Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Notes: So, can we get a DA with Hermione being on probation and supervised by Professor Umbridge of all people?
Chapter 25: The Beetle at Bay
You-Know-Who's happiness was explained soon enough. The next morning the Daily Prophet brought news of a mass-breakout from Azkaban. Harry borrowed a copy of the newspaper from Katie and stared at the pictures of the escaped prisoners in horror. They were all death eaters and looked very scary.
"They are hardly going to come here," Neville tried to reassure him. "They'll go into hiding from the dementors."
"Peter Pettigrew came here," Ron pointed out. "And the dementors will come back here as well. That’s even worse."
"They won't go into hiding," Harry said. "It was You-Know-Who that freed them and they are going to stay with him."
"But he is in hiding," Hermione said. "And he has no reason to attack the institute. It'll be the ministry they'll strike at when they do."
"And what if they take the ministry?" a voice behind them interrupted.
Harry turned around and to his surprise saw that it was Frederick and George.
"We've been thinking," George explained. "He's already killed our father. And Victor Krumm and ... and we don't even know how many others. The Ministry won't prepare to fight him. They're just burying their heads in the sand. So we'd better be prepared. We're going to start training our own army. Are you in?"
At first Harry was going to decline. He had no ambitions to be a soldier, he was going to be a medical brewer. But then he realised that George had of course been joking again. What he actually meant was that the twins were going to give the remedial practical Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons several students had been asking them for for a while now. That was a different matter. Harry was bad at Defense Against the Dark Arts after all and needed all the extra lessons he could get to pass his OWLs. He, Ron and Neville signed up quite eagerly. Only Hermione shook her head regretfully.
"I wish I could," she said. "But I have to report all my movements to Professor Umbridge and if she caught me lying ..."
"You’ll pass the OWLs anyway," Harry tried to console her. "You are such an excellent student. You don't need remedial lessons."
Nevertheless it was sad that she couldn't attend the lessons in the secret 'Room of Requirements' with them.
At least a new educational decree gave them all something to laugh about. Teachers were no longer allowed to give their students any information that didn't pertain to their subjects resulting in hilarious scenes such as Professor Flitwick shrugging helplessly and saying "That does not pertain to Charms," when Parvati asked him whether she could go to the bathroom and Professor McGonagall regretfully informing the blackboard that she wasn't allowed to tell her students that the next Hogsmeade weekend would be on Valentine's Day.
Only Care for Magical Creatures and Divination were no fun. Both Professors were on probation now and Professor Umbridge supervised all their lessons. How she could do this and not miss any of her Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons remained a mystery. At least this had led to Professor Hagrid adopting the curriculum that Professor Grubbly-Plank had planned out at the beginning of the year and though Professor Hagrid was made terribly nervous by Professor Umbridge's presence that made his lessons much more pleasant and interesting.
Harry would probably have enjoyed the change more if he hadn't had to cope with his Occlumency lessons and the almost constant pain in his scar as well. Despite all his efforts Harry was making no progress at emptying his mind and was now dreaming of being a snake and sneaking through the Ministry of Magic every night.
Since Hermione still wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade Harry once again stayed at the institute on Valentine's Day. Ron didn't even get to decide for himself as Angelina scheduled an additional Quiddich training session for the day. Harry watched them play for a little while, but it only made him long to jump onto a broom, any broom, and join in and the new beaters were a disaster.
Ginevra however really seemed to be quite a talented seeker, which for some strange reason reason made Harry feel even worse. He should have been glad for the team and his house, shouldn't he? So why was he wishing that she'd been even worse than the beaters?
Another unpleasant thing was that after the first few additional Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons Frederick intercepted Harry and Ron when they were pairing off for the lesson and told them that they weren't a good pair.
"Not if you both want to improve your skills in these lessons," he said and directed Ron to work with Neville and Harry over to where the sixth years were practising. "You should match well with Cho," he declared. "She's a bit shorter than the other sixth years so she won’t tower over you and Marietta ... well, we're moving her over to the fifth year to tutor Gregory. The poor boy hasn't been keeping up very well and as I understand it Marietta isn't actually here to learn, so we'll try her at teaching."
Marietta blushed, but did as she was told and after the lesson Gregory was full of praise and gratitude for her teaching. Apparently she'd gone back all the way to some spells he'd never quite mastered in third year and he now felt confident that he could at last do those correctly.
"And how was working with Cho?" Ron asked with a grin. "You fancied her a little last year, didn't you?"
Well, yes, but that had been as a partner for dancing at the Yule Ball, not at Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Difficult," Harry admitted. "And I don't actually know any of the sixth years. Especially not the Ravenclaws."
He'd felt lost and lonely among them and had never even heard of the spell they'd practised before. He had managed well enough once Cho had explained it, but it had still been embarrassing and he hadn't been nearly as good as her.