Disclaimer: Again...Still don't own it...

A/N: I'm backkkkkk...sorry for the long delay. Life sometimes interferes with writing. Couple of Things. Oh and more thanks to Teufel 1987 for betaing this chapter. He makes me believe in the goodness of humanity again.

1) After my beta (Awesome Teufel1987) looked through the last chapter he made some good points and caused me to edit it. Nothing too major, but just a few things because I am not trying to make Harry look like an idiot, he is bright kid, if a bit socially clueless at times.

2) I set up a poll for the Susan vs. Padma thing on my profile for this story. I'm leaning pretty heavily Susan right now as it seems to make the most sense the way the characters are portrayed, but if there is a massive outcry for Padma I will bow to the masses.

So have at it and PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW; it means a lot and really keeps me motivated to write. The more reviews I will probably get the next chapter out sooner. Thanks!

Chapter 11: Keep Your Mouths Shut!

"What the bloody hell is a High Inquisitor?" asked Ron.

"Language Ron! Especially around the first years!" shrieked Hermione in response.

Harry thought Hermione was fighting a lost cause, which she seemed to do a lot, but didn't say anything as his attention was fully focused on the bulletin board in the Gryffindor common room. On it was posted a large poster printed on cream-coloured parchment, with a picture of the professor who had surpassed even Snape as Harry's least favourite at Hogwarts.

Ministry of Magic Announcement: October 5th

Educational Decree #4

The Ministry of Magic hereby creates the position of High Inquisitor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to ensure that the curriculum and organization of the school is in line with Ministry standards. The High Inquisitor will have the power to make curriculum and staff adjustments and recommend new educational decrees to the Minister's office. The Ministry will expand such powers as necessary.

Educational Decree #5

The Ministry of Magic hereby appoints Dolores Umbridge, current Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor and Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, to the position of High Inquisitor.

For more information on the above stated decrees please see the full texts within the Ministry of Magic's Hall of Records.

"I wonder what the other three decrees were?" mused Hermione.

"Two of them were probably the ones that allowed the Ministry to appoint Umbridge in the first place," responded Harry.

"Yeah, but again, what does being High Inquisitor actually mean?" said Ron as the trio began walking out of the common room and down to the breakfast.

"Reading between the lines, and from what we have seen from her, it sounds like she is going to start inspecting other teachers and classes," replied Hermione.

Harry flinched for a moment when he heard that as he realized something. "Maybe it's a good thing Hagrid isn't back quite yet the." Harry had been starting to worry more and more about the missing effusive Gamekeeper. Hagrid had been missing since the beginning of the year and Professor McGonagall had refused to answer any of their questions about his whereabouts.

"Why?" asked a puzzled Ron.

"I don't feel that inspection would have gone well. Hagrid is already completely loyal to Dumbledore, so that would be one strike against him. If you add in the fact that he is a half-giant…" said Harry.

At their latest defence study group meeting a few days ago everyone had been disparaging Umbridge, a relatively common topic, when Terry revealed that his father had told him she was in deep with the Pureblood and anti-creatures political lobbies. This had only given Harry more reasons to hate her and had caused Hermione to rant a good thirty minutes about house-elf, werewolf, and other creatures rights.

"Yeah, but just wait until she inspects McGonagall's class!" grinned Ron. "Maybe our dreams will come true and she will turn Umbtidge into a toad for a demonstration!"

The rest of the walk down to breakfast was filled with complaints and insults directed at the Umbridge. The trio's remarks only became more offensive after they read a Prophet article claiming that Umbridge had been a "great success" thus far at Hogwarts.

As the Gryffindor fifth years left breakfast for the Transfiguration classroom, Ron quipped that, "maybe McGonagall will turn her into a toad and then accidentally banish her to a jungle somewhere," to a laughing Harry, Seamus, and Dean. It was a testament to just how much Hermione disliked Umbridge that she didn't chastise Ron for the comment.

