Chapter 13: Piper (New One)

The first week at the school of magic was extremely tiring. Doing so much studying, was extremely wearing on my body. We had more homework than was legal and I was absolutely out of it. There was slight sunlight creeping through the windows and I knew that it was the crack of dawn. I lay in bed for the next half hour, tossing and turning. I realised that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep and I ran down into the common room. I was the only one there. I decided I might as well go up to the owlery and feed my owl, Marcia. (Thanks random name generator) I trace the path up to the owlery along with some treats for Marcia. I decided that I might as well try to send a letter to Camp, not wanting to risk an IM right now. I wrote it in the common room. It took a long time to write, even though it was quite a short letter.

Dear Mr Brunner,

I hope you are doing well at school. Hogwarts is very nice. We learn most of the same subjects and most of them are quite dull. However, we have a new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher. Professor Umbridge. The first week here is terrible. According to Percy, Umbridge is using the Black Quill, an instrument used by Nico's Dad downstairs for the naughty ones. Please advise on what could happen and what we can do.

P.S Say hello to everyone at school for me.

-Piper.

I thought I would be alone in the owlery, but I saw a certain student there. I thought it was Percy, but I soon realised it was Harry Potter.

"Hey Harry!" I shouted. Harry abruptly turned, with a panicked expression on his face. He was attaching a letter to his owl. A snowy owl that I believe was named Hedwig.

"Oh, it's just you. How are you doing Piper?"

"I'm fine. I'm just sending a letter back to ca- school. I want to know what's happening there. I also felt the need to vent my frustrations with Umbridge somewhere." Harry nodded, as if he understood. I attached the letter to my beautiful owl and whispered, it's for camp. The owl hooted, as if she understood and took off. I watched her fly away, until she was just a tiny speck in the morning sky. I stood awkwardly, waiting for Harry to say something. I realised he wasn't in the mood to talk so I initiated conversation.

"Harry, who were you sending the letter to?"

"To Sirius, I just felt the need to vent my frustrations as well—" He was about to keep going, and then the owlery door opened. Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw stepped into the owlery. She had a shocked expression on her face. Harry however, automatically said

"Hi Cho."

'Oh ... hi,' she said breathlessly. "I didn't think anyone would be up here this early ... I only remembered five minutes ago, it's my mum's birthday!"

She held up the parcel. Being a daughter of Aphrodite, I could feel the tension in the room. Harry obviously liked Cho, but Cho liked him back. However, none of them wanted to ask the other out, for fear of something. But I couldn't tell what. I wasn't a mind reader. Harry and Cho seemed utterly oblivious to me, listening in on their conversation, staring at them with an eyebrow raised.

'Right,' said Harry. His brain seemed to have jammed. I could feel it. He wanted to say something funny, but he just couldn't. He was overwhelmed with something. I couldn't recognize the emotion. Wow! I guess I am a mind-reader. I continued to listen in and try "read their minds" with my amazing new ability.

'Nice day,' he said, gesturing to the windows. Wow, I thought. The weather was really good. But the weather? He is talking to the girl he likes, but he's talking about the weather? That is an epic fail. Anything would do, but the weather? Sorry. I'm getting side-tracked.

'Yeah,' said Cho, looking around for a suitable owl. 'Good Quidditch conditions. I haven't been out all week, have you?'

'No,' said Harry.

Cho had selected one of the school barn owls. She coaxed it down on to her arm where it held out an obliging leg so that she could attach the parcel.

'Hey has Gryffindor got a new Keeper and Chaseryet?' she asked.

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'It's my friend Ron Weasley, d'you know him? Also, the new chaser is Jason Grace. He's one of the new American Exchange students.'

'Ron? The Tornados-hater?' said Cho rather coolly. 'Is he any good?'

'Yeah,' said Harry, 'I think so. I didn't see his tryout, though, I was in detention. However, I was told by Jason that everyone thought he was very good. Everyone seemed to think he was a natural with the broom.

Cho looked up, the parcel only half-attached to the owl's legs.

