A/n: I have no excuse for my absence, but I am back! I had major writer's block, and things are stressful at work, but I'm here now. Hope you enjoy! I've already started the next chapter, so should be out next week.

Chapter 43 - Complications and Surprises

Jacob awoke the next morning feeling unsettled and angry for a reason he couldn't explain. He didn't remember dreaming - he took Dreamless Sleep to prevent nightmares. He had also done his Occlumency training, but he didn't know that either was connected to how he felt that morning. He didn't know how to explain it, so he didn't mention it to anyone and went about his day as usual. Draco and Hermione both noticed, and while Hermione asked him if he was okay, Draco didn't. He just brushed his hand against his and did a great job of distracting him that night.

The rest of the week went by without incident. He was still only receiving A's in Potions. It seemed that E was a fluke. It left him with another visit to his father on Sunday. Of course, he immediately sensed something was off. "We can put off this week's Occlumency lessons," Severus stated after lunch.

Jacob wanted to say yes. It was exhausting. "No, we should," he said, standing up. He could shake the feeling he'd woke up with that morning at the beginning of the week.

Severus was looking at him. As usual, he could not discern what his father was thinking, but he could guess. Occlumency took a lot out of him. It was draining. And he had felt off all week since that morning he'd woken up feeling unsettled.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked. Severus nodded. "Can you - when -" Jacob groaned. He wasn't even sure how to phrase what he was trying to say. "Nevermind."

"You know that if you need to talk…" his father offered, leaving the statement open-ended. He looked up at him. That he didn't doubt, not anymore.

Jacob nodded. "I know, it's just…." He took a deep breath, trying to see if he could settle his thoughts. "I know you can't talk about what goes in Voldemort's meetings and such unless it concerns me, so don't think I'm asking what's going on right now. It's just… The other day, I woke up feeling very unsettled."

"Unsettled? What do you mean?"

"That's the thing! I can't explain it, but I can't shake it." He tried to think of something, anything to explain to his father what he meant, but he couldn't. "I took the Dreamless Sleep like you told me to. I did the Occlumency training like you told me to. I don't remember anything; I just felt… unsettled. And angry. For no apparent reason."

Neither of them said anything. Jacob hadn't been looking his father in the eye, but he lifted his gaze now. "I know it probably has to do with Voldemort. Something happened. I know that it's either the Dreamless Sleep or the Occlumency training finally working." He shrugged. "It is what it is."

"I don't think it's a good idea to do any training today," Severus said. "You cannot, so it is unlikely to be effective." Jacob gave a small smile. He was grateful. Despite whatever improvement his father said he was making, he didn't feel like he was making that much improvement at all. "We could play chess if you prefer." He did, as a matter of fact. He knew the Occlumency was necessary, but it was nice to have a break for once.

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

Jacob wished he could say the rest of the month was uneventful, but it never was at Hogwarts.

It was the next week. Draco and Jacob were walking back to their common room arm-in-arm, their friends around them, when they heard a scream coming from behind them. Immediately, their entire group stopped.

"What in Merlin's name was what?" exclaimed Salenia.

For a moment, he was glad that it wasn't just him. It wasn't as if it would be the first time that he heard things no one else could hear. Out of curiosity, their group headed back up towards the Great Hall to see what all the commotion was about. So, as it seemed, did everyone else - students were filing out of the Great Hall, gathering on the marble staircase, everyone anxious to see what was going on.

As it turned out, the commotion was Professor Trelawney. She was standing in the middle of the entrance hall, two trunks lying down on the floor near her feet. One looked like it had been thrown after her. She had the look of someone who had been thrown together and looked a bit mad. Her hair was going everywhere, shawls around her shoulders that were falling off, and her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other. She was looking at something and looked frightened of something, but with all the people in between them and the Entrance Hall, he couldn't see what. He did see McGonagall standing on the opposite side, who looked rather sick at something.

"I can't believe this!" Trelawney said, her voice shaking. "It can't be true!"

"Oh, so you didn't see this coming?" said a high-pitched voice that sounded amused. It was then that Umbridge walked into view. "Even though you're incapable of making a proper prediction, even you should have realized that you would be sacked as poorly as you did during your inspection that you would be sacked?"