Professor Umbridge wasn't in Transfiguration, however, and the class was spent on vanishing turtles. Professor McGonagall graced Harry with a rare smile as he fully vanished his turtle within the first half of the period, only moments after Hermione. He was only one of six students, along with Hermione, Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Blaise Zabini, and Theodore Nott, to accomplish the task by the end of the period.

"You really have been taking your class work a lot more seriously lately, Harry," mentioned Hermione as they walked out of Transfiguration.

"Yeah, well, I have a pretty big motivator to do so…" Harry replied with a shrug.

Hermione gave him a teasing look. "What's the motivator? Maybe trying to impress someone?"

"More like I realized I should prepare myself as best I can considering I have a crazed Dark Lord after me," deadpanned Harry. His response shut Hermione up rather quickly as he split off from her and Ron to head to his Ancient Runes class.

Ancient Runes had rapidly turned into one of Harry's favourite classes behind Transfiguration and Charms. Though the work could be tedious and involved a lot of memorization the practical aspects of Ancient Runes were very appealing to Harry. It had been a bit awkward considering he was two years older than almost everyone else in the class, but Professor Babbling was an extremely understanding and helpful teacher.

Professor Umbridge was absent from Ancient Runes as well that day, though Harry thought that Professor Babbling had little to worry about. They spent the class period translating and inscribing Elder Futhark runes after handing in some homework. Though they hadn't had an exam yet, Harry definitely felt that his work was at least at an Exceeds Expectations level. He was even considering self-studying during the summer to see if he could catch up to his own year and eventually sit for the Ancient Runes N.E.W.T.

After Ancient Runes Harry sped down to the Great Hall to meet up with Hermione and Ron for lunch before Care of Magical Creatures. After Ron had inhaled enough food to begin speaking without his mouth full the conversation turned to a topic Harry thought they had pretty much beaten to death the last few days: where could they practise DADA?

"I still say the Chamber of Secrets, place has got to be pretty big and its not like Umbridge would ever find it," said Ron while grabbing a sandwich from a platter.

"Yeah, but I don't think we are going to be able to get Fawkes to run some sort of taxi service to get out of there," said an exasperated Harry.

"The Chamber also has a giant rotting basilisk down there, which would be an issue, so we are going to have to try to find somewhere else," added Hermione.

"Umbridge would probably eventually catch on to an empty classroom, especially with too many people. Its already kinda dangerous with our small group now, especially with her new powers and stuff," said Harry.

"But we aren't doing anything against the rules, so she can't technically do anything!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Yeah but since when have the rules mattered? She would just change them or make something up to at least me in trouble," Harry responded with a shrug.

"Well, maybe someone else has come up with a place," replied a hopeful Hermione.

"Considering they don't have the map I doubt it, but hopefully," responded Harry pessimistically.

"We could always ask someone. The twins have wandered most of Hogwarts, they might know somewhere, I reckon they know the place better than anyone except Dumbledore and the house elves," said Ron.

"I doubt they know anymore about the castle than we do since they were relying on the map though," replied Hermione doubtfully.

"But Ron's right, we might know someone who knows the castle better than any of us!" interrupted Harry, as he grabbed his book bag and started quickly striding out of the Great Hall, ignoring Hermione's cries to wait.

Harry turned the corner out of the Great Hall, ran up a staircase and down a corridor until he found an empty alcove.

"Dobby!"

The eccentric elf appeared with a pop, giddy with delight. "Does great wonderful Harry Potter sir need Dobby?"

"Err…actually all I had was a question. I need somewhere to practise spells and stuff in the castle for like at least twenty or thirty people. Somewhere secret where nobody could find us, especially Umbridge. Can you help?" Harry asked hopefully, trying to ignore the fact that Dobby seemed to be wearing a polka dotted tea cosy on his head.