'That Umbridge woman's foul,' she said in a low voice. 'Putting you in detention just because you told the truth about how-how-how he died. Everyone heard about it, it was all over the school. You were really brave standing up to her like that.'

I could feel Harry's nervousness explode outwards, magnified ten-fold. I don't know who they were talking about, but I assumed it was Cedric Diggory. The person who was killed by Voldemort. However, no one believed Harry and he got really angry. Harry's spirits soared, however, before he could say another word, the owlery door opened. All of us jumped a mile. This seemed to alert Cho to my presence again. She stared at me, before returning to look at the door. Filch the caretaker came wheezing into the room. There were purple patches on his sunken, veined cheeks, his jowls were aquiver and his thin grey hair dishevelled; he had obviously run here. Mrs. Norris came trotting at his heels, gazing up at the owls overhead and mewing hungrily. There was a restless shifting of wings from above and a large brown owl snapped his beak in a menacing fashion.

'Aha!' said Filch, taking a flat-footed step towards Harry, his pouchy cheeks trembling with anger. 'I've had a tip-off that you are intending to place a massive order for Dungbombs!'

Harry folded his arms and stared at the caretaker.

'Who told you I was ordering Dungbombs?'

Cho was looking from Harry to Filch, also frowning; the barn owl on her arm, tired of standing on one leg, gave an admonitory hoot but she ignored it.

'I have my sources.' said Filch in a self-satisfied hiss. 'Now hand over whatever it is you're sending.'

However, since I was up here at almost the same time as Harry, I knew that his letter was already sent. Harry then replied,

"I can't. I've already sent it. It's gone." Filch's face turned even more purple, and contorted in rage.

"Gone?"

"Yes, Gone." Harry replied, as though he were talking to a five year old. Filch's mouth opened and closed rapidly over the next few seconds, giving him the appearance of a goldfish. He then stood up straight and said,

"How do I know you haven't sent it already?" I replied this time,

"I saw him send it." I countered.

"You saw him—"

"Yes I saw him!" I snapped. Filch then glared at me. His glare was absolutely pathetic. I could glare better than him, and I wasn't a good glarer. Percy or Annabeth's glare put his to absolute shame. He continued to open and close his mouth like a goldfish, before realizing it was a lost clause and lumbered out of the owlery.

"Thanks for saving me." He said.

"No prob." Harry then turned to face Cho, who was scowling in my direction. "Ch—"

"You weren't ordering dungbombs, where you?" Cho asked.

"No. Why would I do that. That's for Fred and George's thing," he said, grinning.

"If not, why would Filch suspect you?" Harry shrugged. He was probably as mystified as I was. I broke the silence and replied,

"Come on guys, we'll go down together." We left the owlery together. I decided that I might talk to Jason.

(Right here I need to clarify something. I believe that anyone can go into anyone's dormitories as long as they know how to access it. I say this as Harry got into both Slytherin and Ravenclaw dorms. So I'm just going to say that anyone can go into anyone's dorm, it's just that the Gryffindor's won't give their password up though. However, the demigods know all the passwords. I'm also not sure about whether sitting at different house tables is allowed. It's definitely not allowed during special occasions like Halloween or the Sorting, but I'm not sure. The only case I can really find, is when Harry gives the interview to the Quibbler. Luna comes over and sits at the Gryffindor table with Harry. I dunno if this is just another one of Luna's odd moments, but I'm not sure. I think that they might sit with each other a few times, at least before Umbridge becomes headmaster. Okay, On with the chapter.)

I walked with Harry to the common room and I entered. Most of the people were up now and Jason and Percy were sitting by the fire. Frank was still sleeping I assumed so I sneaked up behind Jason. I kissed the back of his neck and he spun around. His confused expression turned into a smile as he shouted,

"PIPER!" He crushed me with a hug and kissed me.

