"I am absolutely disgusted with the behavior shown here today from every single one of you!"

I winced, my eyes hesitantly moving from the floor up to a furious McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Flitwick. Seeing the flames in McGonagall's gaze, I quickly dropped mine back to my feet.

The food fight had been a ball, but eventually, it had had to end.

And that had happened when the teachers came sprinting into the room, screaming at us all to stop. It was only once a rogue pancake had smacked Snape in the face that the man had simply swiped his wand and frozen us all where we stood- Lee mid dive off of the table, and me mid throw of a bowl of porridge.

Once we'd been unfrozen, the approximately 200 students who had participated in the food fight were herded like sheep to sit at the front of the room- the room that barely even resembled the grand Great Hall I knew lay beneath all the grime.

We were surrounded by food. The mess wasn't just smudged all over us, but all over the room- the walls, the floor… absolutely everything. Nothing had escaped tainting.

"This is not the way that we have taught you to behave! These are not the sort of actions that this school condones whatsoever!" Sprout fumed.

Flitwick frowned. "Well? Do any of you have anything to say for yourselves?!"

We all wisely chose not to comment. This was bad enough already.

"No?" McGonagall snarled. "Good. Then you haven't lost all your sense of intelligence. Every single person in this room will receive three weeks' worth of detentions, and 20 points will be taken from every single person involved."

Internally, I groaned. Three fucking weeks- and the amount of kids present meant that that wasn't going to be any small number of points.

"Anybody who isn't in Gryffindor may also have additional punishments delved out by their Heads of Houses," McGonagall said strictly, and the look on Snape's still honey covered face told us that this would definitely be the case for the Slytherin's involved. "Now, get back to your common rooms and get cleaned up!"

Thankful for the dismissal, we shot to our feet- until McGonagall's voice sounded again.

"Not you lot!"

We didn't even bother to pretend we didn't know this was directed at us. Turning slowly, the lot of us winced at her furious glare as the rest of the students and teachers filed out past us, until it was just the seven of us left in the room.

"You are all in your seventh and final year at school here," McGonagall fumed. "Legally, you are adults- but clearly, mentally you're all still children!"

I took slight offence to that. Lee was pretty childish, but I thought the rest of us were okay.

"This is not the sort of behavior I accept from Gryffindor students. The lot of you will receive an extra two weeks' worth of detentions for instigating this incident! Now get back to your common room!"

We all but ran from the room, not wanting to be around McGonagall any longer than was strictly necessary in case she decided to start handing out more detentions. It wasn't until we were safely inside the common room that we felt safe enough to break our silence- which Lee did by breaking out into hooting laughter.

"Only five week's detention? Fuckin' easy!"

"Only five?!" Alicia groaned. "That's over a month!"

"Totally worth it- did you see Ron pelt that little twit Draco Malfoy with his porridge? If ever an action was heroic enough to deserve to be awarded house points, it was that one."

"Merlin, glad to finally be in private," Fred groaned, making a disgusted face and reaching into his pants, pulling out a waffle and throwing it into the fire. "That's been bugging my bits for ages."

That was the point where I lost it. I could no longer hold in my giggles, and soon everyone else joined me. "That's disgusting, Fred," Katie sniggered, but the general consensus was that Lee was right- it had been worth it.

"SHOTTY FIRST SHOWER!" Angelina screamed, making a dive for the stairs leading to the dormitory. Katie, Alicia and I shouted our objection, taking off after her and attempting to clamber over each other to reach the dormitory first. "BITCH, I WILL CUT YOU!"


The generally cheerful attitude that hung around after the food fight very quickly dissolved; everyone was being pushed to their absolute limit. As if oncoming exams and almost daily newspaper articles about mysterious disappearances weren't enough, Umbridge seemed to have returned from the holidays with a new vindictive streak. Almost evert day, the wall just outside the Great Hall held a new Educational Decree, usually something irrelevant like 'students appearances are to be smartly presented at all times.' One Thursday morning, I entered the Entrance Hall to hear Lee screeching, successfully drawing the attention of everyone moving inside on their way to breakfast.