"You can't!" Her voice was shaking, and she was crying now. "I've been here sixteen years! This is my home!"

He had taken her class as Harry Potter, though, of course, as Jacob, he didn't know her. Still, this seemed rather harsh. There was definitely something not right about this, and it left a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Even if he didn't like her, she didn't deserve this - especially not with the whole school watching; Umbridge seemed to want to make a spectacle of this.

"It was." Even worse was the fact that Umbridge was enjoying this. She seemed almost gleeful as Trelawney sunk onto one of her chests, tears streaming her face. "The Minister signed the order for your dismissal an hour ago, so exit the premises. You're embarrassing yourself."

He heard various mutters and some loud exclamations from the crowd that had gathered around and spotted Parvati and Lavender near the doors to the Great Hall, arms around each other, and it looked as if they were crying. McGonagall couldn't seem to take it anymore. She rushed forward, patting her back and shushing her. "There there, Sybill," she said, her voice calm and placating. "You're not leaving Hogwarts, don't worry."

"Oh, really?" Umbridge asked. "And what is your authority in this matter?"

"That would be my authority," said Dumbledore, who had just walked in from the grounds.

Umbridge explained that she had an Order of Dismissal signed by the Minister himself. Under the terms of some Educational Decree - was he ever getting sick of those - she had the power to sack anyone she wanted.

Jacob was a bit surprised that Dumbledore agreed with her; he supposed there was nothing even he could do. However, he wouldn't let her banish Trelawney from the grounds. He asked McGonagall to escort her upstairs, and as they left, he explained to Umbridge that he had already appointed a new Diniviation teacher, who would need lodgings on the ground floor, and therefore, Umbridge couldn't elect a replacement. Of course, the Ministry could elect one if Dumbledore couldn't find one, hence Umbridge, but Dumbledore had.

Exclaims and mutters of shock went through the crowd as a centaur walked in behind Dumbledore. "This is Firenze," the old man said, introducing them. "I'm sure he'll be more than suitable."

The crowd was soon dispersed as Dumbledore walked off with Firenze, and Umbridge did not look happy at all. Jacob and his friends continued to make their way back to the common room. None of them seemed to know what to say. It was surprisingly Marcus who spoke first. "So, if she doesn't like a teacher, they could be sacked any day now, and Dumbledore has no say?"

"It seemed rather harsh," agreed Salenia. "I mean, I've never taken her classes - it seems like a ridiculous one to me - but she's been here that long, and now she's just told she doesn't have a job?"

"Even if it's true, it shouldn't have been done publicly," Jacob agreed. "And her replacement is a centaur…?" Even he was a bit surprised by that one, and that it was one he knew - as Harry Potter, anyway. He looked at his friends, and trying to keep up appearances as the new kid, he asked, "This kind of thing happens a lot?" There were some mutterings, shrugs, and nods from his friends.

He wondered what Umbridge would do next and realized he didn't want to know but had a feeling that they were going to find out.

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

The school buzzed about their new Divination Professor over the following week, Umbridge. According to Hermione, Parvati and Lavender had been to see Trelawney, and she wasn't doing very well. He could only imagine. Hogwarts had felt like home to him, too, and he couldn't imagine being told all of a sudden that he was going to have to leave. Umbridge was also attending all of Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes, and Hagrid was not taking any of Hermione's advice, either.

"So, I was thinking about the next meeting," Hermione told him and Ron as they waited for his father to come down for one of their Saturday lessons as the Easter Holidays approached. "I think learning the Patronus Charm would be useful." She seemed oddly nervous for suggesting it, more so than usual, when she talked to him about what she was thinking about for the next DA meeting.

"That's a great idea, Hermione," Ron agreed. "I've always wanted to learn that spell." Jacob looked over at Hermione, still wringing her hands together and not looking him or Ron in the eye. Ron seemed to have noticed, too. "What are you nervous about? You're good at spells."

"This spell is different," she said. "It's a very difficult spell."

"Oh, come on. You've done difficult spells before!"

"Ron's right," Jacob said. "Why don't you give it a try?"