"GUYS!" Percy shouted. We broke up and he continued, "It's the weekend, let's get the rest of the gang and do something. After breakfast!" We nodded and Jason ran up to get Frank. Percy and I dashed to the Great Hall, because we were starving. We ran down, but there wasn't many people. Ron, Hermione and Harry were already eating their breakfast and Percy slid next to them. I made my way over to the We started eating, and in the next five minutes, Hazel, Jason and Frank came. Annabeth and Leo turned up ten minutes after them.

"Harry, can all of us sit at the same table?" I asked, getting up from the Hufflepuff Table. Harry sat and started to think. Eventually he shrugged, but asked Hermione the same question. Hermione bit her lip and answered.

"Well, it's never really been established. I'm sure you're not allowed during formal feasts, but, I think that you can sit with each other during breakfast and lunch. For dinner, you doubt you can."

"Thanks." I went and grabbed the demigods and we all sat at the Gryffindor Table. We started talking about what we were going to do. Jason, Harry and Ron started talking about Quidditch Practice later. I wanted to go down and see them, but Percy and Annabeth convinced us to finish all our homework today, then enjoy the rest of the weekend. Hermione agreed. Speaking of Hermione, she was scolding Harry and Ron of being behind on Homework, but was muted by the flurry of owls. Hermione got her Daily Prophet and buried her head in it. Half way through her paper, she audibly gasped.

"What?" Ron asked.

"Shush, listen."

"The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer ... blah blah blah ...is currently hiding in London!" Hermione read from her half in an anguished whisper.

'Lucius Malfoy, I'll bet anything,' said Harry in a low, furious voice. 'He did recognise Sirius on the platform ...'

'What?' said Ron, looking alarmed. 'You didn't say-'

'Shh!' said the other two.

'... "Ministry warns wizarding community that Black is very dangerous ... killed thirteen people ... broke out of Azkaban ..." the usual rubbish,' Hermione concluded, laying down her half of the paper and looking fearfully at Harry and Ron. 'Well, he just won't be able to leave the house again, that's all,' she whispered. 'Dumbledore did warn him not to.'

I was extremely concerned. Sirius Black, had taken us into his house, he was very nice and all of us liked him. However, Harry directed me from my train of thought, by quoting another piece from the prophet Hermione discarded.

"Listen to this. Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizcngamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31st August. Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watchwizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o'clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak, in his own defence, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

'Sturgis Podmore?' said Ron slowly. 'He's that bloke who looks like his head's been thatched, isn't he? He's one of the Ord-

'Ron, shh!' said Hermione, casting a terrified look around them. We smiled back, and kept a look-out.

'Six months in Azkaban!' whispered Harry, shocked. 'Just for trying to get through a door!'

'Don't be silly, it wasn't just for trying to get through a door. What on earth was he doing at the Ministry of Magic at one o'clock in the morning?' breathed Hermione.

D'you reckon he was doing something for the Order?' Ron muttered.

'Wait a moment ...' said Harry slowly. 'Sturgis was supposed to come and see us off, remember?'

The other two looked at him.

'Yeah, he was supposed to be part of our guard going to King's Cross, remember? And Moody was all annoyed because he didn't turn up; so he couldn't have been on a job for them, could he?'

'Well, maybe they didn't expect him to get caught,' said Hermione.

'It could be a frame-up!' Ron exclaimed excitedly. 'No-listen!' he went on, dropping his voice dramatically at the threatening look on Hermione's face. 'The Ministry suspects he's one of Dumbledore's lot so-I dunno-they lured him to the Ministry, and he wasn't trying to get through a door at all! Maybe they've just made something up to get him!'

There was a pause while Harry and Hermione considered this. Harry thought it seemed far-fetched. Hermione, on the other hand, looked rather impressed. Most of the demigods looked apprehensive, but Hermione didn't notice it.

'Do you know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were true.'

She folded up her half of the newspaper thoughtfully. As Harry laid down his knife and fork, she seemed to come out of a reverie.

'Right, well, I think we should tackle that essay for Sprout on self-fertilising shrubs first and if we're lucky we'll be able to start McGonagall's Inanimatus Conjurus Spell before lunch ...' We all nodded, except Jason, who was itching to get on his new Nimbus Two Thousand and One. We bade them goodbye and walked up to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"You know, if there is a rule about not being in the common rooms of other houses, we are flouting it." I said.

