Malfoy had been steering clear of Harry, Hermione, and Ronna right after his injury, unsure of how to handle the three of them helping him so freely, but he was slowly beginning to regain his old swagger.

And so in Potions class on Thursday, he took the fourth seat at FitzSkimmons' table, and as they all worked on their shrinking potions, said quietly, "See the Prophet this morning, Potter?"

Fitz turned to Simmons. "You read it — you didn't mention anything."

"There was nothing I thought would tickle either of your fancies at the time," replied Simmons, "but given who it is running his mouth, I assume he's referencing the sighting of Black by a muggle near here. Black was of course long gone by the time the authorities arrived, assuming it was actually him to begin with, but honestly it was just a matter of time before he was seen near here. He's after you for some reason, it's not hard to know that you're of school age, and given the fact you're an orphaned British wizard, you're obviously going to be here at Hogwarts during the school year. So of course he'd be venturing into this neighborhood eventually if he's really after you. But as there was no actual information of concern in the article, or information period to be honest, and I figured you really didn't care if Black had been seen or not, I didn't mention it — and I think you and Ronna were busy stealing each other's food at the time like you're thirteen or something, and Black is an adult problem."

So just to prove how adult they were, Fitz and Daisy both immediately stuck their tongues out at their wife, making Malfoy wonder not for the first time if they'd completely lost their marbles, and making Simmons roll her eyes at her spouses' display of utmost maturity, and briefly wonder how the rest of their team would react to finding out that their Acting Director when Coulson was out on a mission or kidnapped, acted like this when she wasn't having to be responsible.

But Malfoy quickly collected himself and leaned across the table, eyes fixed malevolently on Fitz. "Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?"

"If I tried to catch him, it would clearly be the three of us together," Fitz replied disdainfully. "But until someone decides to stop treating us like we're bloody children and actually tell us why I'm supposed to want to go after some guy who wants to kill me because I happened to survive Tom Riddle when I was a baby — No. We have absolutely no plans of trying to catch him. Because that would be stupid."

"Well, if it was me," drawled Malfoy, like he was so superior to three actual Shield agent spies who'd been through more than he could ever imagine, and didn't cry like a little baby when a hippogriff he'd offended scratched his arm, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for him."

"You know, any time you'd like to tell us why Harry should be out risking life and limb, we're all ears," retorted Daisy. "I mean, it would be to your benefit to give us a reason to go out looking for him, since it would increase our chances of dying, which is clearly what you want. But unless someone finally tells us why the hell we should be out hunting him ourselves instead of letting the proper authorities take care of it, we're not going to go after him ourselves, just being lowly students and all. So how about you just tell us already instead of thinking you're being all mysterious and infuriating by keeping it a secret. Because right now you just sound like a petulant child who doesn't actually know anything, when you keep not telling us."

"So you don't know," sneered Malfoy, ignoring everything Daisy had just said. "Well, maybe you'd rather not risk your neck, want to leave it to the dementors, but if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."

"And we'll be more than happy to just as soon as you tell us why we should — that's what we keep trying to tell you," replied Simmons calmly. "But I'm beginning to think that you've just heard random snippets from your father, and you yourself don't actually know why Harry should be going after Mr Black."

But before Malfoy could retort anything back that still wasn't going to be telling them why Harry should go after Mr Black himself, they heard Snape sneer, "Orange, Longbottom. Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"

Once again, the overgrown bat was abusing his second favorite fuck toy a few tables away from where FitzSkimmons and Malfoy were sitting. In unison, FitzSkimmons turned to glare at him, already running low on patience after Malfoy.

Neville, meanwhile, was trembling and looked as if he was on the verge of tears, but Snape completely ignored this pure, unbridled terror he was causing in a child he had for some inexplicable reason been given stewardship over, and instead dug the knife a little deeper, saying coldly, "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."

At this, Daisy had finally had enough.

