Getting back to school was bad enough with Umbridge on the prowl. It became worse when the news hit that there had been a mass breakout at Azkaban, ten Death Eaters having escaped and the person believed to be responsible was none other than Sirius Black – my dad. It was worse than ever before now, the whispering and the staring. Not even the twins made a joke about it this time. Several people, mostly relatives of the victims of the Death Eaters, would come up to me angrily and demand to know if I was happy with what my father had done, somehow getting it into their heads that I was the one to blame for it all.
For once, I didn't get angry. I stood there and I took it, because I could understand that they were terrified. Terrified of the fact that there were ten more Death Eaters on the loose in the wizarding world now, and terrified of the quiet notion that perhaps – just perhaps – Harry and I had been telling the truth before about Voldemort, and here was the evidence that the Ministry of Magic were desperately trying to cover up. I didn't stray far from the twins these days, and they seemed to take it upon themselves to be close by to make sure no one got too nasty with me.
Quidditch practice wasn't the same either, I couldn't find the fun in it as I was weighed down with so many other worries, though Ginny was doing really well as a seeker. In fact, I even let her use my broom. She'd stared at me when I'd told her to switch, looking at me like I'd gone mad. "The game only ends when you catch the snitch, and for that you'll need to be fast. Faster than all the rest of us, so take my broom and practice. It takes some getting used to." Ginny was delighted at the prospect of borrowing my room, and although it felt odd at first to be on a much slower broom, it did make the difference to Ginny's ability to catch the snitch much quicker than before.
With everything condensing down on us, I often found myself with the twins sitting somewhere quiet and private. Today we were sitting on a wall overlooking the grounds, my head on George's shoulder as we talked. "I think we should leave soon." George announced so I opened my eyes from where I had been dozing. "Not much point in staying, is there?"
"No, not with things are going downhill here. It won't be long before Umbridge catches onto what we're doing and either confiscates all our stuff or expels us. Might as well go out with a bang." Fred agreed before looking at me. "What do you think, Mia?"
"I can't leave Harry and the others here alone. Besides, I'm Head Girl. Who else is going to stand up for the students with Umbridge on the warpath? Let's just hope the curse gets her and she's only here for the year, then I can leave in peace." I murmured, shuddering at the thought of leaving Harry and everyone else to deal with that demon woman. "But I agree, you should go. There's nothing here that you need, you've already got your shop and your merchandise, it's all going to sell brilliantly. Once I'm done with my exams, I'll come over and help you set up more…I'm thinking we should have a witchy section of feminine products to appeal to different audiences. Ginny reckons those miniature animals will sell off quick too, especially if they come in different colours and breeds like the dragons and Hippogriffs."
"We'll get on it, they did seem popular when we showed off those prototypes in the common room. Even Hermione seemed impressed." George noted so I smiled softly to myself.
"I'm going to miss you guys. We've spent more or less the last seven years together without much of a break in between. It'll be weird not having you around."
"You sure you'd be alright if we went, Mia? We'd stay for you if you wanted." Chuckling, I sat up in order to kiss them both gently on the cheek before I then placed my hands over theirs, holding them as the three of us sat together overlooking the forest and the lake. I'd never get tired of this view.
"I'll manage. I'm a tough nut, after all." I promised them and they smiled, kissed my cheek too before also turning to look at the scenery. "It's all changing, isn't it? Nothing's ever going to be the same again."
"No, it won't." Fred agreed, a sombreness coming over us. "But we'll get through it. If we can survive Filch for seven years, we can survive anything."
"Exactly. What's the outside world got that we haven't already dealt with in here?" George agreed so I arched an eyebrow.