Dobby's large ears drooped for a moment in thought before perking up again and the small creature began bouncing like a hyperactive pogo stick. "Oh yes the place is called the Come and Go Room by the house-elves of Hogwarts or the Room of Requirement by wizards. It is a magical room! Does great Harry Potter sir want to see it now? Dobby can show you now!"

Harry was about to agree in his excitement until he realized he would be late for his Care of Magical Creatures class.

"I actually have class right now but you think you could show me in a couple days, at night?" asked Harry.

"Of course Harry Potter sir! Dobby will be most happy to show the great Harry Potter then!" exclaimed Dobby.

"Err…right then, I'll be off. See you then Dobby. Oh and thanks!" finished Harry as he headed towards the main doors and out onto the grounds. He saw Ron and Hermione halfway to the spot where Care of Magical Creatures was held and jogged to catch up to them.

"Harry! Don't run off like that without explaining things! Where did you go?" exclaimed Hermione as Harry joined them.

"I just took Ron's advice and asked someone who knows the castle better than we do for a place to practise Defense away from Umbridge," replied Harry.

"Who?" asked Ron.

"Dobby," responded Harry.

Ron and Hermione's jaws dropped before the redhead spoke again. "Brilliant! Did he know a place?"

Harry decided to play around with his two best mates, knowing what he was about to do would drive Hermione particularly mad.

"Maybe…" he replied with a sly grin.

"Harry! You can't leave us hanging! Where is it!" yelled Hermione, drawing attention from Lavender and Parvati just ahead of them.

"Hermione! Quiet! You'll both find out in a couple days, alright," whispered Harry.

Hermione was prevented from questioning Harry further by their arrival to Care of Magical Creatures while Ron just seemed to shrug it off. Harry felt Hermione's glare, however, piercing through occasionally as Professor Grubby-Plank, wrapped in a strange fur coat that seemed to change colours, lectured the class on bowtruckles.

Xander rested Disillusioned on one knee just outside the wards of Malfoy Manor. Sweat poured down from his brow and he had a pounding headache. He had been working for the last nine days trying to break down the wards around Malfoy Manor's apparition point. Today alone he had spent over five hours trying to do the magical equivalent of a cat wiggling its way through a minute gap in a fence. Xander was getting close to stopping and calling in a few favors with some much more experienced Cursebreakers he knew.

Wards were tricky and particularly interesting bits of magic. They came in thousands of different permutations, from simple proximity charms that an average teenage wizard could cast to Mayan Death Wards, which were supposedly created by human sacrifice rituals and then powered by the rather gruesome, magic draining, deaths of anyone that tried to cross them.

With the exception of some incredibly powerful or obscure wards, breaking them was generally rather easy. Expend enough magical power onto them and eventually they will wear down. This brute force method has a downside, however, in that it has about the same amount of subtlety as riding an elephant naked through Diagon Alley. Breaking down a ward without disturbing it or alerting any possible occupants of a warded location, now that was practically an art form.

The wards around the Apparition point of Malfoy Manor were testing the very limits of Xander's skill and were far more complicated than any of the wards he had found on at the other Death Eater homes. He estimated the manor was around 900 years old, probably from when the Malfoy family arrived in England during the invasion by William the Conqueror. The wards appeared to have been updated continuously since then, using a host of different runic alphabets, and had a number of tricks and traps that Xander had never even heard of.

Xander was now at the very last level of the wards. They also happened to be the newest, from their construction and magical signature that they had been put up within the last ten or twenty years. Xander was overwhelmed at their complexity and was about to give up on the spot until he noticed something rather…strange.

"There is no way there is that big of a hole in this thing…has to be a trap…" muttered Xander under his breath.

Xander cast some runic revealing spells, a Cursebreaker's bread and butter, to show the arrays at work around what seemed to be a serious gap in the wards. He then watched in shock as the runes, Sumerian from the looks, popped out and slowly morphed into English.

Welcome to Malfoy Manor….Home to a bunch of stuck-up assholes!