"Fuck you, Snape!" she shouted, leaping up and pulling out her wand. "That's straight up attempted pet murder! And of a student's pet, none-the-fucking-less! I am done with your psychopathic abuse of students, you cunt! So we're out of here! Neville, come on, let's go."

FitzSimmons had immediately jumped up and brought their wands up to combat position as well when their wife had leapt up, and when Daisy said they were leaving, they quickly grabbed their book bags and threw them over their shoulders. When Neville (and everyone else in the classroom) just sat there in frozen shock, Fitz walked over and grabbed Neville's arm pulling him up, as Simmons grabbed his book bag for him, both of them keeping their wands trained in Snape's direction in case he tried anything. But so far, he seemed too stunned to even move, let alone attack them. Daisy also threw on her own book bag, before all three of them slowly pulled Neville out with them, keeping their wands firmly trained on Snape.

They had just made it to the door when Snape finally collected himself enough to snarl, "Stop! None of you are to leave."

Pushing Neville out the door in case a duel broke out, so that the innocent boy wouldn't get caught in the crossfire, Daisy sneered right back, "Watch us. And tell whoever the fuck you want whatever the bloody hell you want, we don't give a shit. But we aren't going to let you stand there and abuse a student you have a personal vendetta against for some reason, just because you're a miserable, worthless cunt and the only way you can feel worth anything is by abusing people who are powerless to stand up against you. Well not any more — we're standing up against you right here, right now. And next time, you might not be so lucky for us just to walk out, and not make you actually pay for what you've spent two years already doing to Neville."

"And just fyi, if it wasn't for you breathing down his neck, intentionally trying to make him mess up just so you can abuse him even more — if we actually had a competent professor for Potions instead of you — Neville would do just fine. He doesn't have this problem with any other professor, just you. Not that you're actually a professor — you're a child-abusing felon who'd better watch his back before we do what the wizarding court system won't," added Simmons, before the three of them slipped out of the room, Fitz pulling the door closed behind them and Simmons throwing every locking charm she knew on the door.

They knew it would do nothing to prevent Snape from coming after them if he tried, he'd just blast the door down if he had to, but he would at least be slowed down a few seconds as he tried to open the door normally before discovering that it was locked, and then hopefully a few more seconds with casting at least one or two of the most elementary unlocking charms on the door, before finally just blasting the door off its hinges, giving them a better chance of avoiding having to have an actual duel with the Snake.

They set off at a quick run down the hall, pushing Neville in front of them, the three of them constantly checking over their shoulders to make sure Snape didn't make it out before they could disappear.

As they ran through the Entrance Hall, Simmons shoved Neville's backpack into his arms, and said, "Get to Gryffindor common room as quickly as you can, and stay there until the second half of lunch. And when McGonagall comes to you, tell her to come to us first — though she'll probably come to us first anyway. And don't go to any detentions anyone may try to give you."

"And word of advice — stop bringing your pet to the lab. Or any class, period. It's stupid, and if MG or Snape or anyone else wants to punish you for that, we're not going to stop them," added Daisy as they hurried up a few staircases. "Now go!"

As Neville continued sprinting towards Gryffindor Tower, FitzSkimmons ducked into the nearest secret passage that would take them up to their own common room.

"There's going to be hell to pay for that stunt," said Simmons once they were a few floors away and reasonably safe.

"Yeah, but that was beyond acceptable," answered Daisy. "And given how much shit Harry, Hermione, and Ron have gotten by with the past two years, and the fact we don't give a shit if we get thrown out, we'll be fine. But regardless, this isn't an extinction-level event, and we deal with those every other Tuesday tea time back home."

"And it seems to be a yearly occurrence for us to do something to get called into Professor McGonagall's office," added Fitz. "First year was Snape in Potions, when I refused to do detention for refusing to let Snape slander my reputation after Neville melted his cauldron. Last year was fighting Malfoy in the Great Hall, if that could even be called a fight. And this year it looks like it's back to Snape in the dungeons with a cauldron, only shielding Neville instead of ourselves this time."

