Happy New Year everyone!

As soon as Harry returned to Grimmauld he was mobbed by his friends. It was a welcome distraction. Both he and Sirius had been slightly disturbed by Lucius Malfoy's conversation with the Minister so soon after the trial. Mr Weasley had been less effected since he was used to the blonde always cosying up to the old bureaucrat. Now with his mind back in the present with Molly fussing over him and the twins chanting 'he got off' Harry could look forward to his next year at Hogwarts once again.

Later in the week an impromptu party had been arranged to celebrate Ron and Hermione becoming prefects as well as Harry's continued education. In the corner Luka was playing her guitar. Remus had forgotten the glamour on his finger nails and the ever present Tonks has asked why he was wearing nail polish. As Remus floundered the nephilim had dropped an arm around him and explained that as a result of his complaints about her practising rock riffs at random hours she had painted his nails in his sleep. Unfortunately Arthur and the twins had been close by and the former's interest in Muggle music had gone into overdrive. The twins then egged him on by asking Luka for a demonstration as well as a verbal explanation. On the upside fielding requests for people Wizarding Wireless Network favourites kept her away from the Aurors. Theirs had been an uneasy truce over the last few weeks. Tonks was an obvious problem and Moody was more paranoid than ever after his kidnapping but apart from that things were relatively amicable. They kept their distance and were polite when interaction was unavoidable. Luka only had to hold her tongue when Tonks got a little too close to Remus or her clumsiness lead her to take out several pieces of furniture or ornaments. Given her lack of coordination Luka was surprised she had passed Auror training. Perhaps she was the reincarnation of this 'Mey-rin' she had heard Sebastian well, at least Sirius had gotten rid of that old troll's foot in the hall, she'd have probably broken her neck by now if it were still present. Luka paused as she spotted Tonks sycophantically laughing at one of Remus' jokes. On second thoughts a protracted stay at St Mungo's might do the metamorphmagus some good.

XXX

Luka muttered to herself over her cauldron in Grimmaul Place's cellar. She had just returned from the staff meeting where Dumbledore had announced the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The news of Minister's toady hopping her way into the post had not gone down well. But, Dumbledore had been unable to find anyone else due to the role's ever worsening reputation. No one wanted to be cursed over a one year contract. Gathering her ingredients Luka was glad she had the cellar to herself. She was making an industrial batch of Wolfsbane potion for the pack again and she didn't want to be distracted by the twins. Since Remus' change her role had remained the same but as a result of his new state any chance of him being pulled into the pack had evaporated. Word had spread fast about his attempt to eat Polly's adopted children and the packmaster was too wary of his own position to want Remus around all the time. If circumstances had been different Luka would have been relieved. Another interesting side effect of Remus' new condition was the changes to his monthly cycle. Whilst he was no longer weakened by coming moon or was in need of Wolfsbane Potion he did still transform. It had been quite a surprise for Luke and Sirius when Remus had transformed smoothly and painlessly into a different wolf form. Now instead of a gangly, grey wolf he now about the size of a large carthorse with a lush brown coat and no longer running on pure instinct. Luka had inquired about this change to Sebastian and Ciel. She'd never seen them but apparently there was such things as hellhounds and it appeared that Remus was now a close cousin to one. At least he wasn't the size of a house…

XXX

Now safe in the knowledge that he was indeed going back to Hogwarts Harry now found his thoughts drifting more and more to school. Or more precisely Quidditch. They had been going over to the field near the Weasleys' house for practice games but it just wasn't the same. It had given Ron a chance to test it his new broom though that he had received as a present for becoming prefect. At present however his thoughts were brought back down to earth by the stinging sensation in his wrist after Sirius' latest successful disarmament. Since the Dementor attack his godfather and Remus had been putting him through daily duelling practice. Thanks to Sirius' paranoid relatives the Ministry would be none the wiser about what happened and he wouldn't have to see the inside of a courtroom again.

"Right Harry, we'll try that again and this time concentrate, you almost stopped me," smiled Sirius as Harry picked up his wand.

XXX

Luka sat at the table as the new first years filed into the Great Hall. She hadn't been there as part of Harry's guard due to her duties as a teaching assistant. Looking over at the Gryffindor table it was good to see he had made it here without incident. Knowing Moody had been in charge of the trip meant he had had to jump through enough hoops to get to school. From her position she could see as the three students scanned the head table, noticed Umbridge and Hagrid's conspicuous absence. The children knew about Hagrid going on an assignment but they didn't know that little had been heard from since. But that was to be expected, he couldn't exactly keep sending owls on the progress of his work with the giants. That said, Grubbly-Plank was a more than adequate substitute for Care of Magical Creatures. The feast, as usual, was spectacular and Luka was thankful for her extensive exercise regime. Just as everyone was succumbing to the soporific effects of carbohydrates and cream Dumbledore rose to give his speech before being rudely interrupted by Umbridge. The odious creature rose to its feet like the bile up the throat of an overstuffed student. Attempting to appear coy and girlish she coughed and batted her eyelashes. Forget the student the bile was burning Luka now. As Umbridge went through her speech that made no effort to hide her intentions to interfere at Hogwarts Luka wondered how far she could push her orders from Dumbledore about not hurting Ministry employees. Once the speech was concluded and the damp squib of mandatory applause given the students were dismissed. Luka couldn't help but smile as Hermione remonstrated with Ron for calling the first years midgets.