"Lee!' I cried in concern, running over. "Lee, what happened? Are you alright?!"

He turned and opened his mouth a few times, trying unsuccessfully to say something and only managing to make small squeaking noises. Eventually, he just pointed to a brand new Educational Decree.

'Boys and girls are not permitted to be within 8 inches of each other.'

From beside me, Angelina started sniggering. "What, that's it?"

"The fuck do you mean, 'that's it'?!" He demanded, his anger seeming to return the use of his capability to form words. "Umbridge is trying to ruin my sex life!"

I raised my eyebrows. "Somehow I don't believe that her ultimate goal upon taking on the role of High Inquisitor was to ruin your sex life," I said flatly. Lee acted as though he didn't hear me, which he may very well not have in his fury.

"She won't get away with this. She won't," he vowed, turning and stalking into the Great Hall. Dutifully, Angelina and I followed him to where he threw himself down at the Gryffindor table, pulling an entire tray of scrambled eggs towards him and growling at a first year who looked like they were going to complain about it.

"Lee, you can't even have that much sex during the school term," Angelina pointed out.

"You'd be surprised," he replied immediately through a mouthful of scrambled eggs, his incessant need to brag overtaking his anger.

The twins arrived then, flopping down on either side of me. "Yeah, our room becomes a no-go zone more often than you'd think," Fred said, his tone border lining between impressed and annoyed.

"I had sex in a broom closet once. Broke one of the school brooms with my butt," Lee said proudly.

"Isn't that kind of inappropriate, though?" I said, "I mean… dude, this is a learning environment. There are kids here."

"What? I don't get my dick out in a classroom full of first years, I'm not a fuckin' pervert," Lee snapped in defense. "You're such a virgin, Bree."

I just rolled my eyes, nonplussed. "And you are definitely a pervert. Well, I guess not so much now there's Educational Decrees put in place specifically telling you to keep it in your pants."

"Like that will stop him," George muttered.

It was at that moment that Angelina shook herself out of the trance she'd fallen into. "I think I just wrote chapter twelve in my head. Our heroine's future husband has come to seek out his fiancé and put a stop to her debauchery. Our lovers hide in a broom closet from him, and things start getting hot and heavy until-"

"-aaaaaand I'm gone," I announced, grabbing my bag and standing up, heading up to Divination with the twins close behind me.

So Lee was shot into a filthy mood in the wake of that mornings Educational Decree, and soon enough everyone else joined him. Angelina was getting moody with the gale force winds consistently blowing around the castle, as it was impacting her Quidditch practices. She was in desperate need of blowing off steam, which she usually did by writing, but she hit a pretty big bout of writers block and so took her annoyance out on everyone else instead. Then she started begging Lee for details of his sexual conquests for inspiration, which in turn annoyed Katie and Alicia when they were trying to study one night. Katie had a subsequent blow out with Lee when she called him a whore, which led to Alicia yelling at the both of them about the fact that she was still failing Defense Against the Dark Arts and the last thing she needed was "you two fucking idiot's stirring everyone up" and distracting her. That was the exact moment the pieces of candy the twins were casting spells on exploded simultaneously and very loudly, which led to Alicia turning her aggression on them, to which of course they had to defend themselves once she called their joke shop products "stupid."

The whole thing was a damn mess. Everyone's emotions were running high, including Sam and Hermione's, with every new Educational Decree that hinted to the fact that Umbridge knew there was an illicit group operating somewhere in the school. Ron was moody because he thought he was a terrible flier and the weather was stopping him from practicing, and- well, Harry was just stressed out about the whole You-Know-Who thing. Which I think is kinda understandable.

Even Trelawney was in a bad mood. Umbridge was sitting in on more and more of her classes, and having clearly decided a long time ago that Trelawney was a bad teacher, she spent the majority of her time just making cruel comments about our Divination Professor. This clearly rattled Trelawney, as it would anyone, and it led to her predicting Fred's death more and more regularly. Fred had always just rolled his eyes and shrugged it off, but since Umbridge had started getting crueler and crueler, Fred had begun participating more and more in his own death predictions. Now, whenever Trelawney started in, he shuffled forward to the edge of his seat and listened intently, even asking her for more details for a little extra assistance with the whole "staying alive" thing. Fred explained it one day by telling us, "I don't exactly like Trelawney that much, but that's nothing compared to how much I hate Umbridge. She's just plain cruel, and not even old Sybil deserves that."