"About a thousand more Umbridges?" Their faced dropped, making me laugh. It seemed it had been decided, the twins would soon leave, but before they went, I was going to help them create the greatest send off in the history of Hogwarts. It was time for the Night Owl to return. We planned in secret and in the meantime, carried on as normal so that no one else would be aware of what was going on in our heads. I checked in on Harry every so often. His occlumency lessons were going poorly, but I couldn't really help there since I didn't know how it worked either, however when he mentioned about Cho Chang and the failed Valentine's date, I laughed. Harry scowled at me as we both sat on the common room floor with books and parchment piled around us, me helping him with his homework whilst also doing my own. "Hermione's right, you went about it entirely the wrong way Harry."
"What do you mean though? If she wanted to know how much I liked her, then she should have just asked! Besides, Hermione's my friend, Cho's the one I asked out." He told me grumpily as I slowly recovered from my laughing, wiping away a tear.
"How's Cho's supposed to know what's up in your head, Harry? She doesn't know that you only think of Hermione as a friend because she's insecure and was probably even a little ticked off that you agreed to go see Hermione in the middle of your date. Not that it wasn't important, I'm glad you went so that you could have that interview." I quickly added as he opened his mouth to retort. "It's about time people knew what happened back then. Anyway, do you want to fix things with Cho? If you do then I'll help. A girl's insight can be invaluable." Harry thought about it for a while but then shook his head.
"No, thanks. I think I'll leave it for a while. She's a little…dramatic…for me. I'll see if she calms down and wants to talk about it later." Giving him a look, I smiled to myself knowingly. The girl won't normally make the first move, so that's a rookie mistake on Harry's part. In any case, I'm rather glad he wasn't as interested in Cho anymore. She wasn't good enough for him, in my opinion anyway. She had been dating Cedric Diggory last year but then dumped him during the summer and now, apparently had her eye fixed on Harry. Another person who was secretly pleased that things weren't going well between Harry and Cho was Ginny, though she kept it masterfully hidden. I teased her about it lightly whenever I could, asking her why she was bothering dating someone else when she clearly still had feelings for Harry but she'd just blush and refuse to answer.
In any case, soon we had no time for talking at all. Angelina was drilling us hard on the pitch, but it didn't do us a great deal of good in our game. No one's heart was really in it and Gryffindor were flattened, though thanks to Ginny we managed to scrape back a little of our dignity and lose by only ten points. It was a nightmare, everyone returning disappointed, but none more so than Ron. I tried to cheer him up but nothing seemed to be working, so I just left him to mope in misery, but soon, something did happen that put everyone in a better mood.
Harry's interview was published. Before we knew it, Harry was being sent letters from across the country from different witches and wizards, and some were even addressed to me as well. Fred and George helped me with mine as Ron and Hermione helped Harry with his. "Why am I getting mail? What did you say Harry?" I frowned in confusion so he shrugged.
"Well you were there weren't you? I talked about you. Said it was your story as much as mine." Oh joy. I was somewhat dreading all this, having gone through it before when Rita Skeeter wrote about my dad being confirmed to be Sirius Black, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Most of the mail addressed to me were believers, saying that I had proven myself to be a cut from a different cloth, which must mean they thought I was different to my dad. I'd stew about that later. Harry's was more of a mixture, though so far we hadn't found any nasty surprises in any of them, but then the cheerful attitude we'd developed as we read people telling us that they believed us was cut short by Umbridge appearing.
When she asked what was going on, we all glowered at her as Harry answered her honestly, though probably a bit stupidly. When she found out about the interview, she practically turned purple in the face and confiscated all the letters as well as the magazine The Quibbler as that had been where Skeeter's article had been published. Harry got detention for another week and fifty points deduction from our house, which had made me stand up in outrage. "You can't give Harry detention for speaking his mind and reading letters, you odious little toad-faced hag!" Several gasps sounded up and down the hall and I immediately clamped my mouth shut. I'd really put my foot in it this time.
"Detention." Umbridge barely managed to gasp the word out for her anger, striding away out of the hall probably to contact the minister as I slowly sat down.
"I'm going to be in detention for the rest of my life, aren't I?" I questioned allowed with the twins promptly answering together.
"Most likely."
"Huh…worth it though." They grinned.
"Definitely."