October 1995.
"The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams – "
"Or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?"

"So… what exactly do you feed… this?" Tonks leaned on the table, resting her head on her arms. She was looking interestedly at Monster, who politely pretended he didn't notice.

"Leftovers, usually," Remus said. "And it's a Puffskein."

"I can't believe you never had one," Bill said. "We had a whole herd."

"Yes, until your brothers decided they wanted to be Beaters," Molly added shortly. She shooed her son away. "Let me set the table!"

"I think it's really very cute," Tonks commented. She scratched the top of Monster's head (to be fair, he seemed all head) with one finger. Monster immediately abandoned all dignity and purred like mad. "If it ever has offspring, can I have one too?"

"I'd have to get him a little Monster wife first," Remus said pensively. "And I'm not sure, actually, how Puffskeins breed…"

"They bear life young," Bill said expertly. "About twelve in a litter. But they're so tiny, the first week or so, that Mum usually vacuumed them all!" He glared accusingly at his mother.

"Well, they are tiny," she said defensively. "And they look like bits of dust."

"I know," he said, grinning. "Don't worry 'bout it."

"We had too many of them anyway," she said, but she smiled at the memory. "Remember that time when Ron managed to smuggle about sixteen of them into his bedroom and raise them all?"

"You mean the summer of the Puffskeins?" Bill burst into laughing. His mother laughed as well.

"Summer of the Puffskeins?" Tonks repeated curiously.

"They breed extremely quick," Arthur explained. He had been studying a sheet of parchment with a map on it, but the conversation proofed too interesting. "Like rabbits, really. So with the sixteen Ron had, and the six or so we already had…"

"Let's just say that by the end of the summer, we had about sixty," Bill finished his father's sentence.

"Nobody dared visit us anymore, half of Ottery St Catchpole already had a Puffskein of ours."

"Sadly, most of them died during the winter," Bill sighed.

"Well, if you ever get sixty Puffskeins again, I'd love to have one," Tonks said.

"If we ever have sixty again, we'll give you twenty of them. See how you like them then," Molly said.

She and Bill set the table for breakfast. Remus picked up Monster and put him on the floor. Monster hummed and scooted over to Sirius. Sirius hadn't said ten words together in the past two hours, and even now he said nothing as he picked Monster up from the floor and put him on his lap.

"I don't want animals on the table," Molly warned him.

"I'm not completely barbaric," Sirius said, annoyed. "I know that."

Tonks and Remus exchanged glances. Sirius had been in a bad mood the last few days, and Molly reprimanding him didn't exactly improve it. And they spend so little time at Grimmauld Place that the last thing they wanted was a huge, blazing row.

"Don't you want a Puffskein?" Tonks asked Sirius. "To infest the house with?"

Sirius smiled weakly. "And wake up in the middle of the night to find that thirty or so are trying to eat from my nose?"

"Who knows, that might just be a really… interesting… experience," Bill said.

Molly set the breakfast on the table, and they began eating. For a moment, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of cutlery on porcelain plates or the coffee-pot being picked up and put back on the table.

Remus abruptly raised his head when he heard a soft 'click' upstairs.

"What is it?" Arthur asked.

"I think someone just closed the door."

"Oh bollocks, let's hope my Mum doesn't begin," Sirius scowled.

"Language," Molly warned, purely out of habit – as always, Sirius ignored her.

"Can you hear who it is?" he asked Remus.

"If you're quiet." Remus pricked up his ears and listened intently. If he concentrated hard enough, it was almost as if he was standing in the dark hallway. He could hear footsteps, and a distant scurrying and muttering. That's probably Kreacher.

"I think it's Dung," he said. "I hear someone say 'thieves, filthy thieves', and that's probably Kreacher."

"Never thought that elf would come in useful one day," Sirius commented coolly.

The door to the kitchen opened and Mundungus came stomping down the stairs. He looked rather surprised when he saw that they weren't surprised to see him – he hadn't said he'd come.

"'S'up?" he said.

"Hey Dung," said Tonks.

"Kreacher left you alone, I hope?" Sirius said sharply.

"Yeah, 'e did." Dung said down and reached for the coffee pot.

"What are you doing here?" Molly asked a bit too sharply to be polite.

"Just visiting!" Dung said, his eyes widening. He seemed utterly shocked that somebody could be not so pleased about seeing him.

"You're never just visiting, Mundungus," she said. "What is it this time?"

"You've got news about Harry, don't you?" Sirius said. "You were in Hogsmeade on Saturday. Did you see him?"

"Yessir," Dung said, proudly. He finally did something right. He had looked after Harry. There were no mishaps, like last summer.