I had to acknowledge that this was rather sweet, and I definitely had to concur with the whole hating Umbridge thing. Jason had met me outside of her classroom one day, bending down to press his lips against mine, and she'd given us both detentions for defying Educational Decree Number whatever-the-fuck-we-were-up-to. I tried to ignore how smug Fred and George looked.

But there was a silver lining, as there always is. The DA meetings continued, and they served to improve everyone's moods each time we met. It felt beyond incredible to actually be doing something instead of sitting by and letting Umbridge win, a feeling which only magnified when she stared us down in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we could stare right back at her toad like face knowing that we were besting her.

Of course, she most certainly wasn't going to go down without a fight, as demonstrated one morning when I entered the Great Hall to find yet another Educational Decree: 'Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit may sign up in the High Inquisitors office.'

I shouldn't have been as shocked as I was that Umbridge would use students to spy on each other. Nor, I suppose, should I have been as disappointed as I was when I met with Draco in the library for our next tutoring lesson and he was very proudly displaying an Inquisitorial Squad badge underneath his Prefect badge.

We would need to be more careful about the DA from now on, and Hermione found the perfect way soon enough, which she shared with us at our very next DA meeting: a bewitched golden galleon that reflected the date and time of our next meeting when Harry decided upon it. If we were asked to turn out our pockets (which was becoming more regular with Filch on the prowl on behalf of Umbridge), there wouldn't be anything funny about carrying a coin around.

Honestly, I don't even know why I bother to be surprised by her brilliance anymore.

But not only were the DA meetings serving as a way of fighting back against Umbridge, they were also turning out to be a fantastic way of actually learning something. I felt confident that I could pass by Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT exam with flying colors now, but more importantly… having Harry teach me to defend myself meant that every morning when I read a new story that was clearly linked to You-Know-Who's power increasing, I didn't have to feel so damn terrified.

Harry, too, was getting more out of these meetings than anyone expected. When we first started the DA, his language served to give away his nervousness. "I was thinking maybe…" and "perhaps we should…" were common phrases, his teachings always phrased as questions. Now, he spoke without asking. He planned ahead, and was fully confident in his lessons. It was really obvious that he genuinely loved teaching us, and he loved watching us learn even more, shown by his praise whenever we got something right.

"You're very enthusiastic, Bree, but you're flourishing your wand too much. It gives your enemy enough time to put a guard up; you just need to be fast," he told me one day, and Lee sniggered.

"Yeah, Breezy, you're being way too flamboyant," he said, but the grin was wiped off of his face quick smart when I took Harry's advice and cursed him much quicker than he was able to block.

"Oh, fantastic Bree!" Harry cried joyfully. "That's exactly what I want to see, keep that up!"

Lee was frozen still by Petrificus Totalus charm I'd smacked him with, but his eyes still managed to shoot a glare my way.

An hour later, Harry laughingly ignored our begging to continue just a bit longer, and shooed us all from the meeting. "Go do your homework, be responsible students for once," he laughed, and I rolled my eyes. And again, I snuck off to the library before my friends could notice to teach Draco Malfoy Defense Against the Dark Arts in secret.


And so the term continued, and with it came the first Quidditch match of the season: Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw smashed them 280/50- and with this match came the end of my peace.

"Right team. We are exactly four weeks out from our first game. It's against Slytherin, so we all know exactly what to expect. We're going to be stepping up our training regimen in the last few weeks before the match, so I want three morning trainings and three evening trainings a week. Any questions so far?"

I raised my hand tiredly. 'Uh, yeah, I have one. Can I expect any conversation from you lot in the next four weeks to be about anything other than Quidditch?"

"No. Any other questions?"