Making their way into their dorm, Daisy said, "Good thing we went with Ancient Runes before Potions this morning. Now we can just chill until near the end of lunch and maybe avoid MG until after Defense this afternoon."

"Actually — I was thinking we should probably get there early, try to get a bite in before Professor McGonagall gets there from her class she's teaching right now, and then deal with her over lunch before she can go after Neville."

~FSK~

As Simmons planned, students had just started streaming into the Great Hall for lunch when Professor McGonagall came striding along towards them, looking angrier than they could ever remember seeing her before.

She didn't speak until they were in her office, where she turned on them lividly and demanded, "What is this I've heard about you storming out of Professor Snape's class this morning?!"

"We did what you and every other responsible adult in this castle should have done years ago — we set Snape in his place," answered Simmons coolly.

"Along with protecting Neville from having his toad killed by Snape," added Fitz.

"Murdered — we prevented Snape from murdering Neville's toad," interrupted Daisy. "Let's not beat around the bush as to what it actually was. Snape hoped Neville's potion was wrong and would kill Neville's toad. You know as damn well as we do that that pathetic excuse for a human meat sack has it out for Neville the same as he does for Harry. Now, if you want to punish Neville for taking his toad to lab in the first place, we're completely in agreement with you there. But that punishment should not be murdering his toad. And don't give us any bullshit about 'if Neville made his potion correctly'. Potentially incorrectly made and therefore deadly potions should never be tested on someone's pet — it's no different than if Snape had said he was going to feed a few drops of Neville's potion to Neville himself, and if Neville did it correctly then he'd just turn into a baby, instead of dying. You'd be rightfully livid if Snape had said that — well, you'd better damn well be, anyway — so you should be equally furious that he tried to do that to Neville's pet."

"You should have reported it!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall. "Not taken it into your own hands!"

"Pulling Neville out of class before Snape could kill his toad barely counts as taking it into our own hands, especially considering what we should have done to him," growled Fitz mostly to himself.

"And we are reporting it — right now. Which of course begs the question — what are you going to go do about it?" said Daisy calmly, throwing everything back onto McGonagall's plate. "Reporting is completely pointless and a waste of everyone's time if the person the felony is being reported to isn't going to do shit about it."

"So prove to us that we weren't correct in not bothering to immediately come to you after getting Neville safely out of Snape's clutches, ignoring of course the fact that you were presumably teaching at the time yourself," challenged Simmons coldly before McGonagall could have the chance to reply. "Because the three of us are more than capable of taking care of child abusers on our own. This is your one chance to give us a reason not to. A reason to trust any authority figure at this school ever again, when they've presumably let this criminal behavior go on as long as that felon has been lording over a class at this school — because he sure as hell hasn't been teaching the three years we've been here."

"Also, just to go ahead and clear up the misconception you have, we're not doing any detentions — we all know you're going to try. We go through this at least once a year, so it'd be really nice if you saved us all the time and trouble since we do have Defense Against the Dark Arts to get to this afternoon," added Daisy. "Take all the points away you want, write to Mrs Weasley, we really couldn't give a shit — just don't waste all of our times trying to give us detentions we won't do. Threaten to kick us out if you must, we know from experience that you won't, that you probably can't, and we're completely fine if you do anyway."

Professor McGonagall stared at them in complete shock for several long seconds, before finally trying to threaten, "I'll remove you from the Gryffindor quidditch team, Potter. And Weasley, Granger, I'll revoke your Hogsmeade weekend privileges. Potter, you're already not allowed to go, and certainly wouldn't be after this even if you were."

"Oh — thanks for reminding me!" exclaimed Fitz with genuine thanks. "I still need to tell Wood that I'm not playing this year, so he can start setting up tryouts to find a new seeker. I'm really glad you mentioned that, I'd completely forgot about it. Thanks!"

