It's time for Ursa to go back to school where the fun really begins. You can expect a fair few twists and turns to come this year with more changes to come in future years.

Stay of Execution

Returning back to Hogwarts for her sixth year wasn't business as usual for Ursa. Most notably, Hogwarts now had the presence of the Dementors who were searching the grounds for Sirius Black. Word had spread like a wildfire about Harry Potter having a rather unpleasant encounter with one on the Hogwarts Express, which was more than enough for Ursa to know that these beasts meant business and would not be showing mercy to anyone.

Just the mere sight of those foul creatures sent shivers down Ursa's spine, and she wasn't the kind of person who reacted like that to anything. How could anyone look at the Dementors and not react that way? Ursa had never encountered a Dementor before, so she wouldn't know what her worst memory would be, though she could name a few. Like that time in third year when she was humiliated by her boggart which took the form of her father telling her what a disappointment she was. Of course that had to happen the one time Professor Snape took over their Defence class.

To Ursa's surprise, Hagrid had been appointed as the new Professor of Care of Magical Creatures after Professor Kettleburn retired. Although Ursa knew that Hagrid had a way with creatures, Ursa wasn't entirely sure if she trusted him with that kind of position. As for their new Defence professor, Ursa had never heard of him before. Though from what she had heard, he once attended Hogwarts during the first Wizarding War.

As luck would have it, Ursa ended up having Defence as her first lesson back at Hogwarts. Given her past experience with most Defence professors, Ursa wasn't expecting much from Professor Lupin. To her surprise, he proved to be a competent teacher, the first one that she'd had in that class since her first year. It was refreshing to have a teacher that actually seemed to know what they were doing, and Ursa had hopes that she wouldn't be wasting her time in that class like she seemed to every year.

"For once Defence was my favourite class of the day," Tessa remarked as they left their last class of the first day, which was Potions.

"Professor Lupin actually seems to be a competent teacher," Ursa commented. "I heard that he made the Dementor go away that went after Potter on the train."

Tessa giggled, "The boy can handle You-Know-Who but he can't fend off a Dementor? Some Chosen One he is."

"To be fair, not many thirteen-year-olds would be able to create a powerful Patronus to ward off a Dementor," Ursa pointed out.

"Not many babies can defeat Dark Lords," Tessa argued.

"Good point," Tessa shrugged.

The two girls spent the rest of their walk back to the Ravenclaw Common Room talking about their lessons of the day, which almost resulted in a debate about Divination being considered a valid subject. Ursa wasn't particularly a fan of Divination, since it just seemed a like a ridiculous discipline that she had no time for. Plus, Ursa was under the impression that Professor Trelawney was an outright fraud whereas Tessa was one of those students who idolised the woman. Their debate would have continued if Roger hadn't showed up with them, looking particularly upset about something.

"What's bugging you, Rog?" Tessa asked.

"It's just Qudditch," Roger replied.

"Ugh," Ursa groaned. "Leave me out of this discussion."

"You'll never guess what happened, Tessa," Roger said.

"Just tell me," Tessa stated.

"Marcus Flint got held back," Roger scowled, which caught Ursa's attention.

"I thought he was supposed to graduate last year?" Tessa pointed out.

Roger shook his head, "Well, he was. But you know what people said about him being as dumb as a troll. He failed his NEWTs and now he has to repeat his seventh year."

"Wow. You'd have to be pretty stupid to fail your NEWTs. I heard that he barely passed his OWLs, too," Tessa said.

"He might be stupid, but he's damn good at cheating when it comes to Quidditch. Just when I was thinking that maybe we'd be in with a chance this year without their cheating captain, it turns out he's still here," Roger ranted.

"Well, Slytherin have never really had a good track record of playing a fair game, so I doubt that their cheating methods would have stopped with Flint gone," Ursa reasoned.

"They would've been more manageable without him. You've seen him out there, Tessa. The guy's vicious. You know he's sent me to the Hospital Wing at least three times!" Roger exclaimed.