"Something amuses you Ms Reginold?" asked Snape as they walked back towards the dungeons.

"Just the new prefects,"

"Yes, Weasley was quite a surprise. No doubt Potter was disappointed not to be awarded the position,"

"He did seem put out at first but has appeared to put it past him. He has quite enough to do this year with his ordinary scholastic and Quidditch activities without the added prefect work,"

"True, especially since even the Headaster's influence doesn't not extend to OWL examiners. I believe this is the last year I will have to endure his presence in my classroom. Alas I can't say the same for you Ms Reginold-,"

"Why do you keep emphasising my new title?" asked Luka sharply.

"Oh, merely for the reason that I find it so curious. Whilst you have made but the barest of changes, matrimony has transformed your husband. From what I've seen he's almost a different man," purred Snape he turned off to enter his office.

Luka snorted in derision as he closed the door but the confidence soon left her features. Had the changes been so obvious? No, Snape had eyes like a hawk. If anything she should see this as an early warning.

XXX

Luka sighed as she read over her timetable. It was her own fault really. She'd insisted on doing Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts at an accelerated rate and despite dropping History of Magic the combined OWL/NEWT work would more than make up for it. Luka had originally hoped that taking accelerated subjects would mean she could then further accelerate the others once she was finished and thus escape Hogwarts quicker. Alas, that didn't seem to be the case, she was stuck here for as long as everyone else. On the upside she could keep an eye on how Umbridge treated Harry. At present she was expecting a candy coated Snape impression. Speaking of whom she'd best hurry down to the dungeons if she was going to be in time for his class…

The Draught of Peace turned out to be a fiddly little thing, especially given that it was the first potion of the term. Luka shook her head sadly as she saw Harry skip the hellebore, there was no point telling him now since he couldn't add the hellebore back in. It wasn't like baking cake where if you miss something you can just add it a little later and do a bit of extra stirring. Further away Seamus seemed in danger of losing his reputation for pyrotechnics as he seemed hard pressed to keep the flames under his cauldron alight. As the lesson came to an end and Snape set them all twelve inches of parchment on the uses of moonstone Luka wondered, not for the first time, if it worth it just to write one short paragraph on her laptop and grossly increase the text size before printing. May be it would be worth considering for the end of the year. As the fifth years left Luka opened her copy of 'Advanced Potion Making', time to get officially started on sixth year potions. Ah, Draught of Living Death and she thought she'd escaped that by dropping History of Magic.

Moving quickly towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with her half eaten sandwich she cursed her inner manga addict. Just one more chapter her left foot! That was it, no more manga until the evening when her work was done. Thankfully she still arrived on time as the pupils filed in.

"Well, good afternoon!" purred the pink toad.

The half-hearted response not being up to her expectation she made the class repeat themselves. This was going to be a long lesson, especially now they were told to put their wands away. Then again, having perused Umbridge's textbook of choice it was clear that no real magic would be taught. That overgrown leaflet had read more like an introductory text for under eleven wizarding children than an OWL text. As Umbridge instructed the class to read the first chapter Luka rolled her eyes. This wasn't even teaching. The nephilim toyed with the idea of turning Umbridge's bow into a spider before she noticed Hermione's hand in the air. There it remained for at least five minutes until Umbridge could no longer pretend not to see her.

"I've got a question about your course aims," began Hermione once she was finally acknowledged and the whole class watched with interest.

"And your name is?" asked Umbridge her voice losing some of its false sweetness.

"Hermione Granger,"

"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," smiled Umbridge the sweetness replaced with condescension.

"Well, I don't. There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells,"

Luka smiled as the class turned as one to the blackboard. Umbridge exposed as a fraud before half an hour, that was even faster than Lockhart. As Umbridge replied they wouldn't need to use magic Ron and Harry jumped in to help Hermione. Then Dean chipped in with the accurate theory that if one was to be attacked it was certainly not going to be risk free. In the face of opposition Umbridge façade began to crack as her voice became more harsh. Then she crossed the line, 'extremely dangerous half-breeds'. As Dean correctly countered Remus had been one of the best teachers they had had. Since questions were coming in thick and fast Umbridge missed the look of hatred Luka was sending her. The nephilim sat ruminating on what to do with the Ministry operative until she hard Harry shout 'Voldermort'. She couldn't believe her eyes as the class descended into a Harry versus Umbridge slanging match that was all too quickly terminated by Umbridge sending Harry out of the class. Once the remaining class had settled back down they were order back to Chapter One on pain of detention and docked points if they disobeyed. Umbridge then returned to her seat at the head desk smoothing her jacket, and probably her nerves, as she went.

Luka wasn't spending the next period there so she left with the students who quickly encircled her in the hallway.

"Ms Reginold, please tell us the Duelling Club is happening this year," said Hermione who seemed to have elected herself class representative.