McGonagall stared at him in shock, and almost horror, at hearing that her star seeker wasn't going to be playing quidditch that year, completely forgetting for the moment that they'd stormed out of Professor Snape's class that morning and she was supposed to be punishing them. She had just intended to use the threat of kicking him off the team to scare him into behaving, but now she was the one in trouble. Actually keeping him from playing had never been her intent — it had purely been a bluff. She already knew that she needed him more than he needed her, she'd just assumed he would do anything to play because he was so good at it, and had loved it so much the previous two years, and quidditch was more important than life itself for most students, that he would never call her out on her bluff.

But before she could figure out what to say to Fitz's pronouncement, Simmons added with the disgust clear in her voice, "And we already weren't going to Hogsmeade unless Harry could go with us. You didn't seriously think we'd just leave him behind, did you?"

"Yeah — we weren't going anywhere Harry couldn't go because his adoptive family are abusive assholes, just barely below the prince of hell Snape himself, and didn't sign a permission slip that never should have been sent to them in the first place because they should be in jail, not his guardians. So unless you were going to be willing to sign Harry's permission slip for him when Fudge himself wasn't, we couldn't have gone anyway. You're going to have to try harder to give us a punishment we care two shits about," Daisy finished disdainfully.

After McGonagall continued to just stare at them for several more seconds, clueless as to what to do about not just three completely unruly students, but also at the fact that one of them was the brightest student at the school who never broke a rule, another was a Weasley who couldn't be expelled without a really loud earful from a certain Matriarch, and the last was the Boy-Who-Lived himself, who Dumbledore had made clear had to be protected, Daisy took charge.

"So can we go? — We do have class this afternoon."

"No!" exclaimed McGonagall forcefully. "I haven't given you your detentions yet!"

Daisy rolled her eyes as Fitz gave a huff of irritation, and Simmons replied coolly, "Ronna already told you — we're not doing any detentions for not doing anything wrong. We protected Neville's toad from what we reasonably believed had the possibility of being great bodily harm or death to the toad and great mental harm to Neville because of it, and we did so in the most peaceful way possible, by simply removing Neville from the potentially life-threatening situation instead of killing Snape or greatly injuring him, which by any acknowledgement at all of the God-given right of self-defense, we had every right to do — reasonable force and all that. So if anything, we should be getting Special Awards for Services to the School."

"And just so you're clear on what Hermione just said," continued Daisy, "we won't be going to any detentions even if you do say we have to do them, and we know enough spells to fight you and anyone else you bring with you long enough to make sure everyone in this castle knows that you're fighting three students in a full blown knock-down drag-out fight. Because when we fight for our lives, we fight to kill — we're not bound by whatever code of fighting you hold to. We fight to win at all costs, no matter how dirty. In fact, our entire goal will be to fight as dirtily as we possibly can to guarantee our win."

And with that she stood up, signifying that the conversation was at its end to FitzSimmons, who quickly stood up as well.

"We have class to be getting to," said Simmons crisply as they turned to walk towards the door and out of Professor McGonagall's office.

They'd only taken a step when McGonagall exclaimed at their backs, "I'll take your time-turner away from you!"

Simmons paused, causing the other two to stop as well, before turning her head to look sternly over her shoulder at McGonagall. "Are you prepared to die trying to take it from us? Also, don't dare try to get to us through Neville, or we will reign hell down on you, the likes of which will make Voldemort look like nothing more than a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. We can literally bring this stone building crumbling to the ground until it's less than the crumbling ruins muggles would see if they ever got close enough."

And without waiting for McGonagall to reply, she turned and resumed walking towards the door, Daisy and Fitz doing likewise.

"I'll write to your mother, Weasley! And take a hundred points away from each of you!"

But FitzSkimmons didn't even bother pausing this time, Daisy simply saying towards the door as they continued walking, "Don't give a fuck — make it a round five hundred!", before they walked out, leaving a stunned, powerless McGonagall behind them.

Once they were several halls away, Simmons finally broke the silence saying, "Howler number three, incoming."

"I imagine so," replied Daisy indifferently. "What's new?"

