Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Six

Back to Hogwarts

The night before everyone was heading back to Hogwarts Ron heard, "Ah, Ronald, do you mind if I have a word with you," it was Mr. Granger. The Grangers were going to be leaving rather soon and Ron had been hoping he would not be hearing Mr. Granger calling him to have a chat.

"Er … sure." Ron had hoped that the Grangers would want to be with Hermione, not that her dad would want to talk to him. Okay, so that was a lie, he had been worried that this might happen since the day the Grangers got there, as the holiday continued Ron had started to hope that the chat just wouldn't happen. Having just beaten Harry at yet another game of chess, Ron stood up and followed Mr. Granger into another room that was free of people.

"You know I've heard Sirius complain about this place for years now, I never would have imagined that Grimmauld Place was so big or nice," Mr. Granger said, "Remus said that they have been working on the decoration and interior a long time and made it much more of a home, though Sirius would never think it was."

"Er … yeah, I guess," Ron said uncomfortably, surely Mr. Granger didn't want to talk to him alone for this reason.

"I see you'd rather I get to the point," he sighed, and Ron had a feeling this wasn't easy for him either, though it was nowhere near has bad it was for him. "I have a feeling that it doesn't really matter one bit how I feel about you, it's not going to change anything."

"I'd rather you not hate me," Ron mumbled, though they had stayed in the same place for weeks, Ron couldn't honestly say he got to know Hermione's dad in the less. Her mum had engaged him in plenty of conversations and after a few minutes he actually found he was comfortable talking back to her.

Mr. Granger's mouth twitched and Ron thought he might be masking a smile but he wasn't sure if that was just wishful thinking. "It wouldn't stop you from dating Hermione though," he then stated bluntly.

"No, it won't," Ron said looking up at him, showing that in this he was confident, though he was still terrified of this conversation. He wasn't kidding that he would like it a lot better if Mr. Granger liked him. "And I don't think it would stop Hermione either."

"Oh, I'm very aware of that," Mr. Granger said darkly looking away from Ron, who now felt bad about adding the last bit.

"Sorry," Ron mumbled.

"That's one of the most annoying thing about all this," Mr. Granger said, "the other being that I have no idea what your intentions with my daughter are."

"Oh?" Ron frowned, and here he thought that was what this conversation was about.

"I've been observing you, and your actions have spoken a lot louder than your word would have," Mr. Granger said. "Especially the fact that she's wearing that sweater of yours …"

Ron couldn't help but think about just how he had gone about giving the sweater to her and quickly looked away, that wasn't something he should be thinking about when he was around Hermione's dad.

"… I'm left to believe that this is a very serious relationship indeed," he concluded and Ron was pretty sure he missed a few things as he thought. Ron nodded his head; he was serious about Hermione after all. Mr. Granger gave a big sigh and then sat down on a chair looking miserable.

"Er … I'm sorry," Ron said unsure what he should say or do.

"And now I'm not even giving the proper fatherly speech," Mr. Granger grumbled to himself, though Ron could still hear him. "It's not terrifying at all."

"No, you're very terrifying, sir," Ron said and Mr. Granger glared at him.

"Don't patronize me," he grumbled.

"Well … you know, up until you sat down, it was," Ron assured him.

"You're a good kid, which only makes this more frustrating," Mr. Granger said. "You do know that even if I'm only a Muggle I'd have to hunt you down if you hurt Hermione."

"Yeah, I know," Ron answered, "But I'm hoping never to hurt her like that."

"Hm," was all Mr. Granger had to say to that.

"Er …" Ron was again, unsure what he was supposed to do or say. "Er … do you want to play chess?"

"Huh?"

"Well, Hermione said you're good at it … and I notice you watching me play some times …" Ron rumbled on before Mr. Granger got up and pat him on the back.

"That sounds like a good idea," he said and the two walked back into the other room.

O

The next morning was filled with the normal panic like energy that occurs any time that everyone had to get ready to go back to Hogwarts, though this time they weren't heading to the King Cross station, they were going to be taking the Knights Bus. That turned out to be an unfortunate thing, because despite getting to Hogwarts a lot quicker, the ride was so bumpy and otherwise disorientated that it wasn't a very pleasant trip at all. Still it was nice to get back to the school.

Sirius had decided to keep walking with the others as they were all heading the same way for a while. It was when they were on the third floor that they heard the shrill cry.

"Black!" they turned to see that Umbridge was marching her way towards them and Sirius took a few steps forward to meet her.

"Yes, can I help you?" Sirius asked, in his too polite voice he liked using with Umbridge, just because it seemed to piss her off more.

"If you think that going to the Board of Governors is going to save your job you have another thing coming to you!" Umbridge said, clearly enraged. So much so, that she was actually showing it instead of coming up with some back handed scheme.

"Perhaps, we'll just have to wait to let them decide that," Sirius said evenly. "Now if you'll excuse …"

"The whole point of the High Inquisitor is that they have the power to decide whether or not a teacher is capable, you really think that the Board will disregard that just because you don't like the decision?"