"How is he?" Remus asked the question before Sirius could.
"'e's fine, 'e's fine. I saw him in the Hog's Head with a load of other kids – "

"What?!" Pretty much everybody in the room jumped on Mundungus. The crook hadn't expected his words to have this much effect, and he nearly literally jumped.

"What was Harry doing in the Hog's Head?" Sirius said sharply.

"Was Ginny there as well?" Molly demanded to know.

"And Ron?" Arthur added. They weren't that concerned about the twins – as long as they weren't spending time and money at Zonko's, it was pretty much fine with their parents.

"Yes and yes," Dung said, looking ready to cover his head with his arms, in case Molly decided to get violent. Arabella Figg had taught him that women weren't as vulnerable as they looked, especially if they were carrying a bag with cat food.

"What were they doing there?" Sirius repeated. "Don't tell me you don't know!"

"They were 'aving this… this meeting," Dung stuttered. "They were planning to begin a group, against Umbridge. To learn Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"What?" Remus said, feeling a strange mix of delight and disapproval.

"Whose idea was that?" Sirius wanted to know.

"'ermione's."

Obviously, Remus thought. I bet she wasn't very taken with Umbridge to begin with, and her refusing to let them do anything was probably the final straw.

"And Ron and Ginny went along with it?" Molly said incredulously.

"And Fred and George too," Dung added helpfully.

"How was Harry under all this?" asked Sirius.

"'e… 'e said that it would 'elp against You-Know-'oo, and 'e's going to teach 'em all how to fight 'im – "

"Harry?" Remus repeated. Sirius had a very smug expression on his face and looked about to say "that's my boy!" but Remus told him to "shut up, Padfoot!"

"What?" Sirius said. "Why? If anybody knows how to fight Dark Arts, it's Harry! Besides, who taught him to conjured a Patronus?"

"That's besides the point," Remus said, a bit peeved. Secretly, he did have the same feeling Sirius had, but on a rational level he knew how dangerously this idea could work out.

"I don't see how it is," Sirius objected.

"Do you have any idea what will happen if this group is really going out there and fight Death Eaters? They'll be killed one by one! That will make Harry popular with Fudge!"

"Who cares about bloody Fudge?" Sirius scowled.

"The rest of the world, who has no idea that Fudge's version of events isn't the right one? Who think that Harry's a lying lunatic? And there's Umbridge too, as much as I hate to say it. With her being High Inquisitor, if she finds out Harry – and the others too – have begun what could very well be seen as a rebellion, they will be kicked out of Hogwarts before you can say Voldemort," Remus said sharply. "And what should they do then? Don't say you'll let them live here. Their futures will be ruined, they education gone – should they risk that?"

"I quite agree with you," Molly interrupted. "It's ridiculous." She took Remus by surprise. He hadn't really been arguing Sirius, more showing the other side of things. The idea in itself was good, but he had the feeling Sirius wasn't really seeing the dangers of it. He had been merely pointing them out, but Molly thought he was on her side while in fact he wasn't. Not completely, anyway.

"Alright!" Sirius said loudly. "Alright! Fine! Have it your way!"

"Sirius – " Remus tried, but Sirius glared at him.

"Just shut up, Moony."

"You aren't really going to tell them off for this, are you?" Bill asked his mother.

"Of course I am! It's like Remus said! It can seriously damage their future careers. We're in a time when it's not wise to draw unwanted attention."

"I think it's very wise to do so if that attention comes from people like Umbridge," Sirius muttered.

"I'm going to write them a letter right now," Molly continued, making a point of ignoring Sirius. She got to her feet, but before she could get parchment and a quill, her husband stopped her.

"It's not a good idea to send a letter," Arthur said. "Who knows who might intercept it?"

"What else am I supposed to do?" she asked hotly. "Go to Hogwarts in person?"

"I'll talk to them," Sirius said, annoyed.

"How?" she bit.

"Through the fire in the Gryffindor common room. I've done it before."

"When?" Remus asked, sharper than he had intended. Sirius shot him an angry look.

"The last time was a couple of weeks ago. I forgot to tell you because the day after, the Daily Prophet published that article about Umbridge being High Inquisitor, and we all had something else on our minds."

"Fine. Good." Remus could tell Molly was really angry about her children forming a sort of resistance group, because for once she didn't berate Sirius about taking risks. "And tell them, especially Ron, as a Prefect, that they're not to take part in an illegal, secret group, on no account whatsoever. They'll be expelled, and their future will be ruined. There'll be enough time to learn things like this later – oh, never mind, I'll just go stick my head in the fire and tell them myself." As she was talking, she was working herself up more and more, and by now her eyes were blazing.

"What, tonight?" Sirius said. "You have guard duty tonight." He knew everybody's schedule by heart, so that he knew when to expect company – or to know when he would be left to his own devices.