But Fitz was thinking about something else. "You know, we really don't fight to kill unless we have to."

"I know, but better to make MG think we do — make her take us more seriously," replied Daisy. "And we certainly would fight dirty by their strict rules of dueling we learned last year, which could very quickly escalate it to a situation where we would reasonably believe we might be fighting for our lives. Which we still wouldn't intentionally try to kill, but we would fight to permanently incapacitate, which could cause death. Though I'm not really sure what you had in mind when you told her we could reign hell down on her and make Riddle look like a child, Jemma dear."

"That was mostly just a really good sounding bluff to strike the fear of God in her," answered Simmons. "But I do think between our collective knowledges both from Fitz and I's fields of study and all three of our years as Shield agents, and the spells we already know or could easily learn, that we could bring a stone building, even of this size, down to a pile of rubble, rocks, and dust. Now, it's possible these walls themselves have magic imbued in them that would stop normal spells from working on them, and would stop things like fire, and C-4, and jackhammers and such, I don't have a clue, and quite honestly I don't think there's a wizard in the world who would have a clue how muggle things would work against any such magical spells. But a B2 dropping its entire payload on this castle, that I think could test any magic that isn't designed specifically for it. Not that we could actually convince Shield to bomb this castle, if they exist at all in this world and we could convince them we're time traveling Shield agents, but it's an idea that we almost if not quite are actually capable of doing."

~FSK~

As lunch still had another thirty minutes to go, FitzSkimmons were the first to arrive at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom by a large amount of time.

Fortunately, however, the door was already open since everyone was down at lunch and there wasn't any class going on at the moment, so FitzSkimmons were able to go ahead and get their three normal seat next to each other in the back, that they pushed even closer together since they were themselves. They opened up their Defense book of the year to the first chapter, and began skimming over it waiting for the rest of the class and their new teacher, Professor Lupin, to arrive.

When Lupin did finally arrive, instead of lecturing like both of their previous DADA teachers, he led them down the hall to the staffroom to give them a practical lesson, along with quickly teaching them a nifty little spell along the way to use against Peeves when he was being particularly annoying. Entering the staffroom, the first thing FitzSkimmons saw was Snape sitting in an armchair, and so they immediately pulled their wands out from their robes, in case he tried to do anything to them in retaliation for Potions class that morning, or more importantly, tried to do anything to Neville — who had cowered behind some of his fellow Gryffindors as soon as he'd spotted Snape sitting there.

But while he didn't try to attack anyone, having FitzSkimmons point out a few of his many sins that morning clearly hadn't made Snape reevaluate his ways either, for as soon as everyone had entered and Lupin had gone to close the door, he sneered derisively, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."

And just to add insult to injury and pour salt into wounds just for the fun of it, as he made it to the door he added, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Potter, Weasley, and Granger are there to take him away so he doesn't have to face the consequences of his incompetence."

FitzSkimmons immediately snapped their wands up to point straight at the Snake's heart, who at least had enough self-preservation to merely contemptuously glare back at them, and not try to make a move for his own wand.

But Professor Lupin answered mildly, "I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation, and I am sure he will perform it admirably," apparently deciding it best to just ignore the whole Harry Potter and his friends pointing their wands at Harry Potter's father's mortal enemy situation that was going on, and simply address what Snape had said.

Of course, based on the look of pure loathing that Snape gave Professor Lupin as he briefly glanced over at the professor, FitzSkimmons seriously doubted he felt the same way as Professor Lupin did, but after one last malicious glare at FitzSkimmons, he swept out of the room slamming the door shut behind him, not replying.

Crisis averted, FitzSkimmons restowed their wands until Professor Lupin said they needed them, and directed their attention to their teacher, to find out what wonders he had in store for them that afternoon.

~FSK~

Lupin had just finished explaining what a boggart was and how to fight one, with help from Simmons and Fitz answering his two questions.

