To Stitches: I won't deny Harry does have some angst problems this year and makes some poor decisions, but I love reading it all because I remember back to my teenage years and all the poor decisions I made, many of them just as illogical. As for the Marauders brushing off that testing for the first years, yeah not their best move, but the twins did test them on themselves first and I don't believe they meant any real harm.

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At first they all thought they'd somehow found themselves back in that woman's house. Despite a repeat location never yet happening to them, it would be her ghastly place to do so. Instead, it was just as bad, the pink stain that was her life had just traumatized this room.

The very bricks, doilies, and even this side of the door were now horror matched in a vaguely familiar office, a glance out the window showed the Quidditch stands did have them back at Hogwarts though.

"Moony, this is all your fault!" Sirius moaned, still fighting back the impulse to claw his eyes out with or without magic.

Remus didn't even have the heart to argue the point, if he'd known this was what would happen to the DADA job in such a short amount of time, he may have even risked his own affliction to keep this away. The book, once again, was sitting open and waiting for them, and Remus trudged over to get this started. He wasn't sure if Sirius was joking, but he did feel partially responsible for running from the school now whether Padfoot had meant to inflict that in him or not.

Lupin read out the chapter title to nobody's surprise, but a bit of dread. Despite the casual enough set up, they felt something ominous about a whole detention with Umbridge, and they'd never even officially met her. Potter went behind the desk and began rummaging through it with abandon, while Regulus wandered over to the smaller desk where Harry must have been doing his work, but when he got closer he found a rather odd setup.

There was a long black quill he vaguely recognized seeing in his dad's study. He'd seen his dad signing Ministry documents with it though, and Sirius himself had once warned him never to nick that particular one, so he wasn't sure why Umbridge would leave it lying around near Harry. Next to that was a long sheaf of parchment with the words 'I must not tell lies' written several dozen times, and plenty of room to spare for more, but in red ink with little splashes along the border of the heavy paper, yet a pot wasn't in sight.

Lupin's start of the chapter wasn't very interesting, Hermione having to explain to Harry why the student population was treating him this way. It was just a bit sad none of them had wondered the same, but Frank also realized, no one in here could call Harry crazy considering they'd lived through it with him. If he'd just been an outsider? Maybe...

The trio trying to drop the subject and do homework instead didn't last long, as the twins made a rather public launch of what their first Skiving Snackbox was going to be, on first-years.

The Marauders laughed in delight at the mental image, but the others had some reservations about doing the same until all were told to wake up without any setbacks. It was very impressive magic, they'd all admit to that, but the other four still felt it wasn't right, this being done on first-years. At least the volunteers should have been restricted to those of age like the twins were.

Regulus found himself scrutinizing Lupin instead of the quill he was now holding as Hermione lost her temper on the two and went over in a towering tantrum to tell them off in front of the whole common room. It was quite odd, to hear he'd be doing exactly what that Muggle-born was. It didn't bother him as much as it once would have, and that was even more bizarre.

Then he saw Sirius's lip curling in disgust as Hermione laid down the ultimate threat, threatening to tell their mother. Even Peter looked of the utmost affronted just like the rest of the Marauders. Hermione wasn't even their sibling, but he now saw himself more like the Muggle-born than ever, he'd certainly tell them off when they were being idiots, but he'd never go that far. It occurred to him though when Hermione stormed back to Harry and Ron and the Marauders kept muttering amongst themselves rather than continuing, that they were shooting the four furtive looks for more than just their distaste of the situation.

The Marauders had a lot of secrets, and now the four of them were privy to all of them. Their illegal animagus status, their werewolf, and least importantly, their map. Regulus had never had anything to hide to know that kind of gripping fear. He'd already promised Peter he wouldn't say anything about the map, but had he ever promised the same about the larger two? He didn't exactly like Lupin, but none of them were hurting anyone. He would never get Sirius in that kind of trouble, but he wasn't so sure about the other three.

He cleared his throat and waited patiently until everyone was looking at him before saying adamantly, "don't worry Siri, I've never tattled to mother and I'm not going to start now."

To his utter delight, Sirius grinned at him. It was finally that look he'd missed so often these past years, but it didn't distract him from his goal of watching the other three out of the corner of his eye to gauge their reaction.

Evans just clucked her tongue but pressed her lips together, as much as she'd ever shown on the matter of her silence. Alice was smiling at the display, and he hadn't seen her give any ill will towards anyone to worry about. It was Longbottom though who shifted his weight nervously and may be the problem.

Frank would have protested if anyone asked though. Dumbledore had been the one to invite the werewolf into the school and clearly nothing had, or would happen. He wasn't a snitch, he just didn't exactly want to be constantly in the same room with him. He found that even that was beginning to wear off though, he hadn't even moved behind Alice this time in the large open space of the office they were in this time. He'd been too distracted by the vivid pink on the walls nobody wanted to be next to.

Sirius tensed up like Longbottom had just done the same as Hermione and made to move forward and threaten anything he could to make him keep his mouth shut this instant, but James grabbed his arm before he could start another fight.

"We can't kill him until we're out of here, otherwise the books will stop working," he calmly, but quietly reminded.