Molly shot him an extremely annoyed glare. "Fine." She scowled. "Fine. You go talk to them. Make sure you tell them what I just said!"

"Of course," Sirius said coolly. "Trust me." She gave him a long as if she wasn't sure she could, but she said nothing.

Sirius stood up. "Now, I'll go send them a letter, so that they'll be there in time." He looked at Remus one more time, daring him to say anything, but when his friend remained silent he turned on his heels and left the kitchen.

"That was… interesting news," Tonks tried.

Remus abruptly got up as well and followed Sirius, leaving the others to discuss the matter, and to try and calm Molly down.

"Sirius!"

Sirius, half a staircase above him, ignored him. Remus ran up the stairs, two steps at a time. As he had expected, Sirius was going to his own room. Hedwig, Harry's owl, was there – Sirius had been working on a long letter, but as everything had to be coded, it had taken him quite a while. Sirius walked into his room and shut the door as if Remus wasn't there.

Remus walked up the last few stairs and knocked on the door. "Sirius?"

A stony silence.

He tried again. "Padfoot? Please?"

The old nickname worked better than the name given by the hated parents. Remus heard footsteps coming towards the door, then Sirius yanked the door open.

"What?" he sneered. "Going to tell me again what a bad idea it is?"

"Actually, I don't think it's a bad idea, I think it's a great idea," Remus said coolly.

"Sure," Sirius snorted, hiding his surprise. "I didn't hear you say that downstairs, to Molly."

"Of course not, she'd have torn my head off."

Sirius crossed his arms, glaring. "And why do you think it's a great idea?"

"Because they need to learn to defend themselves," Remus said. "Especially if Umbridge isn't going to do it. And who's better to teach them than Harry?"

"Besides you, you mean." Sirius allowed himself a small smile. He was glad to see that Remus was on his side after all.

"Of course, but I didn't want to come across as too vain," Remus joked.

"You were going on and on about what a dangerous idea it was, though," Sirius commented.

"I'm always doing that, it's an annoying habit of mine. If someone comes up with a good idea, I'm always the one pointing out the downside of things. And vice versa – if someone says something is stupid, I can't help but point out the good things. I need therapy for it."

"That much is obvious," Sirius grinned. He walked back into the room and stretched out his arm. Hedwig took off from the backrest of the sofa and landed on Sirius' arm.

"That's Harry's owl?" Remus asked.

"Yeah. Fine animal, isn't it?"

"Hmm."

Remus watched as Sirius took a sheet of parchment and wrote down a very short message on it. He rolled it up and sealed it, Hedwig perched on his shoulder, her wings spread to keep her balance. It was an interesting sight, the black-haired and –clad man with the snowy owl on his shoulder. Sirius let her walk onto his arm again, then he tied the small scroll to her paw.

"Now," he said. "I'm sure you know where this is supposed to be delivered. It's for Harry, obviously. Remus'll take you outside." He put his words into action immediately and handed the bird to Remus.

The owl was heavier than Remus had expected. She spread her wings again as she stepped from Sirius' arm onto Remus'. Her wingspan was so impressive she nearly knocked the two men against the head. She hooted softly as she neatly folded her wings.

"I'll take her outside right away," Remus promised.

"Right. Thanks. You're leaving after that?"

"Yes, sorry."

"Hm, don't worry. I know you have to." Sirius felt he wanted to be angry with somebody over it, but he didn't know who. "Anything I can tell the trio for you?"

"Nothing I can think of at this moment."

"Okay. I'll see you later."

"Yes, see you later."

It was past midnight when Sirius sat down next to the fire, the pot with Floo powder in his hand. He went over everything he had been instructed to say once more, then he took a handful of powder and threw it in the fire.

"Gryffindor common room!"

Thankfully, the common room was empty, save for the three persons Sirius was supposed to see. The three were sitting in armchairs. Harry was just putting away his books, probably after finishing his homework. Hermione was, as expected, bend over a book. Ron seemed to be sleeping, but suddenly grunted and opened his eyes, looking straight at the fire.

"Sirius!" he said.

Harry turned around abruptly and smiled when he saw his Godfather.

"Hi," Sirius said, grinning.

"Hi," the trio repeated as they sat down by the fire. Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, attempted to nudge Sirius' nose with his own, but Hermione pulled him back. Despite Sirius' head being in it, the fire was still very real.

"How're things?" Sirius asked.

"Not that good," said Harry. Indeed, he didn't look too happy. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams –"

"Or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius, just keeping himself from winking. He grinned when he saw their stunned looks.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded to know.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," said Sirius lightly, now definitely grinning. "The Hog's Head, I ask you."

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione argued. "That's always packed with people –"

"Which means you'd have been harder to overhear," said Sirius interrupted. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione." It was no coincidence that the Marauders had always made the bulk of their plans in the Three Broomsticks.

