"Tell you what," Harriet said, trying to sound as if she was unbothered at what was written in Percy's letter, "If you kiss up to Umbridge in front of the entire school, I won't become -what was it? Oh, right- unbalanced, I promise."

"Give me that!" Ron snatched the letter away from her and tore it to pieces, then threw them in the fire. "That's what I think about his words." They started on their homework, Percy's letter completely forgotten for two-thirds of the trio. It was approaching midnight when Harriet caught a glimpse of a face in the fire. A moment later, Sirius's face reappeared. "There you guys are! I've been checking the Floo each hour to see if you were there! I think one girl saw me, but she looked confused-I think I'm safe."

A warm feeling took over Harriet; Sirius had risked so much just to talk to her. She scooched closer to the fireplace, her work completely forgotten. She wished that she could just reach out and give her Godfather a hug. He observed the three of them silently, saving Harriet for last. He looked at her as if she was the only person in the world who mattered to him. He looked as if he were proud of her. His eyes softened and crinkles around the sides of his eyes appeared. He smirked, but it wasn't a harsh smirk-more a soft smirk. "You look well, Prongslet."

"Thanks, Padfoot," she said, glowing. "Right back at ya."

"Sirius, you're taking quite a risk-" Hermione started

Sirius rolled his eyes, "You're starting to sound an awful lot like Molly, Hermione. This was the only way I could think of to respond to Harry's letter. Sending an Owl would be too risky."

"And this isn't? And-you," she looked disapprovingly at Harriet, "You told me you weren't going to send that letter!"

"I, er, forgot?" Harriet was a shite liar. She wasn't going to apologize for reaching out to her own Godfather, however.

"Anyways, about your scar. You shouldn't worry about it too much. It hurt a lot last year too, right?"

"Well, yeah, but it's gotten better this year so far. And, it happened right as I touched Umbridge!"

"Probably just a coincidence, Prongslet. Believe me, Umbridge is no Death Eater. She may be fucked up enough to be one, but the world isn't split up between good people and Death Eaters."

"You know her?" Harriet didn't want to think about what exactly that meant.

Sirius seemed to understand since he looked horrified, "No! I only know her by reputation, I assure you. She made a bunch of Werewolf Registration Laws, you know. She hates anything that's not wholly human. Like merpeople, centaurs, and house-elves. Though," Sirius added thoughtfully, "had she persecuted Kreacher, I wouldn't be complaining." Harriet and Ron laughed while Hermione looked upset. "Sirius, if you were only nicer to him-"

"Anyways," Sirius acted as if Hermione hadn't spoken, "Is she training you to kill half-breeds? Making you 'Umbridge's Army?'" Harriet noticed Hermione looking away, looking rather affronted.

"Pfft, I wish. At least we'd be learning defence then," Ron said.

With a scowl, Hermione explained, "She's not having us use any sort of magic. Only theory from an outdated, biased book."

"Ah, I see. She, along with the ministry, thinks that Dumbledore's raising some sort of army against them. It's only a matter of time before they arrest him."

Hermione caught on to what he was meaning, "So their logic is that if they stop us from learning how to fight, we won't be able to fight the ministry?"

Harriet scoffed, "I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be fighting Voldemort rather than the Ministry."

Sirius beamed, "That's my girl. Anyways, when's your next Hogsmeade weekend? I thought I could-"

"No!" The three of them shouted in unison.

"Didn't you see the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked, "They've been trying to find you-"

"But they never have, have they?" Sirius pointed out proudly, puffing out his chest as if it were some sort of achievement. Just thinking of him being caught made Harriet feel anxious. "Sirius, it's too dangerous."

"Fine, fine," Sirius said, looking most displeased, "I just thought that you might like to catch up in person. Forget it."

"I don't want them to catch you and put you back in Azkaban!" Why couldn't he understand that she couldn't lose him? "You know," he cooly said, "You're much less like your father than I thought." Her heart sunk. "He would have done it for the risk of it. I've got to go, I hear Kreacher-"

"Wait!" Harriet called desperately. "Guys, could you please leave? I want to talk to my Godfather alone."

"Sure, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. 'Night." Looking back to make sure they were gone, she turned back to the fire. Luckily Sirius hadn't left already. She took a deep breath and said, "Our next Hogsmeade Weekend is October 5th. I'll meet you in the Shrieking Shack?"

Sirius grinned, "I'll be there. There's no point to life without a little risk here and there, Harry."