"What? Now? I couldn't possibly -"

"Yes, now," he said, adding a bit more force to his voice to motivate her. "I've told you before - it's the happiest you've ever felt. Just any memory won't do. It has to be something so happy it trumps every other happy memory."

"Maybe we shouldn't do this here?" Ron offered, looking around. "I mean, I know this is secure because no one ever comes in here, but it just seems weird to practice spells like that up here."

Jacob and Hermione shared a silent look of agreement before the three of them made their way downstairs. Once they were in the Chamber, he turned to Hermione. "Okay, so think about your happiest memory. Allow it to fill you, and then cast the spell."

Hermione nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them up, she held out her wand and said, "Expecto Patronum!" Her voice lacked conviction, though, and the spell didn't fully form. "Damn it."

"It's okay, Hermione. Take a deep breath and try again."

She was getting frustrated because it wasn't working for her. It was understandable, but the more frustrated she got, the less it would work for her.

"Stop," he told her. "It's okay. You can try again later. That's the basic principle, though. It's hard, like I said. It took me a long time to figure it out, and then it was only because I saw myself casting it." He shrugged. "Before then, it was non-corporeal." Hermione nodded because she'd heard this before, and so had Ron. "You just… have to feel more, not think so much. This spell has a lot to do with emotion, not logic so much. Don't think so much and just… feel it."

Hermione nodded. She took a deep breath and gave the spell another shot. "Expecto Patronum!" It didn't fully form, but it was a much better attempt.

"That was better, Hermione!"

"It's still not -"

Jacob held up a hand to silence her. "Hey, don't worry about it. You'll get it. You just need time, that's all," he said, trying to sound encouraging.

"I'm going to give it a try," Ron said. He took a deep breath and muttered the spell, but like Hermione, it wasn't fully formed.

"That was a good try, Ron," he said, and the redhead nodded.

"How are you supposed to know what your happiest memory is?" he asked. "I mean, I have plenty of happy memories, but like… a single happiest memory? That's hard."

Jacob shrugged. "Took me some time to figure it out and more practice to get it fully formed," he said. "I don't even remember doing it fully formed until at the Lake."

She nodded. "Any other advice?"

"It's a lot harder doing it for real than it is to do in a controlled environment like this," Jacob said, gesturing around. "You remember how the Dementors made you feel, yes? Now imagine trying to do that spell while feeling what they made you feel. Your memory has to be happy enough to override that."

"Just let us see it, mate," Ron said. "Just once. A fully formed one, you know, as inspiration."

Jacob shrugged. "Expecto Patronum!" The silvery animal that came out of his wand was not a stag, though. The doe pranced around them before Jacob let go of the spell.

"That - that wasn't a stag," said Hermione. "Your Patronus changed?"

"I guess… I - I don't understand, that's weird…"

"It's not impossible, just rare…"

It was then that he noticed a familiar figure watching the scene from behind Hermione and Ron, an unreadable expression on his face. Seeing him looking at something, Ron and Hermione both turned. "Professor!" Hermione exclaimed. "Jacob was just -"

"I see what he was just," his father said. "It is a very useful spell to learn. If you wish to continue-"

"No, it's fine," she said, brushing off his comment. "We'll have other times to practice. Er, Professor, if you don't mind me asking, you can do a Patronus, can't you?"

"Of course," he said as if the very idea that he couldn't was insulting. "Now, if you don't mind, we have some training to get to, don't we?"

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

Jacob was surprised at how well the Patronus lesson went. Many students got the hang of it - including Hermione and Ron. As expected, most of the Slytherins had trouble with it, as did Neville. Knowing what he did about his past, he wasn't surprised. He held back - he wasn't sure what everyone would think about it, nor what rumors of Harry's Patronus were. As it turned out, the first Slytherin to get a fully-formed Patronus was Salenia, when a large Husky came out of her wand, much to her joy. It was amazing to see so many students get the spell right; it was very advanced magic, and he was sure what more time, eventually the entire group could get it. There were some only doing non-corporeal forms, which he was sure they could master in time.

"You're all doing so well," Hermione said. "Of course, it'll be hard to do outside of controlled conditions, of course, but this is such advanced magic!" Jacob, if he had been leading this as Harry, would have stressed that more. "We might keep practicing this next week."