Xander jaw dropped before he took a chance and pushed his magic through the hole in the wards. He felt the wards accept his magic and Xander calmly stood up and walked through into Malfoy Manor's Apparition point, before promptly collapsing in laughter so loud he had to silence himself.

'Note to self…don't insult warders…vindictive jerks!' Xander thought as he Apparated away; exceedingly happy he had a great new story to tell next time he was with some of the Cursebreakers he knew.

"This might be the most utterly brilliant thing I've ever seen!" exclaimed Terry Boot as he wandered over to set of swords.

Harry had to agree with Terry; even after four years of Hogwarts the Room of Requirement was rather awesome.

"Yeah this is awesome, thanks a ton Dobby," said Harry.

"Great Harry Potter sir does not need to be thanking Dobby as it was Dobby's pleasure. Dobby must be off to the kitchens to work so please call if you need anything else!" responded the excitable little house-elf, this time sporting a burnt orange tea cozy, before disappearing.

Harry looked up to see Justin Finch-Fletchey still staring at the space Dobby had just occupied. As a muggleborn, it had been his first encounter with a house-elf.

"Most bizarre little creature," the Hufflepuff boy muttered while shaking his head.

Harry looked up and surveyed the rest of the room. The space was quite a bit bigger than a normal classroom and appeared to be the ideal Defense classroom. The floor was a warm cherry hardwood and the ceiling was fifteen or twenty feet high. In one corner was a stack of large red cushions, which Harry knew would be useful for practicing Stunning.

On the right hand side of the room was a large bookcase that went all the way to the ceiling, filled with tomes large and small. Next to the bookcase was a large hip-height oval oak table covered with various trinkets and objects. Harry saw Hannah Abbott pick up a Sneakoscope but didn't recognize most of the other devices on the table.

On the left side of the room stood a large complete suit of armour, just like the ones that could be seen throughout Hogwarts. Next to the suit of armour there were a couple dozen swords of different shapes and lengths resting on stands bolted on the wall. The men of the group had immediately wandered over there to examine them. Harry saw Ron pull down a rather large broadsword and buckle under its weight.

"I don't think it even needs to be said, but this place is pretty much perfect. Now the question is how do we want to go about having more people join," said Susan as she walked over from the bookshelf to stand next to Harry.

"I mean, how many more people do you think are going to want to join?" said Harry skeptically. Harry felt like he had done a pretty good job as a teacher over the last month, the group was now casting Disarming spells and Body-Bind Hexes perfectly, among other things. Nevertheless, he was skeptical that there would be that much more interest among the student body in learning defence from him. The vast majority still thought he might be some sort of crazed psychopath.

"I can think of at least a dozen Gryffindors who will in a heart beat," said Hermione, pulling herself away from one of the books the room had supplied.

"Yeah, I mean at least like Dean, Neville, Ginny, the Twins, the three Chasers girls, Lavender, and Parvati will want to. Probably Lee Jordan and there could be some of Ginny's or the Twins' friends that will want to also," replied Ron, who had put down the broadsword before causing any damage.

"What about Seamus?" Lisa Turpin questioned.

"Doubtful, though he doesn't completely believe the Prophet he's made it fairly clear he doesn't believe me either," said Harry, keeping his emotions check. That had been a particularly tense and dividing conversation in their dorm room a few weeks ago. It had been Neville, of all people, who had ended up fiercely shouting down Seamus, earning him a lot of points in Harry's eyes.

"Well I can think of maybe four or five more Hufflepuffs," said Susan.

"About the same for Ravenclaws," Padma said before tentatively adding, "and maybe two or three Slytherins."

"Sssnakes?" spluttered Ron venomously.

"Who?" asked Ernie quizzically.

"Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, and Blaise Zabini. I know them from Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, they are sort of outcasts within Slytherin House since they don't fawn over Malfoy," replied Padma.

"All good students as well," Hermione added nervously, glancing sideways at Ron.

