to be Zacharias Smith so I could give him a piece of my mind." I said.
"Trust me, if it was someone who signed that paper, we'll know, and they will regret it." Hermione said rather violently.
Whew. I was glad I had never really gotten on her bad side.
As soon as we sat down at the Gryffindor table, Neville, Dean, Fred, George and Ginny descended upon us.
"Did you see it?"
"D'you reckon she knows?"
"What are we going to do?"
They were all looking at Harry. He glanced around to make sure there were no teachers near them.
"We're going to do it anyway, of course," he said quietly.
"Knew you'd say that," said George, beaming and thumping Harry on the arm.
"The prefects as well?" said Fred, looking quizzically at Ron, Hermione and myself.
"Of course," said Hermione coolly.
"Please, anything to get me out of this stupid badge, I'll be happy to do." I said breaking my toast into little pieces.
"Here comes Ernie and Hannah Abbott," said Ron, looking over his shoulder. "And those Ravenclaw blokes and Smith . . . and no one looks very spotty."
Hermione looked alarmed.
"Never mind spots, the idiots can't come over here now, it'll look really suspicious – sit down!" she mouthed to Ernie and Hannah, gesturing frantically to them to rejoin the Hufflepuff table. "Later! We'll – talk – to – you – later!"
"I'll tell Michael," said Ginny impatiently, swinging herself off her bench. "The fool, honestly . . ."
To be dating you he must be. I thought as she hurried off toward the Ravenclaw table.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were later than usual outside Potions and I was starting to worry that something had happened with Umbridge or something. I was just about ready to skip class to go find them when they came downstairs with worried faces. "What's going on?" I asked Harry, worried as I took in his face.
"Hedwig got hurt delivering this." He replied handing me a note that said,
Today, same time, same place.
"Snuffles?"
Harry nodded.
I sighed and handed the letter back to him, running a hand through my hair.
"Yeah, Umbridge gave the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to continue playing straightaway, I went to ask her first thing this morning. Well, it was pretty much automatic, I mean, she knows my father really well, he's always popping in and out of the Ministry . . . It'll be interesting to see whether the Gryffindor are allowed to keep playing, won't it?"
I swear I'm going to end up punching him. He had never acted so pompous and bigheaded around me.
"Don't rise," Hermione whispered imploringly to Harry and Ron, who were both watching Malfoy, faces set and fists clenched. "It's what he wants. . . ."
"I mean," said Draco, raising his voice a little more, his gray eyes glittering malevolently in Harry and Ron's direction, "if it's a question of influence with the Ministry, I don't think they've got much chance. . . . From what my father says, they've been looking for an excuse to sack Arthur Weasley for years. . . . And as for Potter . . . My father says it's a matter of time before the Ministry has him carted off to St. Mungo's. . . . Apparently they've got a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic. . . ."
My wand was out faster than I could think and the spell escaped my lips before anyone could stop me. Suddenly Draco was on the floor covered head to toe in excruciating boils.
"What is going on here!" The dungeon door opened and Snape came out. "Fighting, Potter, Weasley, Longbottom?" He said in his cold, sneering voice, "Ten points from Gryffindor. Release Longbottom, Potter, or it will be detention. Inside, all of you." His gaze then swept over the rest of the line and stopped on Draco on the floor whimpering in pain to my wand pointing at him.
"Ms. Black, what did you do to Mr. Malfoy?"
I shoved my wand back into my robes. "Well, obviously, I put a curse on him because he was acting like a complete and utter asshole with his wand stuck up his rear. I'll just march myself straight up to Professor Dumbledore's office, shall I?"
I didn't even wait to see his response before turning on my heel and leaving the hallway being careful to shove into Pansy Parkinson's shoulder as I passed.
"You know Ms. Black, I must say I have seen you in the office quite more than I wished to this year." Professor Dumbledore said as I sat down across from him.
I sighed, "I know Professor, but I'm not sorry about what I did."
He glanced at me over his half moon spectacles. "I didn't think you would be Ms. Black, but this behavior cannot continue. It is unacceptable for a Prefect."
"To be perfectly honest Professor, I don't really want to be a Prefect."
Professor Dumbledore sighed, "Emily, I know your house is not as . . . accepting of you as they once were, but I stand by my decision. You are the best person for the job, and you will conduct yourself such as that person. You will have detention for the rest of the week with Mr. Filch."
I looked down, feeling exceptionally guilty. "Yes, Professor."
"Met him in the Entrance Hall after dinner, and he will inform you of your job."
I nodded understanding I was dismissed.
I stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room around eleven o'clock cradling my sore arm. "Stupid Filch, stupid trophies, stupid polish, stupid Malfoy." I dropped my bag beside Hermione's arm chair and sat down next to Harry resting my head in his lap.
"Hard night?" He asked running his fingers through my hair soothingly.