"Who overheard us?" Harry asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Mundungus, of course," said Sirius. They looked even more taken aback, and he laughed. "He was the witch under the veil."

"That was Mundungus?" Harry asked. He sounded as though he couldn't really believe it. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing?" said Sirius. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"I'm still being followed?" asked Harry incredulously.

"Yeah, you are," said Sirius, "and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organise an illegal defence group." He smiled at his Godson to show that he wasn't really angry, but, in fact, enormously proud.

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron, sounding disappointed. 'We'd've liked to've seen him.'

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago," explained Sirius, "and that barman's got a long memory." He would have, being a Dumbledore. Sirius often suspected that Albus Dumbledore had a photographic memory, and he wouldn't be surprised to find that Aberforth had one as well. "We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately... Anyway..." he continued dismissively. "First of all, Ron – I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" It didn't seem that Ron was happy with it.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defence Against the Dark Arts group." Sirius said it a bit dully. He was just passing on information, but he wasn't agreeing with it. "She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also –" and he looked at the other two crouched by the fire, watching him a bit apprehensively, "– advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"On duty doing what?" asked Ron quickly, ignoring the rest of the message.

"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order," said Sirius. "So it's fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me to."

A silence followed. Ron fidgeted with a hole in the hearthrug. The other two were watching him – the message Sirius had passed on had mainly concerned him.

"So, you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the Defence group?" Ron muttered eventually.

"Me? Certainly not!" Sirius said immediately. "I think it's an excellent idea!"

This took all three by surprise.

"You do?" Harry asked, incredulously.

"Of course I do!" said Sirius. "D'you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?" They had barely accepted them from McGonagall…

"But – last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks –" Harry objected.

"Last year, all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!" said Sirius impatiently. Sometimes, Harry can be a bit… thick. "This year, we know there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"

"And if we do get expelled?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" Harry objected. He looked at her as if he couldn't quite believe what she'd just said.

"I know it was. I just wondered what Sirius thought," she shrugged.

"Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," said Sirius reasonably.

"Hear, hear," said Harry and Ron together. Their moody and sleepy expressions had disappeared; they looked decidedly awake and enthusiastic now.

"So," said Sirius, ready to be practical now the messaging was over, "how are you organising this group? Where are you meeting?"

"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," said Harry, almost naturally taking the role as the leader. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go."

"How about the Shrieking Shack?" suggested Sirius.

"Hey, that's an idea!" Ron seemed all for it, but Hermione tutted. The sceptical sound made all three look at her.

"Well, Sirius, it's just that there were only four of you meeting in the Shrieking Shack when you were at school," she said reasonably, "and all of you could transform into animals and I suppose you could all have squeezed under a single Invisibility Cloak if you'd wanted to. But there are twenty-eight of us and none of us is an Animagus, so we wouldn't need so much an Invisibility Cloak as an Invisibility Marquee –"

"Fair point," said Sirius, looking slightly crestfallen. It felt as if Remus was here, pointing out holes in his plans. "Well, I'm sure you'll come up with somewhere. There used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind that big mirror on the fourth floor, you might have enough space to practise jinxes in there."

"Fred and George told me it's blocked," said Harry, crushing Sirius' idea. "Caved in or something."

"Oh..." Sirius said, disappointed. "Well, I'll have a think and get back to –" He broke off mid-sentence. He had heard something, and not from behind him. It came from another fireplace, and in his direction. It took him only a moment to realise what had happened.

They know I'm here.

He didn't stay to find out just who had found him out. He abruptly pulled his head back, and only just in time. The cool air of the kitchen hit his head, as though somebody had thrown a bucket of cold water over his face, as he staggered backwards on his knees with the force of his pull backwards. Wide-eyed, shocked, he watched as he saw a stubby, heavily-ringed hand grope around in the fire, trying to find him.

Somehow, Umbridge had found out about him.

Author's Note
Okay, it's official. I can't write Dung. His accent is impossible. Even Hagrid's easier, because Hagrid has a lot of dialogue in the books, so you can just steal phrases from there. Dung speaks, what, twenty sentences together?
Also, I had some trouble deciding what Molly calls Remus! 'Professor Lupin' is too cool, but 'Remus' seemed too... familiar. I finally settled on 'Remus', but I'm still not sure whether I like it. :P
Not sure whether 'The Summer of the Puffskeins' can be considered canon, btw. It does say in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them that Ron used to have a Puffskein and that Fred used it for Beater-practice, but it didn't say that they used to have sixty... Oh well. I decided to take a bit of liberty with the canon, since it seemed funny to me!
Hope you all liked the chapter too. Please leave a review!