Luka sighed, she'd already been corned by the toad on that one and even going to Dumbledore hadn't helped. Despite everything that happened in the course of average lessons someone within the board of governors had convinced all the others that the club was too dangerous.

"Unfortunately, the club has been cancelled due to health and safety concerns," Luka replied to a general sound of disappointment.

"Health and safety? We almost blow ourselves up in Potions and that's fine?" asked Ron.

"Well at least Potions leads to an actual qualification. The Duelling Club was a purely recreational activity," said Luka as she tried to stick to the party line.

"But we need the practice and we're not going to get it here," said Pavarti.

To hell with the party line, she wasn't even a real member of staff.

"Well not everyone wants you to practice Miss Patel,"

That got everyone's attention.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Ron incredulously.

"Professor Umbridge is loyal to the Minister for Magic as she used to work for him. Currently the Minister sees Professor Dumbledore as an adversary due to their positions on Voldemort's return. The Ministry doesn't want Hogwarts churning out combat ready mages who listen to the Headmaster,"

"Do they think Dumbledore's trying to lead a coup? That's insane," squawked Ron.

"Yes, but paranoia is a powerful thing. Now, you'll have to excuse me," Luka said as she turned and waded through the crowd. That should provide some food for their thoughts.

Sitting at dinner Luka had a lot to think about. Professor McGonagall had had a word with her about Harry and his temper. Luka had noticed the deterioration over the summer but she had always had greater concerns. The two witches had agreed that Sirius needed to be informed, hopefully he could influence his godson to keep his emotions under control. Luka had already sent Elise off with a brief letter. Now her gaze turned to the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. 'Dangerous half breeds', oh she had no idea just how dangerous they could be. Alas, for now they were currently limited to somewhat juvenile forms of counter attacks such as the itching powder lining that fluffy cardigan and the chocolate laxatives in that chocolate fondant. Luka had promised herself some time to look through books on jinxes, as long as no permanent harm was done she could skirt around Dumbledore's rule.

XXX

"Sirius, I hate her presence as much as anyone but it still remains that she is a member of staff. If Harry continues to argue with her as much as he's done today he's likely to end up getting booted from the Quidditch team as well as having a few detentions," said Luka, Sirius on the other end of the telephone fell silent at that threat.

"I'll try and talk to him. I know he's sick to death of all the muck the Ministry has thrown at him but I don't want him in trouble, especially not in his OWL year. What was your impression of Umbridge?"

"She's a supercilious bitch and I'm going to do my best to jinx her to hell. If she keeps going on like this I'll be one of many so I should be able to avoid detection," smiled Luka.

"If you need any idea, you know who to ask," chuckled Sirius.

"Cheers Sirius,"

"No problem, bye,"

XXX

Harry stumped his way to Umbridge's office in a huff. No way would she move his detention so he could attend Keeper tryouts. As anger once again rose its familiar head he tried to keep Sirius' letter in mind. His godfather had expressed his sympathies for Harry being stuck for such a sorry excuse for a teacher whilst stressing the necessity of keeping his head. This lesson was easier to take from Sirius than anyone else. If his godfather had been able to stand being jailed for the murder of his best friend then Harry could take being called a liar by the school's resident idiots and Umbridge. As the cursed quill etched 'I must not tell lies' into his hand he held the image of Sirius' Azkaban mug shot firmly in his mind. The Ministry hadn't beaten Sirius, they wouldn't beat Harry.

XXX

Luka sighed as she made her way around her patrol route. Dumbledore had no way of proving that Umbridge's random attacks of calf cramp were down to Luka's spasmodus hex but he'd still volunteered her for Friday night patrols just in case the students decided to go crazy for their first weekend. Rounding the corridor leading to the Gryffindor smiled as she saw Harry, at last a break from the monotony. Wait, what was that metallic smell?

"Good evening Harry," said the nephilim as she ran her eyes over him, where was the wound?

Harry flinched back as he saw the teaching assistant, his left hand immediately flying to cover his right. Yellow eyes followed the movement. Before he could retreat Luka had bridged the gap between them.

"Show me your right hand Mr Potter,"

"It's nothing," Harry gulped. Only Ron knew about Umbridge, he couldn't let anyone else know. It was a private battle of wills.

"Now now, Sirius will think I haven't being doing my job if I let you go knowing you're injured," replied Luka as she smoothly reached for his hand.

Pushing back the sleeve Luka hissed as she saw the cut. It took her a moment to realise that it was a sentence, whoever's handwriting it was modelled on was terrible.

"What is this?"

"Nothing,"

Luka looked at him blandly, that old cliché?

"A possibly infected nothing… Is this the punishment Umbridge has been setting you?" asked Luka as she put two and two together.

"I said it's nothing. Now. Let. Me. Go," grunted Harry as he tried to pull himself free from Luka's grip. Seeing him straining at a forty five degree angle Luka was inclined to let him go just to see him fall but she suppressed the impulse. Instead she spun him around and gripped him by the shoulder. McGonagall would have to be informed of Umbridge's actions. With any luck Harry's injury wouldn't be in vain and would lead to the toad's swift ejection from office.