"Well then, you'll just have to learn to be equally vicious," Tessa suggested.

"No way," Roger shook his head. "I'd rather get sent to the Hospital Wing by Flint than face Snape's wrath for injuring one of his precious snakes. You know how much he favours them."

"So does every Head of House," Ursa pointed out. "Snape might be obvious with his favouritism, but at least he doesn't try to hide it. It's clear that Flitwick favours us Ravenclaws while Sprout favours the Hufflepuffs. McGonagall is clearly fond of that little Golden Trio. Merlin, even Dumbledore favours the Gryffindors."

"I'm not sure what I dislike more, the Gryffindors getting all of the attention now because Potter is amongst them, or Slytherin winning everything," Tessa grumbled. "Why can't Ravenclaw get some attention?"

"Hey, you have me," Ursa pointed out.

"True, I guess we are noted for having the first ever Malfoy in our house," Tessa agreed as they approached the Ravenclaw Tower guard.

"The more you take, the more you leave behind," the guard stated.

"Why can't these things ever be easy?" Tessa muttered.

"Footsteps," Ursa answered, and the door swung open to let them in.

"What would I do without you?" Tessa remarked.

"Be locked outside the Common Room as you tried and failed to answer the riddle," Ursa said.

"That's probably right," Tessa agreed.

Unlike the other Common Rooms, the password to Ravenclaw Tower changed every day and over the course of her six years in Ravenclaw, Ursa had never gotten the riddle wrong whereas Tessa had never answered it correctly.

"So, what do you want to do now?" Tessa asked once they entered their dorm.

"I'm going to get my stuff settled for the year and plan my study schedule," Ursa replied.

"Don't you do that beforehand?" Tessa wondered.

"We don't get our subject schedule until we arrive. There's no point in planning my study schedule beforehand if I don't know when my availability is," Ursa said.

"Fair enough," Tessa shrugged. "You wanna look over muggle magazines with me tonight so we can mock their outrageous fashion choices?"

Ursa shook her head, "No can do. I've got my first Prefect patrols tonight. Maybe tomorrow."

Tessa grimaced, "Ugh, I can't believe I ever wanted to be a Prefect. The authority would be nice, but having to put up with Percy Weasley as Head Boy? Not my cup of tea."

"He's not that bad," Ursa argued.

"He's a total swot, not to mention, an obnoxious swot," Tessa pointed out.

"Well, you can head off to dinner without me. I think I'll stay up here, but I wouldn't mind it if you brought me back something," Ursa said.

"Alright," Tessa conceded before she eventually left for dinner.

Being the keener that she is, Ursa always prepared a study schedule first thing when she arrived at Hogwarts. Organisation was certainly one of her habits, and Ursa always loved being prepared for anything. If nobody had a plan, she certainly did and Ursa would definitely have her own plan for the year ahead.

~*•°•*~

When the time came, Ursa headed off to take her first Prefect patrol of the year. Her patrol partner was fellow Ravenclaw prefect Marcellus Chopin, who she always met up with before they went their separate ways to patrol the hallways. After their initial greeting, Ursa headed off to perform her duties on her own, though she didn't exactly have just her Prefect duties on her mind.

Of course Ursa was thinking about the lessons that she'd had for the first Thursday back, which were Defence, Charms, Arithmancy and double Transfiguration. Her schedule for her sixth year was pretty packed, since Ursa only had three free spots, with only one during the day and two that were in the evening. Ursa had opted out of taking History of Magic for her sixth year, since Binns was easily her least favourite professor and she found no use of taking the subject anymore. Instead, Ursa dropped it for Ancient Studies, which was one of the possible sixth year electives like Alchemy. She'd wanted to take Alchemy too, but Ursa was apparently the only sixth year who would have been eligible to take it with her grades.

But then Ursa found her mind drifting to Marcus Flint. Despite knowing that he wasn't exactly the brightest student and witnessing his stupidity firsthand, Ursa didn't actually think that he'd end up repeating his seventh year. It gave her an overwhelming sense of dread, and not because she still had a grudge against him or anything. It was because over the summer, her father had increased his insistence on Ursa pursuing a marriage, with Marcus Flint being one of the prime candidates.