She put on a smile, "Yeah. I gotta go. I'll talk to you later?"

"Of course. 'Night, Prongslet." She watched as the fire disappeared. She felt sick.

Harriet glared at Snape's back, trying to not blush. She slipped her graded essay into her book bag so that Hermione wouldn't see that she was the person Snape was alluding to. "Instructions are on the board, begin." Harriet was determined to not give Snape a reason to fail her. So, she gathered her ingredients in an organized manner on her desk, re-read the directions at least three times before doing them, and vialed it very carefully. Her potion was nearly as good as Hermione's! She stoppered the vial and delivered it to Snape with a smirk. He observed the potion for a while before reluctantly assigning her an 'Exceeding Expectations.'

The bell dismissed them for lunch, where The Weasley twins, Lee Jordan, and Ron and Hermione discussed the new grading system. Apparently, a 'D' wasn't the worst score one could get. A 'T' was. That made Harriet feel so much better. She shuffled awkwardly, praying to whatever Gods were out there that her friends didn't find out that it was she who scored that 'D.' She just wanted the conversation to move on from something other than grades.

Finally, the conversation moved on to Umbridge's inspections. The Twins were saying that Flitwick's inspection went easy, with Umbridge lurking in the corner.

"You've been quiet, Harry, is everything okay?" Ron asked, avoiding looking at Hermione, who was laughing at something Fred said. "I'm fine. You?" He scowled and stuffed another roll in his mouth. That was the end of that.

Harriet snorted when Trelawney predicted grave danger in Umbridge's future. "Cross my fingers," Ron was saying. The toad's face turned purple as she scribbled something on her clipboard. She made a disappointed 'tsk' noise and made rounds around the classroom, interviewing the students. Ron and Harriet exchanged looks. They knew this didn't look well for Trelawney. Neither of them had particularly strong feelings for the eccentric Divinations Professor, but they both equally hated Umbridge. "So, Harry, what did you dream of?" Ron lowered his voice, "In case she comes to us."

Harry smirked uglily, "Umbridge on a date with the Great Squid. Spoiler alert: she drowns at the end."

Harriet was fuming. First, she gets more detention from Umbridge, then McGonagall takes points away for getting detention-never mind that she was literally paying for it with her blood, and then Hermione all but sides with McGonagall.

The fact that McGonagall talked back to Umbridge didn't hold well for Harriet's anger with her. The hypocrisy! Ron, however, seemed to have completely forgiven their Head of House. It was, Harriet could admit, a little satisfying watching McGonagall put Umbridge in her place, despite her anger at the witch.

The satisfaction completely eviscerated at another night of detention with Umbridge earned in Care of Magical Creatures class. Oh, how Harriet missed Hagrid.

She left detention that night with her hand bleeding through the scarf she had it wrapped in. "Oh my goodness, Harry, how did that happen?" Hermione fretted.

"Umbridge."

Her brows furrowed, "Umbri- Harry, what the hell did she do?" It was a rare occasion in which Hermione swore. Harriet filled Hermione in on her detentions with Umbridge, mentally kicking herself. She was surprised when Hermione didn't get mad at her, instead being furious with Umbridge. "I'll be back," Hermione said. She returned with a bowl filled with some yellow solution that reeked. "Soak your hand in that. It's a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles, it should help." Following her directions, she moaned as she felt relief.

"I hate her," Harriet said. She closed her eyes and rested against the back of the couch.

"You know," Hermione started shyly, "Ron and I were talking-"

"She was talking, I was listening," Ron corrected.

Hermione glared at him but continued, "We need to do something about Umbridge."

"That's clear," Harriet said, "I suggest murder."

"I second that. Poison, maybe, it's cleaner," said Ron.

"And you, Hermione, can break us out!"

"Sounds like a plan," Ron high-fived Harriet.

"Or, " Hermione suggested, "We could teach ourselves defence."

"Come on, you want us to do extra school? No way! Harry and I are already way behind and school barely started!"

"I agree with Ron. We don't have the time," Harriet said.

"But this is much more important than school!"

Ron dramatically slapped his hand on his chest, "I thought nothing was more important than school?" He grinned sloppily at her and she blushed.

"Well, I've got my priorities straight now." Her face was filled with the same passion that it wore when she talked about S.P.E.W. Harriet knew that this was an uphill battle. "We need to defend ourselves, as Harry said in our first lesson!"

"Fine, we can look up spells in books, but I don't see-"

"You're absolutely right. Which is why we have a teacher!"