And so once everyone had practiced the spell, he lined them all up in a single file line in front of the wardrobe the boggart was chillin' in, to think of what the boggart would turn into for them, and how they could make it comical looking. But while everyone was thinking, he pulled Fitz over to the side, which of course brought Simmons and Daisy along with him.

"Harry, will it be Voldemort for you?" he asked Fitz in an undertone. "I don't want to scare the class, but with you — and Weasley and Granger — I feel like things may not be as predictable as I initially would have thought before the train incident."

Fitz thought for a long second, before replying, "Honestly, I don't know." Then turning to his wives, he asked, "Leopold?"

"Leopold."

"Leopold."

Turning back to Professor Lupin, Fitz said, "Let Ronna go first. If it turns into someone who looks exactly like me just in a suit and nicer hair, that's what all three of ours will be. But if it turns into a spider or Riddle, I don't know what mine will be. I don't think it will be Riddle, as I've defeated him all three times I've faced him, so I doubt he'd be my biggest fear, but I don't know what it would be. Also, the only image I have of him is a fifth year Tom Riddle from when he attended Hogwarts himself, which is anything but scary — not quite as suave and debonair as Leopold, but still handsome and definitely not scary. But like I said, I don't think it would be Riddle. Of course, after our encounter with the dementors on the train, I'm not sure it's possible for the boggart to be me, since dementors and boggarts both seem to be mind creatures, but it's really all a guess."

Lupin thought for a second, before saying, "Ronna, do you mind being at the end of the line, and Harry and Hermione you can be nearby if it turns out to be who you think it might be. Else I'll skip you two, you both answered questions, and if you don't know what it'll be, I don't want now to be when you find out in case you can't think of what to turn it into fast enough. I don't doubt your ability, but now isn't the time. I'll find another boggart for later if that turns out to be the case — because I am curious what yours will both be."

FitzSimmons both nodded, and all four of them returned to where everyone else was still lined up.

When it got to Daisy's turn, Dean's mousetrapped hand gave a loud crack, and suddenly the Doctor was standing before them all. The entire rest of the class stared at the Doctor in shock and confusion, clearly recognizing it as Harry Potter in a suit and sleeker hair, wondering why Ronna Weasley's worst fear was her best friend that she hung out with literally all the time, just in a suit and nicer hair.

"Riddikulus!" said Daisy, and Leopold was suddenly bounty-hunter Fitz, from when he'd rescued them seventy-four years in the future.

Daisy smirked lecherously at the boggart for a second, before stepping aside for Simmons to take her place. With another loud crack, Leopold was back.

"Sorry, Fitzy," mumbled Simmons under her breath to herself, before pointing her wand at the Doctor and saying, "Riddikulus!"

Where previously had stood the Hydra fascist shadow, suddenly stood a much younger Fitz, from before the fall of Shield, with curly hair and whipped cream covering half of his face from when May had got the upper hand on their short-lived prank war on Skye with varying stories of how the older woman had become known as the Cavalry. Simmons and Daisy both burst out laughing, as Fitz rolled his eyes and stepped forward to take his turn against his darker self, nudging a still chuckling Simmons out of the way so the boggart would focus on him.

For the third time the boggart turned into Leopold.

"Riddikulus!"

Leopold had started to raise his arm to point at Fitz to command his guards (that weren't actually there) to open fire on Fitz, but his arm suddenly flopped uselessly towards the ground, looking like a thick, flesh-colored rubber glove. Staring at it for a second, he tried raising his other arm, just for it to swing pointlessly as well, as deboned as the first arm.

Fitz and Daisy both sniggered at Leopold trying to wave his flopping arms about, as Simmons gave a disbelieving chuckle and shook her head, muttering to herself, "Harry's deboned arm from Lockhart. I can't believe you."

But it seemed to be comical enough to get a few minor chuckles from some of their Gryffindor classmates as well, and Lupin said, "Forward, Neville, and finish him off!"

The boggart turned back into Grandmum Snape, and with a collective guffaw from the entire class, the boggart exploded into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and disappeared, essentially ending their Defense Against the Dark Arts class for that day.