Peter laughed, but Remus frowned uneasily at all three of them. James was joking, he knew that much, but there was something about the way he was eyeing the four that made his stomach flutter uncomfortably. What were they going to do when this mess was over, did they really trust them all to keep their silence? Even Snape, who now knew his secret as well, had left them feeling so claustrophobic in that castle lately they hadn't so much as sneezed without permission least he do something.

Did Evans even know that? She definitely hadn't known about him before all this though. It was the one thing James had talked about the previous three weeks, how little she'd been in Snivellus's company. The four of them could not just spend the last two years of their school under the thumb of five people though, or they'd do something drastic. Being in this office was only worsening the matter.

Remus kept going uneasily, seeking any form of distraction, and Hermione definitely offered that when she tried her little trick, free house-elves.

Whatever empathy Regulus had for that Muggle-born moments ago vanished, he looked likely to curse her on the spot. How dare she try and snatch away others house-elves! His mind instantly went to Kreacher and someone trying to force him to be free, it was a bleeding miracle Sirius hadn't done it in the future, and had actually considered the threat he posed to the Order if released.

Lily at least sympathized with the idea, but she still hadn't really looked into the matter like she really wanted to now before she shared any kind of opinion. Theirs were honestly the only noteworthy reactions, everyone else just got a laugh Hermione didn't even seem to realize her idea was useless considering they weren't her elves to be getting rid of and Lupin kept going with a faint smile once more.

The rest of the lessons went by without much notice until Care of Magical Creatures, when Malfoy let hint he thought Hagrid was in the same place they did, with giants. Harry's concerned reaction was understandable, none of them could still picture the grounds without him even though Harry kept mentioning it.

Luna Lovegood at least remained as memorable as ever, marching up to Harry in the middle of all eyes and declaring she believed Harry's side.

Sirius still had a dirigible plum tangled in his hair from his time in the bush, and Remus reached over and plucked it now before handing it to Prongs, who smiled fondly and announced, "I think I'm going to take a subscription to that magazine of hers."

Lily smiled without restraint, it was possibly the kindest gesture she'd ever seen him make. Then he caught her eye and gave the little plum a toss before catching it and asking, "like a pair of these as earrings Evans?"

She couldn't even make herself scowl at him, but didn't respond either, still not encouraging him.

James's heart gave an extra little flutter as she took twice as long before just looking away without a response, and he now pocketed it carefully, that was definitely no longer a joke.

Angelina's, lively, reaction to Harry's detention killed any good mood though, Quidditch tryouts even in this rainy weather would still be leagues better than this office. Even the fireplace crackled with a cold chill.

Harry finally made it to said dreaded detention, and they'd all swear the air just got colder with every word Lupin spoke.

Regulus went back to inspecting the long black feather in his hand in confusion, twisting it this way and that in the light, even as Umbridge herself said Harry wouldn't need ink for this special quill. He didn't get it-

"Hey!" He startled when Sirius lashed out and snagged it away.

Potter was hovering above the desk with his mouth hanging open like he'd only just spotted the long sheaf of parchment.

A dementor could have just appeared in the room, it couldn't get any colder in here and the air itself was draining out of all of them. Regulus stamped his foot in frustration; clearly, everyone older than him was getting something he wasn't.

"That's a Blood Quill," Peter finally answered, reaching over and pulling him farther away from the desk as Potter's face kept draining of yet more blood. "We've heard it mentioned a few times, Ministry employees use it to sign official documents. They're, for one use only, though." He finished haltingly.

Regulus finally put it together there wasn't any ink in the equation when Potter blew up the desk, and the paper that had been there. Frank moved to cover Alice, Remus raised the book as a shield, and Lily put up Protego instinctively, but the others only covered their faces as bits of wood rained down.

Curiosity admittedly flared more than anything though, Regulus was half tempted to take it back and give it a try just for the experience, but then Evans marched over to Sirius and snatched it away from him as well. He raised a brow at her but gave no reaction as she drew her wand, and then the place was raining tiny bits of what was left of the feathers from that as well.

She would have done the same if this had been used on Malfoy though, the injustice of it flaring in her like a flame far brighter than the one in here ever could.

Lupin decided to keep reading before anything else got exploded, like this book. His breath was a bit ragged though, he looked like he was going to be sick, even Peter's hand was still shaking a bit where he was holding onto the back of Regulus's robes like he was prepared to drag him farther away before one of his friends exploded next.

Regulus bit down on the inside of his cheek hard as details began to emerge, and he realized he still hadn't fully grasped the grotesqueness of the situation. Harry was having to carve into the back of his own hand, for hours, the truth Umbridge was forcing him to tell his own flesh was a lie.

By the time Harry left the detention Regulus tasted blood in his mouth from biting down too hard and quickly stopped.

The following week of this merely being repeated every night for Harry felt like some new kind of nightmare. The image of Cedric Diggory's dead body could have appeared in the middle of the room again and it would have made perfect sense. This was so disturbing, none of these teenagers could really imagine it. They'd never had to hear of anything quite like this torture, from a teacher at this school.

What was worse, was Harry doing nothing to stop it.

The shock only broke when the chapter came to an end, and Ron's miraculous Keeper position on the Quidditch team distracted no one.

No matter the differences among the eight of them, they found they could all agree on one thing. This woman needed to leave Hogwarts, now.