The three quidditch players went to practice their skills on a broom. The rest of us trudged up to the common room and completed a majority of our homework. We wandered back down for lunch and sat at the Gryffindor table. Ron, Harry and Jason were back, looking a bit tired, but thoroughly exhilarated. They were rapidly talking about Jason being a natural, until they saw us arrive. They welcomed us and we had a quick lunch, before taking off to see them play. Hermione insisted that she needed to study, but we forced her to come along and watch the real practice, we didn't have much homework left anyways.

Ron:

During our before-practice session, I thought I did quite well. Harry and Jason played Chaser, while I defended the goals. Jason was a natural, he shot with sublime skill, but I somehow saved about three-quarters of their total shots. I walked down for the real practice, and I was nervous. Fred and George were definitely going to take the mick outta me. Sure enough, as soon as I walked through they started to tease me.

"All right Ron?" George said, winking at me.

"Ready to show us all up Ickle Prefect?" Fred said, with a malicious, trouble-maker grin on his face.

"Shut Up!" I said, stony-faced, pulling on my team robes. Thankfully, Angelina interrupted us,

"Okay everyone! Let's get to it. Fred, George, please get us the ball crate. But before that, let's give a formal welcome to Ron and Jason, who are taking up the post of keeper and chaser respectively." The Slytherins are up there, but I hope that Grace's friends can take care of them," she said, sending a smile towards Jason, who smirked.

We marched out, and were almost immediately booed by the Slytherins. The American's, who were sitting quite near them, started to glare at them. Percy and Annabeth's glare was enough to make an elephant back down, the Slytherins paled, but Malfoy continued to shout at them.

'What's that Weasley's riding?' Malfoy called in his sneering drawl. 'Why would anyone put a flying charm on a mouldy old log like that?'

Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson guffawed and shrieked with laughter. I mounted my broom and kicked off from the ground. My ears turned red and Harry followed me, encouraging me.

"Don't listen to them Ron, they're trying to make you unsettled." I glanced at them. Every now and then, they would move closer to the Slytherins, while glaring at them. The Slytherins scurried away, obviously afraid of their power.

'Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle, anyway?' shrieked Pansy Parkinson from below. 'Why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?'

Angelina swept her long braided hair out of her face and continued calmly, 'Spread out, then, and let's see what we can do ...'

Harry reversed away from the others to the far side of the pitch. However, I fell back towards the opposite goal. Angelina raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Fred, who passed to George, who passed to Harry, who passed to me, who dropped it.

The Slytherins, led by Malfoy, roared and screamed with laughter. I had pelted towards the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, pulled out of the dive untidily, so that I slipped sideways on my broom, and returned to playing height, blushing. I saw Fred and George exchange looks, but uncharacteristically neither of them said anything, for which I was grateful.

'Pass it on, Ron,' called Angelina, as though nothing had happened.

I threw the Quaffle to Jason, who passed back to Harry, who passed to George ...

'Hey, Potter, how's your scar feeling?' called Malfoy. 'Sure you don't need a lie down? It must be, what, a whole week since you were in the hospital wing, that's a record for you, isn't it?'

George passed to Angelina; she reverse-passed to Harry, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to me. I lunged for it and missed by inches.

'Come on now, Ron,' said Angelina crossly, as I dived for the ground again, chasing the Quaffle. 'Pay attention.'

It would have been hard to say whether my face or the Quaffle was a deeper scarlet when I again returned to playing height. Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin team were howling with laughter. I glanced at the Americans and Percy had stood up. He marched over to Malfoy and gave him a threatening talking to. Malfoy paled and instantly slipped of his seat, causing the students to roar with laughter. Percy then stalked away.

On my third attempt, I caught the Quaffle; out of relief I passed it on so enthusiastically that it soared straight though Katie's outstretched hands and hit her hard in the face.

'Sorry!' I groaned, zooming forwards to see whether I had done any damage.