All of a sudden, the front wall of the room seemed to almost shimmer for a moment before dying down. Almost instantly, the entire group stopped their spellwork. "What was that?" asked Seamus from the other end of the room.

"I - I don't know," said Hermione. "I did ask that the room was secure from anyone who wasn't a member of the group - if you weren't on the list, you couldn't enter, and the room would be secured from anyone else trying to get in." She walked forward, looking up and down at the wall, which didn't do it again.

"You're sure those were your words when you created the room?" Jacob asked her.

Hermione nodded. "I am. Positive." She wrung her hands together nervously.

"Wait, only those on the list can get in while we're in here?" Draco asked. Hermione nodded. "Then no one's missing, is there?"

"My friend, Marietta." It was Cho, from near the front of the room. "She's not here. She didn't want to come with. She was acting rather strange. She's been so stressed lately with everything…"

There was a nervous silence around the room as fear rippled through the crowd around them.

"Expel her name from the list, Granger," Draco said. "Quickly!"

"Malfoy's right," Ron agreed, although that was probably a first for the two of them. "Do it now, before Umbridge goes and gets her!"

Hermione nodded and walked over to the list stuck to the wall. With a wave of her wand, she struck Marietta Edgecombe's name from the DA list. She was no longer allowed access to the room while they were in it, and it was like she had never been on the list, to begin with. The group still stood around, now nervously chattering with each other, wondering what they were going to do - eventually, they would have to leave.

"I wish we could see if something was going on, without them being able to see us, like a two-way mirror…" Hermione said, and at that moment, part of the front wall seemed to go opaque, and then, they could see through. It was obvious, though, that no one on the other side could see us.

"This is exactly where the girl said it was!" Umbridge, and she was speaking to Pansy Parkinson. "But nothing is happening!"

"Could she have been lying?" offered Pansy. "Maybe trying to save face."

"Keep looking, maybe they ran for it, and we can catch them!" Umbridge said. "Make sure you get Crabbe or Goyle to check the boy's bathrooms and have someone check the library! If they've tried to hide, we'll find them. Never fear, my dear."

Pansy nodded and walked off, but Umbridge remained. She was looking straight at them but couldn't see them. Umbridge uttered some spells at the wall but seemed dissatisfied. She huffed off, muttering something about making 'that girl' pay for making them do a runaround and trying to play a prank.

"We should give it some time before leaving; make sure she's gone," Hermione offered, her voice shaking a bit. "I'm glad I didn't go with my original idea for the list."

"What idea was that?" said her boyfriend, Terry, who came up and squeezed her shoulders.

"I was going to put a spell on it so that there would be some… visual sign if anyone betrayed us," she said, much to the surprise of some of the others around her, "but I decided against it. I felt like we may still have plausible deniability if we didn't go that way, as long as we don't get caught."'

"We'll have to leave at some point," said Blaise Zabini, who had come to stand next to Draco.

"And make sure we don't get caught," Draco agreed. "They'll notice that we're not there. Everyone better get very good at lying very quickly because I am not about to get into trouble. I'd never hear the end of it from my father." There were some agreements among the other students around them.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione whispered.

"Perhaps, we if all left a little at a time," offered Jacob.

"Jacob's right," agreed Ron. "We leave in spurts once we're sure that no one is coming."

"I wonder…" Hermione said aloud, and then the entire seemed to go invisible, giving them a few of the hallway. "Ah!"

"This room is amazing," muttered Terry.

"Right, so like Jacob said, we leave a little at a time. Umbridge will notice we're missing from our Common Rooms, so hopefully, we can get back before anything happens," Draco said.

Everyone looked at Hermione, but this wasn't her area of expertise. "Er, okay, just a few at a time, and make sure no one's coming!" Umbridge seemed to have abandoned this hallway, though.

"Edgecombe will know who was in this group, though," said Ernie MacMillian. "We could still get in trouble for this."

"Like Granger said, plausible deniability - get very good at lying," Draco told him. "They have one person's word against everyone else's." He didn't sound that certain.