"But they are bloody snakes! We can't trust them!" bellowed Ron, his face a pale red.

"Not every Slytherin is Draco Malfoy or Pansy Parkinson. Stop being so childish!" retorted Susan, glaring a bit at Ron.

Ron's face was slowly growing closer and closer to his hair colour, which Harry knew was a bad sign. "They are all basically junior Death Eaters, why the hell should we teach them stuff they might be using on us in a few years!"

"They are not all junior Death Eaters! Death Eaters came, and are from, every house. There are people on the good side from Slytherin too!" shot back Padma.

"Psh, name one good wizard that fought against the Death Eaters last time around from Slytherin," scoffed Ron loudly.

"Mad-Eye," said Harry. He spoke softly, but in a way that still carried everyone's attention. "Mad-Eye Moody was a Slytherin, and you can't question his credentials. Also, one of the most despicable Death Eaters I know was a Gryffindor."

Ron clamped his jaw shut, momentarily speechless due to the fact that his entire argument had been soundly rebutted. Ron Weasley, however, has never been known for qualities like logic, tact, and tolerance. So he naturally proceeded to thoroughly shove his own foot in his mouth.

"Whatever, everyone knows that dark wizards are from Slytherin. Those bints will probably just hex us and turn us over to Umbridge or something. Bloody dumb idea by you girls to let Slytherins in, I would have expected better from know-it-alls."

The subsequent explosion of screaming and hexes from the girls caused the boys not named Ron Weasley to duck for cover, or fear becoming collateral damage. Harry found himself in the opposite corner of the room, crouching behind a shield charm he had thrown up with Terry Boot. They both winced sympathetically as Padma cast a particularly vicious Stinging hex right onto Ron's lips.

"Padma seems especially….well…" trailed off Harry.

"Bloody pissed and violent?" supplied Terry, to which Harry just nodded as they watched the aforementioned Ravenclaw bellow at Ron. Harry could only catch the words 'tactless', 'idiot', 'clueless', and 'arse'.

"Well, this was probably coming at one point or another…she's still a bit put out about the whole Yule Ball. That and she, Mandy, and Lisa are actually pretty friendly with the Slytherins she mentioned, Ron really managed to bollox things up for himself here," said Terry.

Harry just nodded vigorously as he watched Ron's skin turn an angry red, not from his temper as per usual, but from the sheer number of Stinging hexes he was receiving. Over the last month Harry had quickly learned that Padma was quite different from her Gryffindor twin. She wasn't big gossiper nor did she turn into a silly giggling mess over a magazine or clothes. Calm, cool, and collected was how Harry would describe Padma, though with a bit of a mischievous streak. Padma, however, for all her somewhat mature qualities, was still a teenage girl, and clearly still harbored a grudge towards Ron for ruining her Yule Ball, which even Harry knew Hogwarts girls had viewed as some sort of nearly sacred event. As he watched his best mate cower in fear, Harry made a mental note to find Parvati and beg forgiveness for his own transgressions.

"We should probably stop them though, this isn't getting us anywhere," Harry said to Terry.

Terry looked at Harry and raised his eyebrows. "I'm telling you now, if I get hexed I will blame you."

"Fair enough," Harry responded with a chuckle.

The two emerged from behind Harry's shield charm and walked over to the commotion.

"Erm….alright I think that's enough, right? This isn't exactly getting us anywhere…" Harry said tentatively.

The girls stopped yelling and hexing but still stood there glaring at Ron, hands on their hips and wands still out.

"Look, you can invite the Slytherins but I think it's a moot point because I doubt they are going to want to learn anything from me. If on the impossible chance they do come, Ron will keep his mouth shut," said Harry.

"And if he doesn't, you all can tie him up and use him as a target for spell casting," piped in Terry, which earned him a bit of a glare from Ron.

"Damn straight we will!" said Susan, who's features had softened and was now looking at Harry with what he thought were an extremely pretty set of cerulean blue eyes.