Fred raised his hand. "Not really a question- more of a statement. Angie, I want to win as much as anyone else, but there's no way I'm letting you force me into running laps around the Quidditch Pitch any more, and I'm making that clear right now."

"Yeah, it's bull, Angelina. I don't have the stamina for that shit," Katie agreed. "Plus there's absolutely zero running in a game of Quidditch, so what's the damn point?"

Alicia, Harry, and George nodded their approval. Ron looked as though he'd do just about anything Angelina told him would make him a better flier.

Unfortunately for the team, it appeared that simple practice was not enough to accomplish this.

One windy evening a few days later found Lee, Sam, and I settled with our Herbology work around the fire whilst the team were all down at the Quidditch pitch. Nearing curfew, the portrait hole swung open and a sea of red robes swarmed in.

"Hello my loves, how was practice?" I called cheerily, only for my grin to fall when Ron stalked past me without a backwards glance.

Fred flopped down beside me. "Well, it wasn't fantastic."

George settled himself down on my other side. "That little git Draco Malfoy and his stupid friends were down there heckling us the whole time," he snapped, and my heart dropped.

"Obviously nothing that we can't handle, but Ron…" Harry trailed off, wincing. "It's not his fault. He's nervous enough as it is- it completely threw him off his game."

"Potentially the worst practice I've ever seen," Katie admitted, and Angelina frowned.

"Well, we're all just going to have to suck it up, aren't we?!" she snapped furiously, before turning and stalking off to get cleaned up.

Katie frowned. "Tell ya what… four weeks might not be enough time for us to work our shit into something manageable enough to snatch a win."

The other members of the team frowned, but didn't object.


The next day found me in the library with Draco Malfoy, working our way through the theoretical component of defensive spells. Something that pleasantly surprised me about Draco was his fantastic work ethic- if he didn't understand something, he worked at it until he did. We were keeping our lessons up to date with his syllabus outlines- first, we would sit down and learn the theory. Then, we would find an unused classroom and actually practice the magic.

"Oh, Draco, that's wonderful," I said, when he answered yet another of my questions correctly. As usual, he seemed to glow when I delivered a compliment. "You don't seem to have any troubles with defensive magic at all. In fact, I think we're ready to move on to the spellcasting portion, if you'd like?"

He grinned widely and nodded. "Fantastic- when suits you?"

"I'm free for the rest of the afternoon, so if you'd like to start now…"

"Ah, I can't," he said disappointedly, shaking his head. "I have an Inquisitorial Squad meeting."

My friendly smile immediately fell- and he clearly noticed it before I could school my expression back to normal. Clearing my throat, I nodded whilst absentmindedly running my fingers over the scars Umbridge had left on the back of my hand. And now Draco was helping her to catch out students she would inevitably delve out the same punishment to.

"Then perhaps we should leave it at that today," I eventually said, and he nodded, beginning to collect his books. He clearly had picked up on the change in my emotions, and didn't argue with me.

"So, does Sunday suit you? Meet here at around 3?" he asked, before simply turning and leaving when I nodded my assent. I watched him retreat, and couldn't help the sigh that escaped me. He knew that I hated his involvement in the Inquisitorial Squad, and it was a definite point of contention between us.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. There was no use sitting here and sulking- I began to gather my books up, intending to head back to see George at the common room, when a voice spoke from behind me.

"Bree."

Turning very slowly, I saw Sam staring down at me. His arms were crossed, and he was barely masking his fury. "Oh," I breathed. "Uh… sup, bitch?"

His glare intensified. "What are you up to, sis?" he asked, his words biting. Oh, fuck… busted. He had seen me with Draco- this was the only explanation.

"Oh, um, you know, just doing some study… got the NEWT's coming up…" I lied weakly, and his eyebrows raised mockingly.

"Yeah? Is that so?" He asked. "So would you care to explain what the fuck Draco Malfoy was doing here then?"

Oh, yeah. Totally fuckin' busted.

There was honestly no point denying it any further. So I cleared my throat, and steeled myself for the worst- because Sam was not going to like what I was going to say.

"Yeah… I've sort of been… um… tutoring him."

His eyebrows shot up. "You've been what?!"

