There was so, much, pink. Nobody could blame Sirius screeching and covering his eyes or Evans looking like she was hard pressed not to start color changing everything in sight just to give their eye sores a break.

The couch was royal pink with gold embroidery. The carpet was piglet pink and so fluffy you could die on it or mistake it for cotton candy. Even the walls were decked out in a rainbow shade of pink. There were pale pink doilies on every wooden, pink-stained end table, only the book sitting open and waiting with its white and black pages broke the scene. James could barely recall a time it had been so visible, let alone open for them, like it wanted out of here as bad as them.

They appeared to have interrupted some tea party, a hot pink kettle was still smoking and strawberry pink scones were assorted neatly on an orchid pink tray.

"Whoever owns this house must be blind," Alice said slowly, turning carefully on the spot and spotting a hallway leading off to this sitting room. She took a slow, careful step towards it, still remembering Mad-Eye's house and what happened when they'd appeared in there, but nothing attacked her.

Frank followed her every step. They were definitely in some woman's house, an ugly toad-looking person who was in every picture along the hallway shaking hands with assorted people in cherry blossom pink frames. The new DADA teacher, they'd all have to assume judging by the chapter title, though why the Sorting Hat's New Song would be memorable in comparison they found hard to believe.

Peter had to take a piss but honestly feared what the bathroom would look like if this was the sitting room. Regulus was prodding his wand curiously along the scones waiting for something to happen, but finally he snatched one up and popped it into his mouth.

James was reading about Harry's trip up to the school with the same concern as Harry, where was Hagrid? Why was that Grubbly-Plank woman back? It was certainly a much more pressing issue to him than those creepy horse things Harry could suddenly see, but Peter and apparently other students had also been seeing them for years and they didn't seem to hurt anybody so he really was brushing past that, even as Remus was muttering at his side and peeking over his shoulder like he was hoping the book would give a visual.

If Harry's guess was right and he was still out convoying with the giants, then that didn't bode well for his health.

James had everyone's attention now when he announced the rest of the staffing changes going on, the toad-faced woman from Harry's trial being at the staff table.

Their suspicions may have been confirmed, but it cleared up none of their confusion. What was someone from the Ministry doing being a teacher there?! This had never happened as far as they knew, the Ministry didn't interfere in Hogwarts! Had Fudge's tyrannical behavior really come so far so fast?

Peter finally lost the fight with his bladder and took off after Alice Smith and Longbottom into the hallway in search of a bathroom as Prongs began merrily singing the new sorting hat song at the top of his lungs.

The rest of the house was just as ghastly, they really were going to go blind before they got out of here. He spotted the kitchen, with pink tiles and even stained glass pink windows, along with cherry-pink cupboards the other two were going through.

The first door he tried though mercifully led him into what must be her room, a queen-sized bed for such a squat lady with fairy hangings draping it, but his eyes locked on an adjacent door with a pink diamond handle and he went to quickly relieve himself. The toilet hummed a tune he didn't recognize and he loathed the salmon pink hand soap he had to use. Even the ruddy water she'd enchanted came out with the same tinge, it was like a nightmare!

By the time he was done James had read past the students' reaction to the hat's song, which had sounded nothing new to any of them, and the feast had begun. Peter let his eyes trail curiously about the room instead of rejoining them, eyes landing on several things. There was another door leading off to a closet, a jewelry box as large as he was prominently between that door and the bathroom one, and yet more plaques and awards. There seemed to be absolutely nothing about this woman that he did not dislike.

When Dumbledore unequivocally announced that Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic was to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus winced and tried to step behind James. There were theories, and there was confirmation, and his stomach gave a nasty twist at the idea of someone working for the Ministry also a teacher at his school. He wasn't even sure if the Ministry was aware he attended Hogwarts, and he certainly didn't want to find out!

Sirius finally stopped pretending to gouge his eyes out when he saw that and went over, throwing an arm over his shoulder and looking around to spot Evans and Regulus were still in the room. He knew he didn't need to anymore, but he still kept his voice low enough they shouldn't have been able to hear, "relax Moony, nerdy guy like you, they'd be mad to throw you out just because of your furry little problem."

Remus did marginally relax. He only had two years of school left though, what exactly was next for him with the Ministry looming over him was an ever-pressing problem he couldn't ignore much longer.

Lily noticed the exchange but didn't give it much thought, she'd spent far too long ignoring the Marauders to give a care what they still had to whisper about. She'd been tempted to follow Alice and Frank to explore this Umbridge woman's house, but was now glad she hadn't, attention fully on the book now as she listened avidly to the speech she gave, overriding Dumbledore's own.

Regulus watched as Potter got twitchy with boredom trying to read said speech, but he took in every word with an uneasy frown. He watched as Sirius grabbed the wrist of his friend who wasn't reading and pulled him out of the room with a glazed over expression, and the werewolf certainly seemed happy to get as far away as possible from all this. Potter watched them go with a grumpy look like he wanted to bolt from this as well before glancing at the Muggleborn Evans and droning on with his shoulders a little straighter, like bolstering himself to finish was impressive or something.

When he finished though it was pretty obvious he hadn't taken in a word, he had to give himself a shake to even realize he was talking about his own kid again and Hermione's critique of said speech.

Her explanation for it though certainly caught his undivided attention. James frowned to himself as he played the speech over in his head again, even going back and rereading some of it without Hermione's repetition. His skin crawled at the idea, what was the Ministry playing at? No matter how much they didn't like Dumbledore's truth, surely they couldn't do anything too radical, right?

He glanced up and saw the drawn expressions of Sirius's little brother and Evans, and didn't see either of them looking much happier at the idea.

James paused and ran a miserable hand down his face when Harry's two friends went off to their prefect duties and his boy was left alone to stew in the school's attitude about him, and the whole thing continued to grow worse when he made it up to his tower and even his dormmates seemed to be talking about Harry. What he would give to appear at his side like he would for any of his friends, offer a good joke for the laugh needed for that long trek up to the tower. He absolutely did not like this recurring pattern of Harry feeling so alone recently.

He saw Evans twitching out of the corner of his eye, but by the time he looked up she was frowning at him same as ever, or glaring at the book. Either way he grinned at her to let her know he knew she'd been feeling the same way. For a moment he was tempted to try and get her to admit as such, but instead decided he'd do for her what he wanted to for Harry moment's ago. "Don't worry Evans, I'm sure just because that woman dresses like a toad every day they won't enforce that upon the rest of us. The other students will realize that in no time!"

It actually worked for just a moment, she cracked a smile he'd swear it, but then she flicked her fingers at him to keep going and he did with pleasure that only lasted long enough to realize Harry's own dormmates were in fact going to start an actual fight over this. Harry and Seamus were about to draw wands on each other before Ron intervened!

James glanced up and around to find himself once again the lone Marauder in the room, and as he read the last lines of the chapter, he knew exactly how Harry felt.