"I swear if I never see another trophy again, it'll be too soon." I mumbled, closing my eyes. Harry's fingers running through my hair was surprisingly comforting and eased me in and out of consciousness until Ron said, "Sirius!"
"Hi," he said, grinning.
"Hey Sirius," I replied, not moving my head from Harry's lap. He was really comfortable.
"You two look comfy," Sirius teased.
"I am thank you very much." I said closing my eyes.
Sirius must have looked confused because Harry said, "she had detention with Filch tonight."
"Nice, what'd you do?" Sirius asked.
"Covered Draco with some rather painful boils that he won't be able to get rid of for a week." I responded still not opening my eyes.
Sirius laughed for a few moments before asking. "Well, other than Emily getting detention, how're things?"
"Not that good," said Harry, "the Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams -"
" – or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius.
There was a short pause, and my eyes flittered open in shock.
"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.
"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," said Sirius, grinning still more broadly. "The Hog's Head, I ask you . . ."
"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" said Hermione defensively. "That's always packed with people -"
" – which means you'd have been harder to overhear," said Sirius. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."
"Who overheard us?" Harry demanded.
"Mundungus, of course," said Sirius, and when we all looked puzzled he laughed. "He was the witch under the veil."
"That was Mundungus?" Harry said, stunned. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"
"What do you think he was doing?" said Sirius impatiently. "Keeping an eye on you of course."
"I'm still being followed?" asked Harry angrily.
I placed my hand on his leg giving it a slight squeeze to calm him down.
"Yeah, you are," said Sirius, "and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group."
He didn't look angry or worried; on the contrary, he was looking at us with distinct pride.
"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron, sounding disappointed. "We'd've liked to've seen him."
"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago," said Sirius, "and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately. . . . Anyway . . . First of all, Ron – I've been sworn to pass on a message from your mother."
"Oh yeah?" said Ron, sounding apprehensive.
"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also" – Sirius's eyes turned to Hermione, Harry and I – "advises Harry, Emily and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over any of you and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."
"On duty doing what?" said Ron quickly.
"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order," said Sirius. "So it's fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me to."
There was another pause and Crookshanks, mewing, attempted to paw Sirius's head, and Ron fiddled with a hole in the hearthrug while Harry's fingers once again began threading through my hair.
"So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?" Harry muttered finally.
"Me? Certainly not!" said Sirius, looking surprised. "I think it's an excellent idea!"
"You do?" I asked in disbelief.
"Of course I do!" said Sirius. "D'you think your father and I would've just lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"
"But – last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks -"
"Last year all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!" said Sirius impatiently. "This year we know that there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"
"And if we get expelled?" Hermione asked, a quizzical look on her face.
"Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" said Harry, staring at her.
"I know it was. . . . I just wondered what Sirius thought," she said, shrugging.
"Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," said Sirius.
"Hear, hear," said Harry and Ron enthusiastically.
I rolled my eyes, boys.
"So," said Sirius, "how are you organizing this group? Where are you meeting?"
"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," said Harry. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go. . . ."
"How about the Shrieking Shack?" suggested Sirius.
"Hey, that's an idea!" said Ron excitedly, but Hermione made a skeptical noise and all of us looked at her, Sirius's head turning in the flames.
"Well, Sirius, it's just that there were only four of you meeting in the Shrieking Shack when you were at school," said Hermione, "and all of you could transform into animals and I suppose you could all have squeezed under a single Invisibility Cloak if you'd wanted to. But there are twenty-nine of us and none of us is an Animagus, so we wouldn't need so much an Invisibility Cloak as an Invisibility Marquee -"
"Fair point," said Sirius, looking slightly crestfallen. "Well, I'm sure you'll come up with somewhere. . . . There used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind that big mirror on the fourth floor, you might have enough space to practice jinxes in there -"
"Fred and George told me it's blocked," said Harry, shaking his head. "Caved in or something."
"Oh . . ." said Sirius, frowning. "Well, I'll have a think and get back to -"
He broke off. His face was suddenly tense, alarmed. He turned sideways, apparently looking into the solid brick wall of the fireplace.
Something was definitely wrong. I sat up and slid a little closer to the fireplace.
"Sirius?" said Harry anxiously.
But he had vanished. Harry gaped at the flames for a moment, then turned to look at us.
"Why did he - ?"
Hermione gave a horrified gasp and leapt to her feet, still staring at the fire.
A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubbly, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings. . . .
Harry grabbed my hand, yanking me to my feet and we all ran for it. At the door of the boys' dormitory Harry and I looked back. Umbridge's hand was still making snatching movements amongst the flames, as though she knew exactly where Sirius's hair had been moments before and was determined to seize it.
A/N: Thank you to the two who reviewed the last chapter I really appreciated it and hope you enjoy this new chapter. R&R please!