"Well, he's not so good at learning without someone to push him in the right direction, and I stumbled across him trying to study one day and, well…" I winced as Sam's glare intensified. "I've been helping him."

We lapsed into silence. "How long?" He eventually asked, his tone now dangerously calm.

"How… what?"

"How long?!"

I swallowed thickly. "About… about a year."

And that was when Sam exploded. "What the hell do you think you're doing with him?! Tutoring him?! Have you any idea who he is, what he's capable of?!"

"What he's capable of?" I repeated in shock, "Jesus, Sam, he's a kid!"

"A kid? His father is a Death Eater! The Malfoy's are right in Voldemort's inner circle!"

"Yeah?! And my Dad's a Ministry worker, but that doesn't automatically make me one, too!"

"That's not even nearly the same thing and you know it!" he snarled. "Do you even know him at all? He's so unkind- all the time- to everyone! He's a bad person!"

"Well, it sounds like I know him a hell of a lot better than you do, then."

Sam threw his arms up furiously, before spinning back to glare at me. "You always do this!" he shouted. "You find people and you try to fix them, but you can't fix everyone!"

I shot to my feet furiously. "He doesn't need to be fixed! He needs help to stop from breaking!" I shouted back. "Every single person has the potential for both good and bad inside of us- it's our choices that define who we are and who we become! If for your entire life people treat you like shit, then you believe that! Treating him like a Death Eater because of who his father is, or what I heard about him before I met him isn't fair! That's telling him that a Death Eater is all he could ever amount to, and I won't do that! I won't be that person!"

Sam stared at me as I stood before him, breathing heavily, and I couldn't for the life of me identify the look that crossed his face. The silence rang deafeningly between us, until eventually he said quietly "you can't save everyone, Bree. Some people don't want to be saved."

"Well what's wrong with wanting to?" I snapped back, and he shook his head. And without another word, he turned and walked away from me.

My whole body wilted, and I rubbed my forehead tiredly where an ache was beginning to form. "Sam!" I called at his back, but he didn't turn back. "Damn it, Sam!"

I weakly flopped back into my seat, staring at where my brother had retreated. He was furious with me- that much was obvious. I hated fighting with anyone, especially my brothers… but damn it, I was right! I couldn't back down on this. There's good in Draco Malfoy, I see it every day. If only he would show that side to the rest of the world.


The gang all had Friday afternoons free, and so when the weather permitted it our tradition was to meet by the lake to lounge in the sunshine. This was the first week back that the weather wasn't too awfully windy and cold- in fact, it was a beautiful day. Blue sky as far as the eye could see, the sun bright and warm to my skin. Days like today made me happy- they made me feel like a good day was ahead.

I got caught up talking to McGonagall after her class, so I was the last to reach the lake that afternoon. The sight that greeted me was… confusing. The closer I got, the less sense it seemed to make.

Everyone was laid out basking in the rare sunlight, but Lee and Katie were stood together, doing a variety of odd poses.

"Are you… doing yoga?" I asked in disbelief when I finally reached them. Katie glanced up at me, her face partly obscured by her arms raised up to the heavens.

"It's good for our breathing and our stress," Katie said, nodding wisely.

"Oh, yeah, okay, that's cool," I nodded. "But… Lee, why are you doing yoga?"

"Because Katie asked him to," Fred supplied.

"And you agreed?" I clarified, assuming that Katie would have also asked the rest of the people surrounding me to also participate.

"Um, yes, I agreed, because my BFF asked me to do something and as a good friend, I agreed!" he snapped, clearly out of breath as he strained to stay in the one position.

"Yeah, and he didn't know what yoga was and he thought that she was offering him yogurt," Angelina sniggered quietly as I sat down beside her. But before I could laugh- before I could even settle myself on the ground- a scream rang out from the doors of the school I had just exited.

Leaping back to my feet, I spun to face the school to see that there was a crowd formed around the doors.

George appeared at my shoulder as everyone else hurried to their feet. "Did you see anything unusual on your way down here?" he asked me, and I shook my head- I hadn't noticed a thing. I took off at a run towards the Hall, the others close at my heel- my God, what if someone had been hurt?