'Get back in position, she's fine!' barked Angelina. 'But as you're passing to a teammate, do try not to knock her off her broom, won't you? We've got Bludgers for that!'

Katie's nose was bleeding. Down below, the Slytherins probably would've been stamping their feet and jeering, if not for Percy were starting to renew some of their Swagger. Fred and George converged on Katie.

'Here, take this,' Fred told her, handing her something small anc purple from out of his pocket, 'it'll clear it up in no time.'

'All right,' called Angelina, 'Fred, George, go and get your bats and a Bludger. Ron, get up to the goalposts. Harry, release the Snitch when I say so. We're going to aim for Ron's goal, obviously.'

Harry zoomed off after the twins to fetch the Snitch.

'Ron's making a right pig's ear of things, isn't he?' muttered George, as the three of them landed at the crate containing the balls and opened it to extract one of the Bludgers and the Snitch. I heard them, and blushed scarlet. I zoomed off to the other side.

They returned to the air. When Angelina blew her whistle, Harry released the Snitch and Fred and George let fly the Bludger. From that moment on, absolute mayhem ensued. The chasers moved with blinding speed and they shot at the goals. I did the most logical thing, and I dived. I missed, but it deflected off me and Jason zoomed down to grab it. They continued to shoot, but it all past in a blur. Soon, Angelina shouted.

'Stop-stop- STOP!' screamed Angelina. 'Ron-you're not covering your middle post!'

I looked around and saw that she was right, I was hovering around the left post, exposing the middle.

'Oh ... sorry ...'

'You keep shifting around while you're watching the Chasers!' said Angelina. 'Either stay in centre position until you have to move to defend a hoop, or else circle the hoops, but don't drift vaguely off to one side, that's how you let in the last three goals!'

'Sorry ...' I repeated, my red face shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky.

'And Katie, can't you do something about that nosebleed?'

'It's just getting worse!' said Katie thickly, attempting to stem the flow with her sleeve.

Harry glanced round at Fred, who was looking anxious and checking his pockets. He saw Fred pull out something purple, examine it for a second and then look round at Katie, evidently horror-struck.

'Well, let's try again,' said Angelina. She was ignoring the Slytherins, who had now set up a chant of 'Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers,' but there was a certain rigidity about her seat on the broom nevertheless. I glanced at the Americans and they lost it. Percy and Frank advanced and punched Malfoy in the mouth. I heard him whimper from here, and they threatened him. Malfoy, sat in his seat, quivering, as they walked away.

This time I had been flying for barely three minutes when Angelinas whistle sounded.

'What now?' I said impatiently to Jason, who was nearest.

'Katie,' he said shortly.

Harry turned and saw Angelina, Fred and George all flying as fast as they could towards Katie. Harry, Jason and I towards her, too. It was plain that Angelina had stopped training just in time; Katie was now chalk white and covered in blood.

'She needs the hospital wing,' said Angelina.

'We'll take her,' said Fred. 'She-er-might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake-'

'Well, there's no point continuing with no Beaters and a Chaser gone,' said Angelina glumly as Fred and George zoomed off towards the castle supporting Katie between them. 'Come on, let's go and get changed.'

The Slytherins continued to chant as they trailed back into the changing rooms. Despite, Malfoy not joining in. I joined up with the rest of them, who looked sympathetically at me. Together, we walked up to the Common Room and decided to do homework. Harry and I were much further behind than them, as they spent about three hours studying, while Jason, Harry and I were playing Quidditch. We didn't make much headway on our homework that day. However, everyone else finished every last bit of their homework. Excluding Jason, who was only one piece off. Harry and I spent the whole of Sunday in the common room. The rest of the students, were frolicking around the grounds, looking like they were having the time of their lives, while Harry and I were stuck doing homework.

'You know, we probably should try and get more homework done during the week,' Harry muttered to me, as we finally laid aside Professor McGonagall's long essay on the Inanimatus Conjurus Spell and turned miserably to Professor Sinistra's equally long and difficult essay about Jupiter's many moons.