"You should be considering marriage, Ursa. You have just two years left of school. Your mother and I were already betrothed by the time she left Hogwarts."

"There are plenty of potential candidates for you at Hogwarts. It doesn't even have to be someone your own age. There's Marcus Flint, for example."

Just the thought of entering an arranged marriage made Ursa sick, and no matter how hard her father tried, Ursa was going to do whatever she could to resist his attempts at setting her up. If Ursa was going to get married, she wanted it to be for love, not blood purity. And even though Ursa was slightly more tolerable towards Marcus Flint after their first encounter, she would prefer to not have to marry him.

As if fate was reading her mind, Ursa suddenly heard what sounded like spellcasting. There was a lot of rumbling noises and ruckus going on while Ursa could faintly hear someone spitting out incantations. Knowing that it would have to be a student wandering around after hours, Ursa braced herself for whatever she would end up seeing, only to end up finding Marcus Flint in the middle of what looked like a meltdown.

"Reducto! Reducto! Reducto! Reducto! Reducto! REDUCTO! REDUCTO! REDUCTO! RE-FUCKING-DUCTO!" Marcus roared, only to get a less than desired result

Ursa cleared her throat, "Well, aren't you a sight for sorry eyes."

Marcus turned to glare at her, "Bugger off, Malfoy. Can't you see that I'm busy?"

"I thought that you'd be off with some Quidditch league by now," Ursa stated.

"I should be," Marcus scowled. "But I'm sure that you know by now that I was a fucking dumbass and failed my NEWTs so now I have to repeat my fucking seventh year."

"How could you have failed your NEWTs?" Ursa wondered, genuinely curious.

"Because I'm a fucking dumbass!" Marcus snapped. "I didn't pass a single class, not even that load of shite Divination or Herbology. Divination is just making shit up and Herbology is just about planting stupid plants. How could I have failed that bullshit?"

"You tell me," Ursa said.

"Don't test me, Malfoy," Marcus snarled.

"So, they're just gonna hold you back?" Ursa asked.

"They already did!" Marcus yelled. "My fucking parents were less than pleased. My father reckons that I'm an embarrassment to the family because I'm a rubbish wizard and shit at everything."

"You're not shit at everything. You're great at Quidditch, and cheating at Quidditch," Ursa argued.

Marcus scoffed, "Like that's doing me any good. My father wants me to get some crap job at the Ministry, since he thinks that Quidditch is just a waste of time. He says that it's a miracle that I'm even good at anything."

"Well, that's something we both have in common," Ursa stated.

"Huh?" Marcus said.

"My father does not support my personal ambitions and wishes me to obtain a job at the Ministry. He's also been pushing the idea of marriage on me, and has even suggesting setting up a few meetings. It might interest you to know that you're one of the few candidates," Ursa explained.

"Marriage? Nah," Marcus grimaced. "No offence, Malfoy, but I'd rather have some lowly job at the Ministry than be married to you."

"Um, none taken," Ursa chuckled. "Besides, I would prefer to marry someone who likes me more than they like Quidditch."

"Like that would ever happen," Marcus remarked, earning a glare from Ursa. "I mean, me loving anything more than Quidditch. Quidditch is everything, and everyone else is nothing."

"You would need to find someone who shares your equally obsessive love for Quidditch," Ursa suggested before someone came to mind. "Like Oliver Wood, for example."

Marcus looked like he was about to explode, "Are you suggesting that I should shag Wood?"

"I have heard good things about his physique," Ursa commented. "Not to mention, the sexual tension between you two is always off the charts. Half of the time I don't know if one of you is gonna punch or snog the other. Not to mention, that weird thing you do before every Quidditch game when you try to crush each other's hands as hard as possible. It's like you're trying to hold hands for as long as possible."

