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: It is a bad week for Harry, but worse for one of his friends and one of his teachers as it turns out.

Chapter 26: Seen and Unforeseen

It was altogether a bad week and that even though it had looked quite promising at first. There had been both Vincent's birthday and the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Quidditch game to look forward to.

The birthday was quite spoiled, though, when Vincent decided to start it by opening his birthday letter and found that his father had been none other than the Death Eater that had been killed in the teachers' attempt to rescue Victor the year before.

"It's probably good that he's dead, you know," Hermione tried to comfort Vincent. "Just imagine having a living Death Eater for a father!"

Vincent nodded miserably.

"I still have a mother," he reported. "But should I see her? She was married to a Death Eater, so who knows what she's like."

They exchanged some worried glances and finally Hermione offered rather hesitantly: "Well, I have decided not to meet my parents, you know. They are Muggles after all and and can't understand our world at all. And they wrote ... Well, from the way they wrote me I didn’t think they were all that eager to know me either."

"My mother wants to see me though," Vincent said staring at his letter. "She says I'm all she has left of my father now ... But I'd rather not have him for my father at all. What should I do?"

Harry had no answer to that and tried to distract Vincent by drawing his attention to the cake and presents instead, but they didn't really cheer him up. It was the most dismal birthday Harry had ever attended.

Then came the Quidditch match which proved just how disastrous the Gryffindor team really was. They lost by only ten points, but that was only because brave little Ginevra caught the snitch before the Hufflepuffs could score even more points. Harry didn't think that Ron had stopped a single ball all game and as for the beaters, the less one said of them the better.

Defense Against the Dark Arts practise was becoming the best part of Harry's life against all odds. In Harry's own opinion it was still his very worst subject, though for some reason Cho kept telling him he was doing great for his age and should stop comparing the time it took him to master a new spell with the time it took her and her fellow sixth years who'd already read all about it in class.

"And besides you are much better at Defense Against the Dark Arts then at Divination if you are completely honest about it," Ron said. "We just always cheat in Divination and never in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"From what you've been telling us it's really Occlumecy that you're doing worst of all at," Hermione said.

That wasn't in the least encouraging, but Harry had to admit it was true. He still failed at clearing his mind and shutting You-Know-Who out. In fact by now it actually felt like a success when Harry had a dream that wasn't about the Ministry of Magic, even though in it he was You-Know-Who himself instead of the snake and was punishing a Death Eater for not having some thing, Harry couldn't quite figure out what.

Harry reported it all to Professor Snape at the beginning of his next Oclumency lesson, but it only made the Professor scold him for his lack of success at clearing his mind before bed and he attacked Harry's mind so vehemently that in his fright Harry got Occlumency and Defense Against the Dark Arts mixed up and cast Protego instead of clearing his mind. The result was very surprising and inexplicable. Instead of simply blocking the attack it made Harry invade Professor Snape's mind and see a memory of Uncle Sirius and his friends bullying his teacher. Of course that did nothing to improve Professor Snape's temper. It only left Harry feeling embarrassed and awkward. He wasn't even sure whether it was his own invasion of his professor's mind that made him feel so bad. It might just as well have been his beloved uncle's long ago misbehaviour.

The next attack came even more forcefully and Harry didn't want to repeat his mistake even though it had been the most successful defence he had ever managed. Instead he let the Professor enter his mind and look at the dream of the corridor and door once again, but suddenly that changed. The door flew open and Harry saw a circular room with identical doors all around. The room made him feel dizzy and he thought he'd fall, but then he was rescued by the shrill scream of a woman.

He woke as if from a trance just in time to see Professor Snape rush from the room. After a moment's hesitation Harry followed and caught up with his teacher in the entrance hall where they discovered the strangest spectacle Harry could have ever imagined happening at the institute.

Professor Umbridge was throwing Professor Trellawney out of the castle! And from the way it looked she had probably started by physically throwing her down the stairs. At least Professor Trellawney was sitting at the foot of the stairs when Harry arrived and a moment later Professor Umbridge appeared and threw her trunks down after her despite Professor McGonagall's protests that surely a fired staff member ought to be allowed at least a day or two to pack and arrange for new accommodations.

Only when Professor Dumbledore arrived and told her to stop did Professor Umbridge relent, though quite obviously she didn’t like the headmaster's decision at all.

Harry however was relieved. Professor Trellawney was not to be thrown out to find her own way to the unemployment camp.

In fact, there was no need for her to go there at all as her successor had no use for her rooms. As a centaur he'd find it quite impossible to climb a rope ladder and indeed already struggled with ordinary stairs so much that he had requested his classroom and quarters to be on the ground floor. Thus there was nothing wrong with Professor Trellawney staying in her old room until she found a new position.