"Except there were a couple of people who left," said Hannah from beside him. "They could corroborate her story, that we had something planned."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Jacob said. "All we can do is go back to our common room and act like we've done nothing wrong - which we haven't."

"We can't do this again, though," Hermione said, and she sounded truly sad to say that. "It'll be too risky if she's onto us." There were some reluctant agreements to that.

Once they were sure no one was coming back this way, they started slowly emptying out of the room. He thought the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Common Rooms were closest, but the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins - including himself - had longer to go. He and Draco stayed behind, last to leave along with Hermione and Ron. "I hope no one's gotten caught," Hermione said, worry etched in her features. "This would be all my fault."

"No, Hermione, don't say that, "Ron said, giving one of her shoulders a squeeze. "We all agreed to be here."

"Besides, I'm fairly certain that we would have been exposed by now," said Draco. "She could have dragged anyone back here to prove that we were here, but nothing's happened yet."

Taking deep breaths, all four of them made their way out of the room. Draco grabbed his hand, and the two shared a look before parting with Ron and Hermione, hoping that they could escape anyone and head back down to their common rooms unnoticed.

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

Jacob and Draco entered the Common Room. Everything appeared to be normal, and they found the other Slytherin Members of the DA sitting around, studying as if they had been there all evening. Millicent was also sitting with them. "Oh, and where have you two been?" Blaise teased.

"Out, what's it to you, Zabini?" Draco said as they sat down next to him.

"Where's Pansy? And Vincent and Gregory?" The group shrugged.

"They're all with Umbridge, I think," said Millicent. "I don't know what's going on, but she recruited them for something. They were looking for you, Draco."

Draco raised an eyebrow, and Jacob was surprised at how nonchalant he and everyone else seemed. "Looking for me? Why?"

"Wanted your help, too," she replied. "Where have you all been?"

They all offered different explanations, which Milicent seemed to buy. A bit later, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle reentered the Common Room, along with some of the other Slytherins, including Montague and Warrington. Pansy made a bee-line for them, forcing them to resay all of their explanations. "Umbridge was looking for you," she said.

"So Millicent said. As I said, I was with my boyfriend," he told her. "Maybe you should get one - or a girlfriend."

"Something big was going to go down tonight," she said. "Some Ravenclaw said that there was some illegal student organization in the school or something. We didn't find anything, though."

There was some laughter from them and their friends. "An illegal student organization?" Blaise scoffed. "And who was supposed to be in it?"

"Oh, people from every house apparently," said Pansy, "including ours."

Draco scoffed. "I don't believe that for a second."

"We looked all over, ran into some students coming back from various places, but nothing out of the ordinary." Pansy shrugged her shoulders. "It's not unusual for people to hide away and meet up in places, either. Umbridge is furious that we didn't find anything, though. I don't think we've heard the last of this, that is for sure."

~*o*x*o*x*o*x*o*x~

For once, Pansy was right. It was all over the school the next morning. Dumbledore was gone.

Jacob wasn't sure he could ask his father about it without seeming suspicious, but his surprise was genuine. Cho was still talking to Marietta; he saw the two of them looking at the next Educational Decree, number twenty-eight. It announced the new Headmistress - Dolores Umbridge. It did not explain the rumors that went around about what had transpired the night before - that Dumbledore had escaped the Minster and multiple Aurors last night. There was no way to know for sure what happened.

He and Draco ran into Fred, George, Ernie, and Hermione in between classes. Fred and George said they were tempted to make some hell with Dumbledore gone but wanted to finish off the Quidditch season and figured if they were going to do that, it wouldn't hurt to stay through N.E.W.T's, and it would make their mother happy. However, they pointed out that could make some small hell, not enough to get expelled, but enough to torture Umbridge. Ernie had informed them that apparently, Umbridge had been barred from the Headmaster's office. It wouldn't let her in, and she was furious.

Jacob couldn't help but wonder what happened to Dumbledore, and he wanted to tell his father about his Patronus, but that would have to wait until this weekend. This weekend marked the start of the Easter Holidays, and that meant a much bigger problem than was going on at school. It also marked the date that he, Draco, Crabble, Goyle, and Theodore would have their meeting with Voldemort. It had seemed so far away at one point, but now - the Easter Holidays were upon them.