The scream sounded again, and I clutched my wand tighter- flashes of our DA meetings ran through my head as we reached the school and pushed our way through the flood of students. Fred and George were enormous enough to easily cut a path, but I was not. The first time I was knocked back by someone bigger than me, George's hand threaded through my own to keep me close, and soon we had reached the front of the crowd- my hand relaxed on my wand, but a sudden bout of nausea hit me.

Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the circle of onlookers, her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other- she looked utterly mad. Her hair was sticking on end, her glasses were lopsided, and her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly behind her. She was facing me, with two large trunks lying on the floor beside her, one of them upside down- almost as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her. Professor Trelawney was staring, horrified, at the woman standing a few paces in front of me: Dolores Umbridge.

"No!" she shrieked. "No… this cannot be happening, it cannot… I refuse to accept it!"

Umbridge let out a familiar giggle, and it sounded even crueler than it usually did. "You didn't see this coming?" she repeated in her girlish voice, sounding amused. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have released that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked?"

"You can't!" howled Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here for sixteen years! H-hogwarts is m-my h-home!"

"It was your home," Umbridge corrected, and though I couldn't see her face, I could hear how much enjoyment she was getting from this as Trelawney sank, sobbing, onto one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister for Magic countersigned your Order of Dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from the Hall. You are embarrassing us."

Trelawney let out another loud cry, rocking backwards and forwards on her trunk in paroxysms of grief.

"Oh, God…" I murmured sadly, and George's hand tightened around mine. "Oh, how awful…"

McGonagall broke out of the crowd across from us, hurrying towards Trelawney. She bent beside her, patting her firmly on the back and withdrawing a handkerchief from her robes. "There, there, Sybil… calm down… blow your nose on this… it's not as bad as you think… you're not going to have to leave Hogwarts…"

"Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" Umbridge asked in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forwards. "And your authority for that statement is…?"

"That would be mine."

The deep voice rang out from the open front doors, and students scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore strode towards Trelawney and McGonagall.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" Umbridge repeated with an unpleasant little laugh. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here-" she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robed "-an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister for Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher whom she- that is to say, I- feel is not performing to the standards required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her.

Dumbledore politely smiled at Umbridge, before glancing down at a still sobbing Trelawney. "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds. I am afraid that the power to do that still resides with the Headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts."

At this, Trelawney gave a mad sort of laugh. "No- no, I'll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortunes elsewhere-"

"No," Dumbledore said sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sybil."

He turned to McGonagall and requested that she help Trelawney back upstairs, which she did. Professor Sprout came hurrying forwards out of the crowd and took ahold of Professor Trelawney's arm, helping to guide her back up the marble staircase. Professor Flitwick hurried out of the crowd after them, levitating the trunks still at the base of the stairs to follow them back up to the Divination Tower.

Professor Umbridge was standing completely still, and when she spoke next, her tone was like ice. "And what," she said in a whisper that carried all throughout the silent hall, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't be a problem," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

"You've found-?" Umbridge cried shrilly, "You've found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that Educational Decree Number twenty-two-"

"The Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if- and only if- the Headmaster is unable to find one," Dumbledore interrupted flatly. "And I am happy to say that on this occasion, I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

He turned back to face the open front doors, and we all quickly turned to follow his gaze. Now that there was silence again, I made out the sound of hooves coming towards us. Was the new teacher arriving on a horse?

There were shocked murmurs at the front of the hall, and the crowd pushed backwards to create a path for the newcomer to reach Dumbledore and Umbridge. And what I saw caused my jaw to drop right open.

Our new teacher, technically, I suppose… was a horse.

"Oh sweet Mother Mary," Katie murmured.

Dumbledore's smile widened. "This is Firenze," he announced happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. "I think you'll find him suitable."


Bit of a shorter one here, a few different things happening but they'll all be important a bit later on. Is 5,500 words short or is my opinion just skewed because I keep pumping out such monster chapters? Well, either way, here you go. As always, I hope you're enjoying!