'Yeah,' I said, rubbing my slightly bloodshot eyes and throwing away my fifth spoiled bit of parchment into the fire beside them

'Listen ... shall we just ask Hermione if we can have a look at what she's done?'

Harry glanced over at her; she was sitting with Crookshanks on her lap and chatting merrily to Ginny as a pair of knitting needles flashed in midair in front of her, now knitting a pair of shapeless elf socks.

'No,' he said heavily, 'you know she won't let us.'

And so they worked on while the sky outside the windows became steadily darker. Slowly, the crowd in the common room began to thin again. At half past eleven, Hermione wandered over to them, yawning.

'Nearly done?'

'No,' I said shortly.

'Jupiter's biggest moon is Ganymede, not Callisto,' she said, pointing over my shoulder at a line in his Astronomy essay, 'and it's Io that's got the volcanoes.'

'Thanks,' I snarled, scratching out the offending sentences.

'Sorry, I only- '

'Yeah, well, if you've just come over here to criticise-'

'Ron-'

'I haven't got time to listen to a sermon, all right, Hermione, I'm up to my neck in it here- '

'No-look!'

Hermione was pointing to the nearest window. Harry and I both looked over. A handsome screech owl was standing on the windowsill, gazing into the room at Ron.

'Isn't that Hermes?' said Hermione, sounding amazed.

'Blimey, it is!' I said quietly, throwing down my quill and getting to my feet. 'What's Percy writing to me for?'

He crossed to the window and opened it; Hermes flew inside, landed on my essay and held out a leg to which a letter was attached. I took the letter off it and the owl departed at once, leaving inky footprints across my drawing of the moon Io.

'That's definitely Percy's handwriting,' I said, sinking back into my chair and staring at the words on the outside of the scroll: Ronald Weasley, Gryffindor House, Hogwarts. I looked up at the other two. 'What d'you reckon?'

'Open it!' said Hermione eagerly, and Harry nodded.

I unrolled the scroll and began to read. The further clown the parchment his eyes travelled, the more pronounced became his scowl. When he had finished reading, he looked disgusted. He thrust the letter at Harry and Hermione, who leaned towards each other to read it together:

Dear Ron,

I have only just heard (from no less a person than the Minister for Magic himself, who has it from your new teacher, Professor Umbridge) that you have become a Hogwarts prefect.

I was most pleasantly surprised when f heard this news and must firstly offer my congratulations. I must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the 'Fred and George' route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility.

But I want to give you more than congratulations, Ron, I want to give you some advice, which is why I am sending this at night rather than by the usual morning post. Hopefully, you will be able to read this away from prying eyes and avoid awkward questions.

From something the Minister let slip when telling me you are now a prefect, I gather that you are still seeing a lot of Harry Potter. I must tell you, Ron, that nothing could put you in danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternisation with that boy. Yes, I am sure you are surprised to hear this- no doubt you will say that Potter has always been Dumbledore's favourite-but I feel bound to tell you that Dumbledore may not be in charge at Hogwarts much longer and the people who count have a very different-and probably more accurate-view of Potter's behaviour. I shall say no more here, but if you look at the Daily Prophet tomorrow you will get a good idea of the way the wind is blowing-and see if you can spot yours truly!

Seriously, Ron, you do not want to be tarred with the same brush as Potter, it could be very damaging to your future prospects, and I am talking here about life after school, too. As you must be aware, given that our father escorted him to court, Potter had a disciplinary hearing this summer in front of the whole Wizengamot and he did not come out of it looking too good. He got off on a mere technicality, if you ask me, and many of the people I've spoken to remain convinced of his guilt.

It may be that you are afraid to sever ties with Potter-I know that he can be unbalanced and, for all I know, violent-but if you have any worries about this, or have spotted anything else in Potter's behaviour that is troubling you, I urge you to speak to Dolores Umbridge, a truly delightful woman who I know will be only too happy to advise you.