"When should we have the first meeting, then?" asked Ernie, who had emerged from another corner of the room with Anthony and Justin when it became clear that spells had stopped flying.

"Today's Thursday, so how about Sunday night? Like right after dinner, say eight? We still would have a couple hours before curfew and we are allowed around the castle so we should be fine," said Harry thoughtfully.

Everyone agreed and moments later Harry was heading back to the Gryffindor common room with a still slightly cranky Hermione and a thoroughly chastised Ron.

Xander waved his hand and muttered Tempus, causing the date and time to appear in deep blue writing just in front of him: Saturday, October 9th, 1995. 5:40 P.M.

"Should have known, that man is always late," muttered Xander as he sat down in the armchair in his room. He pulled out a pen and a thin leather notebook from his pocket and opened it to the first page. The page was a list of skills or spells Xander wanted to learn and was divided into three neat titled columns: Easy, Hard/Time Consuming, and finally Mythical/Supposedly Impossible.

Xander pulled out his main wand and vanished 'Percipemency' from under the Hard/Time Consuming label. While he would naturally keep practicing it, the skill was now at a level that it wasn't urgent to spend time training it. Xander's eyes scoured the rest of the page. The spells under the 'Easy' heading would take him no more than twenty or thirty minutes total to learn. They were mostly just reminders to look up simple spells; like charms that would remove wrinkles from clothes or stains from a carpet.

After vanishing 'Percipemency', only one thing remained listed under the Hard/Time Consuming category: Animagus Transformation. 'I'll get around to that one…probably should go pick up some books on it soon…hopefully my inner animal isn't something completely useless…' thought Xander while chewing on his pen absent mindedly.

The last column, Mythical/Supposedly Impossible had a list of a half dozen skills or abilities that any wizard would kill to have. Some were only found in legends, like the Seven Godly Self-Transfigurations. Only three wizards had supposedly ever accomplished the spell, the last was an Incan sorcerer about 800 years ago, and only bits were ever found of the wizards who tried and failed.

Other things on the list were just purely theoretical, like Counter to the Avada Kedavra. 'Even if I managed to come up with something, testing that one would be a bitch,' thought Xander as tapped the incantation for the Death Curse in his notebook with his pen. 'What am I going to do, walk up to someone and ask them to cast it on me and just hope whatever I came up with works?'

Xander closed the notebook and tossed on top of his trunk a few feet away before leaning back in his chair and cracking his knuckles. 'Moot point anyway, I never even have the time to explore the possibility of any of those crazy pieces of magic because I'm always traveling and working…longest I've ever spent in one place is like four or five months…Hell I don't even technically own a home, my damn mail address is Gringotts,' Xander thought.

His musings made him recall his conversation with Jim in the Congo not that long ago, and Xander had to grudgingly admit that his lifestyle wasn't conducive to stability, much less a social life. "Not that I don't enjoy it…though it's not like I've ever had another option," Xander thought grimly.

Xander was interrupted from his thoughts by a knock, well more like a bang, on the door.

"Yo, Alejandro! Open up!" Xander heard Raine Talbot yell in his cheery voice. Xander popped up from his chair and opened the door to find Raine standing there in a faded brown leather jacket, wearing a pair of aviators.

"Miss me, Zombie?" Raine asked he and Xander embraced and slapped eachother on the back.

"Well I didn't miss the fact that you manage to be late for everything," replied Xander mockingly.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that, had a bit of a hold up closing out my bar tab at the hotel I was staying at in Spain…turns out I bought the whole place drinks a couple nights ago and couldn't remember…" responded Raine sheepishly.

"Typical," said Xander shaking his head. "Come on, I have a private booth for us downstairs, we can get some dinner and you can tell me what brought you back here so quickly."

A/N: Hit the Review Button! Do it! Oh and Remember the poll for Padma vs. Susan on my profile. My goal is to have the next chapter up within 5 days. thanks!