"Actually if you think about it, you're the one that the Board is looking into, trying to see if you're really competent in your job," Sirius pointed out brutally, but still in his pleasant tone. "So really, you should cherish the time we have left together; because I have a feeling one of us won't have a job here for much longer."

"You've made a grave mistake challenging me like this, Sirius Black!" Umbridge said, her eyes bugging out as she shouted and then turned around and walked away.

"Do you think it was a good idea to say that last part, Sirius?" Hermione asked after everyone got their laughter under control. "Won't that make her try harder to make sure you're fired?"

"Exactly," Sirius said, "and if she's focusing on me, she won't be bothering with other people and whatever it is that she's really up to," he turned to see the others were looking worried, especially Harry and added, "don't worry, I know what I'm doing … mostly."

"Mostly, he says," Harry shook his head as Sirius grinned at him. "And that's supposed to be comforting."

"Yep," Sirius pat him on the back, "and it looks like this is my stop, why don't you kiddies go on up to your common room now."

"Jerk," Harry grumbled, and a few of the others glared at him for treating them like kids, but with Sirius's grin everyone knew it was all in good fun. They said goodbye to him and then continued on their way to the common room.

"Well at least Sirius said that Umbridge can't watch him in his class anymore, so we'll see less of her," Ron said, it had been funny to see Sirius piss her off, but not seeing the toad was much better.

"I'm sure that Umbridge will find a new way to annoy us … or at least me," Harry said. "I wish whatever Sirius is doing would be able to reverse her decision to band us from the Quidditch team."

"Yeah, me too," Ron agreed, "I wonder how long it will take the Governors to make their decision."

"I would imagine that they wouldn't just make their decision, as I'm sure Umbridge will fight back against what Sirius is doing," Hermione pointed out. "Especially, with what Sirius said, he expects things to go farther than they have already gone. He's trying to get her out of her post as High Inquisitor … which is a lot more than just saving his job."

"Yeah, we gathered as much, funny enough," Ron said rolling his eyes at her. "I guess it's pointless for us to think about what's going to happen next, it's up to the Governors and Sirius."

"That's true," Harry said, as he sat down by the fire and the others sat around them, they were the only ones in the common room, the train hadn't got there yet, and apparently those that stayed behind were somewhere else.

"What's on your mind, Harry?" Ginny asked as Harry had been quite for the walk back and seemed to be thinking of something.

"Well, I was just thinking that it might be best if we make plans in case Sirius doesn't win, and he does get fired," Harry said, he looked really grim about admitting that but there was always a chance that would happen.

"Harry you're not supposed to think that way," Fred said. "Sirius is going to be fine."

"I hope so, but that might not be the case," Harry said.

"So what's your plan? Prank Umbridge more than ever?" George asked, but Harry shook his head.

"Nah, I'll leave that to you and Fred," Harry said. "I was thinking more about us making sure that we keep learning about Defense against the Dark Arts."

"What are you talking about?" Ginny questioned.

"Well, if you listen to her comments to Sirius during our lessons it's clear that she doesn't want us learning anything," Harry said. "Remus told me a few days ago that Fudge is afraid that Dumbledore is training us to be his warrior or some bull like that."

"And the others said that Dumbledore couldn't find anyone else that would be willing to take Sirius's job," Hermione remembered, "and there was that decree … the one that would allow the Ministry to appoint the teacher if Dumbledore can't."

Harry nodded his head, "that's what I was thinking. I'm not sure if it would be Umbridge like it would have been at the beginning of the year, but even if it's not, I'd doubt the new professor would teach us anything if Fudge has anything to say in the matter, and I'm sure he would."

There was a lot of groaning and face making at the thought of that, and no one could think of anything to say to argue.

"So yeah, I think we should probably plan on studying things on our own," Harry summed up.

"Hm," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"What?" Harry asked when she didn't say anything but it looked like she was thinking.

"Well, it's just that I don't know if it would help us much if we just study on our own," Hermione said. "I think we've gone beyond that. We'd need someone to teach us."

"Well, of course we do, but it's not like we'll get that with Sirius being gone," Harry said as if that should have been obvious to her.

"I was thinking more about having a tutor of sort," Hermione said.

"Er … so you want to tutor us?" Harry asked her.

Hermione shook her head and her expression turned bitter, "Harry, we both know you're better than me in Defense … you're the best out of all of us."

"What?" Harry said, okay so he did think he was better than Hermione but Fred and George were sitting there too, and they were two years older than him.

"That's a good point," Fred said seriously, "we might know more spells than you, but Defense really isn't our thing. You're a natural at it."

"Okay … I guess," Harry said this conversation wasn't going exactly how he had planned for it to go. "I guess I could sort of try to teach … er … if you think that would be best."

"Well, not if you're going to be all wishy washy about this," George said and Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"Whatever," Harry said, "why don't we talk about something else now?"