As they left class and headed back up to their dorm before supper a few minutes later, Simmons looked over at her wife and said, "Um, Daisy? What was that? You turned the boggart into bounty hunter Fitz — that's your fantasy, not something comical."

"I couldn't think of anything funny off the top of my head, just things that would be cringy-embarrassing, which I didn't want to put Fitzy through in front of an entire class that already ostracizes him every chance they get, especially in the books, and still wouldn't have met the requirements of comical," answered Daisy. "And you know I'll do things to make our boy blush, but I'd never intentionally actually embarrass him — that's mean. So since I couldn't think of anything comical, and the main goal really seems to be to make it no longer scary, not necessarily comical in and of itself, I went with sexy."

The following morning, FitzSkimmons were watching the owls swoop in with their letters and packages, when they spotted Errol flying in the open windows near the ceiling.

And tied to its leg was nothing less than a bright red envelope of doom.

"Well, this has been fun," said Daisy to no one in particular, jumping up from her seat.

FitzSkimmons scrambled out of the Great Hall as fast as they could, hoping to get out of the Howler's range before it could be activated.

As they made it out into the courtyard, Daisy asked, "So who's going to come bringing the howler to us, like they think we just missed it?"

"Probably that Creevey kid," muttered Fitz darkly. "He still hasn't started leaving us alone."

"I didn't see him down at breakfast yet, and without seeing us having been sitting in the spot the owl landed in, I don't think he'd necessarily recognize Errol, and I don't think he's bad enough to go around looking at mail left lying around to try to find something of Harry's," replied Simmons. "And there was no one directly around us while we were eating, and I feel like everyone else, who knows what a howler is anyway, won't want to go anywhere near it, even logically knowing that it shouldn't go off for them. And those who know may warn those who don't away, as well. So our best hope is honestly that it just sits there until Professor McGonagall walks by right before class to see why there's an unattended howler lying on Gryffindor table."

"And she'll do what, exactly?" said Fitz darkly. "She's the one who told on us to Mrs W in the first place."

"We'll cross that bridge if it comes," sighed Simmons.

"Malfoy — he'd love to get his hands on it," said Daisy suddenly.

"But unless he saw us sitting there, and then the owl land in the spot we just vacated, I don't think he'll ever know it's there," answered Simmons. "He won't have a good line of sight on Gryffindor table when he walks out of the Great Hall for his first class, so I actually don't think he's a likely threat in this particular case."

Meanwhile, back in the Great Hall, several Gryffindors had noticed the bedraggled owl splat into the eggs on an empty section of the table. And as the purebloods and most halfbloods amongst them immediately recognized the envelope tied to its leg as well, information quickly passed in scared whispers down the length of the table. Eventually the news reached the ears of the twins, who curious as to who could have been misdelivered a howler, walked down the table towards where the owl lay unconscious.

But as soon as they were close enough to recognize the owl, they quickly stopped short. But after several seconds of it not starting to smoke, Fred looked at his brother and said quietly, "I don't think it's for us. It hasn't gone off yet, and we're definitely near enough."

"Isn't this where Ronna and her two friends often sit?" asked George. "Think it might be there's?"

"Does seem a possibility. Ginny's just right down the table from where we were, and Errol's usually got a better sense of direction than to miss by a good thirty plus feet," answered Fred. "And we know Perfect Percy's never got a howler in his life."

They walked the rest of the way to Errol, taking the letter off its leg and confirming that it was in fact addressed to the older of their sisters.

"Well, I haven't heard of anything bad Ronna's done recently, have you, oh brother of mine?" asked George.

"I have not, I have not," answered Fred. "And what kind of trouble really deserves a howler, anyway?"

"My thoughts exactly," said George. "So what do you say we leave this letter from mummy dearest in a good location they'll never find it in?"

"I think it sounds like a splendid plan, old chap," answered Fred.

And with that they turned and walked out of the Great Hall to deliver the letter to somewhere it would never be found.