This leads me to my other bit of advice. As I have hinted above, Dumbledore's regime at Hogwarts may soon be over. Your loyalty, Ron, should be not to him, but to the school and the Ministry. I am very sorry to hear that, so far, Professor Umbridge is encountering very little co-operation from staff as she strives to make those necessary changes within Hogwarts that the Ministry so ardently desires (although she should find this easier from next week- again, see the Daily Prophet tomorrow!). I shall say only this-a student who shows himself willing to help Professor Umbridge now may be very well-placed for Head Boyship in a couple of years!

I am sorry that I was unable to see more of you over the summer. It pains me to criticise our parents, but I am afraid I can no longer live under their roof while they remain mixed up with the dangerous crowd around Dumbledore. (If you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledore's, has recently been sent to Azkaban for trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders.) I count myself very lucky to have escaped the stigma of association with such people-the Minister really could not be more gracious to me-and I do hope, Ron, that you will not allow family ties to blind you to the misguided nature of our parents' beliefs and actions, either. I sincerely hope that, in time, they will realise how mistaken they were and I shall, of course, be ready to accept a full apology when that day comes.

Please think over what I have said most carefully, particularly the bit about Harry Potter, and congratulations again on becoming prefect.

Your brother,

Percy

Harry looked up at me.

'Well,' he said, trying to sound as though he found the whole thing a joke, 'if you want to-er -what is it?'-he checked Percy's letter-'Oh yeah-"sever ties" with me, I swear I won't get violent.'

'Give it back,' I said, grabbing the letter out of his hand. 'He is-' I said jerkily, tearing Percy's letter in half 'the world's-' I tore it into quarters 'biggest-' I tore it into eighths 'git.' I threw the pieces into the fire.

'Come on, we've got to get this finished sometime before dawn,' I said briskly to Harry, pulling Professor Sinistra's essay back towards him.

Hermione was looking at Ron with an odd expression on her face.

'Oh, give them here,' she said abruptly.

'What?' I said.

'Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them,' she said.

'Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you're a life-saver,' I said, 'what can I-?'

'What you can say is, "We promise we'll never leave our homework this late again," ' she said, holding out both hands for their essays, but she looked slightly amused all the same.

'Thanks a million, Hermione,' said Harry weakly, passing over his essay and sinking back into his armchair, rubbing his eyes.

It was now past midnight and the common room was deserted but for the three of them and Crookshanks. The only sound was that of Hermione's quill scratching out sentences here and there on their essays and the ruffle of pages as she checked various facts in the reference books strewn across the table. I was exhausted. He also felt an odd, sick, empty feeling in his stomach that had nothing to do with tiredness and everything to do with the letter now curling blackly in the heart of the fire.

I went back and Hermione pelted me with advice. I patted her on her shoulder and saw Harry on his knees, staring at the fireplace.

Third Person:

'Er-Harry?' said Ron uncertainly. 'Why are you down there?'

'Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire,' said Harry.

He spoke quite calmly; after all, he had seen Sirius's head in this very fire the previous year and talked to it, too; nevertheless, he could not be sure that he had really seen it this time ... it had vanished so quickly ...

'Sirius's head?' Hermione repeated. 'You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too-Sirius!'

She gasped, gazing at the fire; Ron dropped his quill. There in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long dark hair failing around his grinning face.

'I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared,' he said. 'I've been checking every hour.'

'You've been popping into the fire every hour?' Harry said, half-laughing.

'Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear.'

'But what if you'd been seen?' said Hermione anxiously.

'Well, I think a girl-first-year, by the look of her-might've get a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry,' Sirius said hastily, as Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth, 'I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly-shaped log or something.'

'But, Sirius, this is taking an awful risk-' Hermione began.

'You sound like Molly,' said Sirius. 'This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code-and codes are breakable.'

At the mention of Harry's letter, Hermione and Ron both turned to stare at him.

'You didn't say you'd written to Sirius! said Hermione accusingly.

'I forgot,' said Harry, which was perfectly true; his meeting with Cho in the Owlery had driven everything before it out of his mind. 'Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?'

'No, it was very good,' said Sirius, smiling. 'Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed-your scar.'