"And who exactly could teach us?" Harriet asked. The only person who came to mind was Lupin, but he was far too busy with the Order and even then, sneaking out of school or having him sneaking into school was way too dangerous. And, that was even if he agreed to it in the first place. Agreeing to it sounded like something Sirius, rather than Lupin, would do.

Hermione sighed, wringing her hands. "You, Harry."

"Me?" She said, thinking she was pulling one over her. "Come on, Ron, tell her how much of a bad idea this is!"

To Harriet's dismay, Ron didn't seem to be exasperated. "That's actually a good idea."

"A good- I'm not a good teacher! Why can't Hermione do it? She's way better at this than I am!"

"I'm not," Hermione cooly informed, "You did better than me in third year when we had a teacher than actually knew what he was speaking about. And more than that, look at everything you've done!"

"Done? Done what?"

"I don't know," Ron started sarcastically, "didn't you save a stone from You-Know-Who your first year?"

"That was just luck!"

"Then second year, was it not a basilisk you slew?"

"If not for Fawkes, I would have died!"

"Then third year, did you not fight about 100 dementors?"

"Come on-"

Ron continued, almost shouting now, "Last year, was it not you who faced You-Know-Who and survived? Again?"

"Listen!" Harriet yelled, "It sounds all great and heroic when you say it, but it wasn't glamorous at all! I didn't know what the Hell I was doing, okay? I got lucky and somehow I'm still alive. I didn't think I just did! I didn't know the spells, none of it was because I'm good at Defense! STOP SMILING!" She stood up abruptly, the bowl of murtlap falling to the floor and breaking into hundreds of tiny pieces. Ron and Hermione's smiles vanished. "You think I want this? Any of this? Do you think you know better than me? You guys didn't face Voldemort. You guys didn't kill the basilisk. You guys didn't watch your crush die in front of your face. That was all me! And, it's not like you think it is. It's not memorising spells and throwing them at him. When you're in action, your mind goes blank and it's fight-or-flight. I couldn't choose flight, so I had to fight! You think that I was clever to get out of there alive? I wasn't! I wasn't clever enough to save Cedric and I wasn't clever enough to survive. I had help, every step of the way! I was lucky to get out of there, and, well, Cedric wasn't," Her voice was hoarse by the end of her rant. She continued on, almost whispering now, "That could have been me if Voldemort wasn't too arrogant, and-"

"See? That's exactly why we need you to teach us. You're the only one who has ever fought V-Voldemort out of the three of us" Hermione said passionately, "Just...think about it, okay?" Harriet weakly nodded and Hermione left the room. It only hit Harriet then that Hermione, for the first time, called Voldemort by his name.

"You know," Ron said awkwardly, "Diggory's death wasn't your fault. I'm sorry, Harry, that you lost him, but you couldn't have done anything about it. I'm going to go up. Goodnight."

"Have you thought about it?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"I dunno," Harriet said, refusing to look up from her textbook. It was the end of September now and it was starting to get chilly outside. It was a lie, of course. She actually gave it a lot of thought. She still didn't want to do it, but she caught herself, time-to-time, planning out lessons that could come in use. No matter how much she didn't like it, Hermione was right. They needed to teach themselves and...well, as Hermione pointed out, Harriet was the only one who faced Voldemort before. "You did hear what I said about being lucky right?"

"Lucky or not, it doesn't take away from the fact that you're the best person for the job. You were able to throw off the Imperius curse, and Victor said-"

"Yeah? Tell us, what did ol' Vicky say?" Ron asked nastily.

"He said Harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final year at Durmstrang," she informed dryly.

"So you are still in contact with him."

"He's just a friend-"

"He doesn't want to be 'just a friend!'" Hermione shook her head, annoyed, and turned back to Harriet, who was hoping desperately they wouldn't start fighting again. "Well?"

"Fine," Harriet acquisced. "When?"

"Hogsmeade weekend," she said. Harriet groaned internally. She'd have to plan around her meeting with Sirius. She was starting to have second doubts. "And...don't freak out, Harry, but what if we invited a few others who wanted to learn as well?"

She snorted, "Learn? From me? Remember I'm an 'out-of-control freak?' Or, 'a disturbed mental case?'"

"Don't say that," Hermione chastised. "You'd be surprised how many people would be interested in hearing what you have to say. And, what's the harm in trying? Look, I'll take control of it all, I promise. All you need to do is show up."

"Fine, I'll be there."