"Punch. Always punch. The only feelings that I have towards Wood are burning and intense rage as well as the passionate desire to crush him in the Quidditch Cup," Marcus insisted.

"Sure," Ursa scoffed as she sat down next to Marcus. "What do you plan on doing to pass your classes now?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? Studying," Marcus grimaced. "I can't believe that I have to waste time studying when I could be focusing on destroying Wood in Quidditch. I should consider myself lucky that Snape didn't revoke my captaincy for being a pathetic Slytherin."

"Well, studying has always been a useful thing for me since it helps me remember everything I need to know so that come exam time, I am not panicking and forgetting everything," Ursa said.

"Well, I never really got the hang of it," Marcus remarked.

"Have you even tried studying before?" Ursa wondered.

"One time, before my OWLs. But I got frustrated and ended up setting my textbooks on fire. It got me good at Incendio," Marcus replied.

"Well, just so you know, my offer to help you from last year still stands, if you want it," Ursa stated.

"I still think that the idea of being tutored by someone two years below me is humiliating," Marcus grumbled.

"Would you rather fail your N.E.W.T.s again and stay at Hogwarts forever?" Ursa asked.

"At least I'd get to play Quidditch forever," Marcus argued. "And for the love of Merlin, call them NEWTs like every other normal person does."

"Do you want my help or not?" Ursa asked with her arms crossed. "I can't promise that I'll make you into a genius overnight, but I should be able to help you achieve a passing grade in all of your subjects."

"Fine, I'll accept your help," Marcus snapped.

"Wonderful," Ursa grinned. "I am available Tuesday and Thursday nights and you will be able to find me early in the library almost every day, not to mention on the weekends as well. Though, if we are to make this arrangement official, I do have one condition."

"What?" Marcus groaned.

"You're gonna have to learn to call me by my first name because calling people by their last names is just petty and childish," Ursa stated.

"Fine… Ursa," Marcus muttered. "Your brother certainly doesn't agree with you on that."

"Draco and I disagree more than we agree," Ursa commented.

"You probably disagree with what he's done now then," Marcus remarked.

Ursa narrowed her eyes, "What has he done?"

"Apparently, during their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson with that miserable oaf, they were doing Hippogriffs and Potter managed to get a ride from one so your brother naturally wanted to one-up him and insulted the Hippogriff so it attacked him," Marcus explained.

"It attacked Draco?" Ursa gasped.

"You hadn't heard what happened?" Marcus clarified.

Ursa shook her head, "No, I didn't bother going to dinner because I wanted to plan my study schedule. I haven't really spoken to anyone since the end of my last lesson."

"Oh, well the bird just knocked him down and I think he's got a scratch on his arm so he's in the Hospital Wing now," Marcus said.

"No doubt he's going to milk this to his advantage," Ursa muttered.

"Though, it could be advantageous to the Slytherin Quidditch team," Marcus commented.

"How?" Ursa wondered.

"All in good time, Ursa," Marcus smirked.

"I'm assuming that is not a smirk for a good reason," Ursa remarked. "Anyways, I better be off to continue the rest of my patrols and you should head back to the Slytherin dungeons."

"You're gonna punish me for being out after hours, aren't you?' Marcus muttered.

"I think I'll let this slide because it was for academic purposes," Ursa stated. "But I don't think that Chopin will be so nice if he catches you."

"Noted," Marcus nodded. "Well, I guess this is it until our first spontaneous study session."

"If you don't find me on the weekend, I will find you," Ursa insisted.

With an agreement made, Ursa and Marcus went their separate ways as Ursa headed off to continue the rest of her Prefect patrols. Though now she had something else on her mind, because if Draco did get hurt by Hagrid's Hippogriff then Ursa knew that her father or Draco wouldn't rest until some kind of retribution was made, which wasn't a good thought at all.

~*•°•*~

On Friday evening after her first Ancient Studies lesson, Ursa was joined by Hermione in the library. Ursa knew that she'd be able to get the full story of what happened to Draco from Hermione, since although Ursa had gone to the Hospital Wing to visit her brother on Friday morning, Draco had refused to see her. So when Hermione approached her in their regular meeting spot at the library, Ursa was glad to see her.