'What about-?' Ron began, but Hermione interrupted him.

'We'll tell you afterwards. Go on, Sirius.'

'Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think its anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?'

'Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion,' said Harry, ignoring, as usual, Ron and Hermione's winces. 'So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention.'

'Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often,' said Sirius.

'So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?' Harry asked.

'I doubt it,' said Sirius. 'I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater-'

'She's foul enough to be one,' said Harry darkly, and Ron and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement.

'Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters,' said Sirius with a wry smile. 'I know she's a nasty piece of work, though-you should hear Remus talk about her.'

'Does Lupin know her?' asked Harry quickly, remembering Umbridge's comments about dangerous half-breeds during her first lesson.

'No,' said Sirius, 'but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job.'

Harry remembered how much shabbier Lupin looked these days and his dislike of Umbridge deepened even further.

'What's she got against werewolves?' said Hermione angrily.

'Scared of them, I expect,' said Sirius, smiling at her indignation. 'Apparently, she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year, too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose.'

Ron laughed but Hermione looked upset.

'Sirius!' she said reproachfully. 'Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher, I'm sure he'd respond. After all, you are the only member of his family he's got left, and Professor Dumbledore said-'

'So, what are Umbridge's lessons like?' Sirius interrupted. 'Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?'

'No,' said Harry, ignoring Hermione's affronted look at being cut off in her defence of Kreacher. 'She's not letting us use magic at all!'

'All we do is read the stupid textbook,' said Ron.

'Ah, well, that figures,' said Sirius. 'Our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat.'

'Trained in combat!' repeated Harry incredulously. 'What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?'

'That's exactly what he thinks you're doing,' said Sirius, 'or, rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing-forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic.'

There was a pause at this, then Ron said, That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with.'

'So we're being prevented from learning Defence Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells against the Ministry?' said Hermione, looking furious.

'Yep,' said Sirius. 'Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge.'

This reminded Harry of Percy's letter.

'D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow? Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be-'

'I don't know,' said Sirius, 'I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here.'

There was a definite note of bitterness in Sirius's voice.

'So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?'

'Ah ...' said Sirius, 'well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened to him.' Then, seeing their stricken faces, he added quickly, 'But Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you three get yourselves in a state; I'm sure Hagrid's fine.'

'But if he was supposed to be back by now ...' said Hermione in a small, anxious voice.

'Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home-but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt or-well, nothing to suggest he's not perfectly OK.'

Unconvinced, Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged worried looks.

'Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid,' said Sirius hastily, 'it'll just draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be OK.' And when they did not appear cheered by this, Sirius added, 'When's your next Hogsmeade weekend, anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could-'

'NO!' said Harry and Hermione together, very loudly.

'Sirius, didn't you see the Daily Prophet?' said Hermione anxiously.

'Oh, that,' said Sirius, grinning, 'they're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue-'

'Yeah, but we think this time they have,' said Harry. 'Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you, and his father was on the platform, Sirius- you know, Lucius Malfoy-so don't come up here, whatever you do. If Malfoy recognises you again-'

'All right, all right, I've got the point,' said Sirius. He looked most displeased. 'Just an idea, thought you might like to get together.'

'I would, I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!' said Harry.

There was a pause in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes.

'You're less like your father than I thought,' he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. 'The risk would've been what made it fun for James.'

'Look-'

'Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs,' said Sirius, but Harry was sure he was lying. 'I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?'

There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius's head had been was flickering flame once more.

The three of them, exhausted managed to climb up the stairs to their respective dormitories and collapsed onto their beds.

Okay. Another chapter done. I need to address an issue. Sometimes the chapters don't update and they aren't seen being updated today. I urge you to check back everyday, as I probably do one everyday. I just don't know what is happening when it just doesn't update on the site. I also need some reviews that tell me what god should be aiding Lord Voldemort. Ares, or Nemesis. I need to introduce one or the other soon. Please review, it will mean a lot for me. On a happier note, we're nearing 3000 views. It's crazy that in about a week, that it's been viewed so much. Thanks a lot!

~RedGods