"Why is it that the first time we see each other in the school year, there is always something to talk about?" Ursa remarked as Hermione approached her.

"I've come to expect nothing else from Hogwarts," Hermione sighed.

"So, what's this about Draco getting on the wrong side of a Hippogriff?" Ursa wondered.

"Well, it was our first Care of Magical Creatures lesson and Hagrid had showed us a Hippogriff. Everyone else was too afraid to face it, so of course Harry ended up being the first to give it ago. As luck would have it, Buckbeak was quite happy to let Harry take him for a ride. But of course your brother wanted to one-up him, only to insult Buckbeak after Hagrid had clearly said not to," Hermione explained.

"Idiot," Ursa muttered.

"So, naturally, Buckbeak attacked your brother and he made a scene like he was gravely injured while Hagrid took him to the Hospital Wing," Hermione finished.

"I know I should probably have more sympathy for my brother, but he was asking for it," Ursa remarked.

"Stuff sympathy when he's going to get Hagrid in trouble," Hermione scowled.

"Well, to be fair, Hagrid shouldn't have started off a lesson with third years on Hippogriffs. I didn't learn about Hippogriffs until last year," Ursa pointed out.

"Hagrid realises that, but he just wanted to have a special first lesson because he felt like he had to impress," Hermione reasoned.

"I'm not even sure if Hagrid was the best choice to take over from Kettleburn. While I completely get that Hagrid was framed which lead to his expulsion, he didn't even complete an education. How can someone who didn't even finish their education be able to teach a class?" Ursa argued.

"Who's side are you on?" Hermione crossed her arms.

"I'm on Buckbeak's side. I'm just pointing out the obvious flaws in Hagrid's lesson plan and credibility," Ursa said.

"Nobody knows creatures like Hagrid does," Hermione protested.

"Which is what will exactly be argued against him. If my father takes this somewhere else – which he probably will – my father will use Hagrid's track record of hoarding dangerous creatures to impugn his credibility. He will argue that Hagrid should have known better than to have a creature like Buckbeak with students in their first Creatures lesson," Ursa explained.

"Do you really think that your father would do that?" Hermione whispered.

"Considering how much my father cares for Draco, he probably will. One time, we were out in Diagon Alley when this worker completely ruined one of my mothers favourite dresses. Naturally, my father ensured that the worker was never able to work another day again and closed down their business," Ursa said.

Hermione gasped, "You seriously think that your father will try to get Hagrid fired?"

"He most likely will," Ursa nodded. "Draco will definitely want to have Hagrid lose his job, so he will try his best to make father achieve that."

"That would be so wrong. Hagrid doesn't deserve to be fired! Ursa, you have to do something!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Minnie, you should know by now that my father takes my word like a grain of salt. He won't listen to what I have to argue. He'll listen to the House Elves before he'll listen to me," Ursa said.

"You said it yourself; your father will try to do something to ruin Hagrid's life and hurt Buckbeak as well. You cannot let that happen," Hermione pleaded.

Ursa sighed, "I suppose that I will try my best to reason with my father. However, the chances of him actually listening to me are slim to none, so do not get your hopes up."

"But you'll try?" Hermione clarified.

"I will," Ursa stated.

Despite her promise reassuring Hermione, Ursa doubted that she would be able to fulfill that promise when it came to shove. Because as everyone would know, if you messed with the Malfoy's, then you'd get Lucius Malfoy and he certainly wasn't someone that you'd want to have on your bad side.

And so here we have the opening conflict for the PoA, which was to be expected. As if Ursa was ever going to stand by and let her father execute Buckbeak. This is only the beginning of a series of events that will take place over the year. Fun fact: I actually designed a schedule for Ursa to have so that I didn't get confused with her long list of lessons, even though I did end up confusing myself on what day she would've actually started her lessons after coming back.