"Here's the exit," O'Reilly whispered. He said a few words and pointed his wand at the wall. A stone slab slowly slid back, revealing an empty hallway in the dungeon. "Let's go."

Hastings had to hand it to Malcolm O'Reilly, for the prat that he was, he knew what he was doing. He got them out of the cave faster than you could say Dumbledore, and soon they were racing along the corridor, headed for…

"Where are we going, anyway?" asked Hastings.

"To the dungeons," said O'Reilly. "I have a hunch that's where we'll find Greene."

"Wouldn't she be in one of the greenhouses?" asked Gabe. "Breeding some deadly 'Little Shop of Horrors' plant?"

O'Reilly, who had never watched muggle TV, didn't catch the joke, but Hastings and Sirius chuckled nervously.

"Feed me, Seymour…" muttered Sirius.

"I don't think she's in the greenhouses," said O'Reilly. "She was using Blood Lilies, and she's probably brewing a potion as we speak." Once at the door to the potions classroom, they pushed it open carefully.

"After you," said O'Reilly. "I'll guard your rear."

"You're not getting anywhere near my rear!" said Hastings, and Sirius snorted in laugher.

"Just go!" said O'Reilly, shoving them before him. Together they opened the door, and saw, huddled in the corner, the remainder of the Hogwarts students—and in the center of the room was Professor Greene.

Jade looked up and saw them enter. "Good work, Malcolm," she said, "I was beginning to doubt your loyalty."

Hastings looked at him, her mouth open wide. His wand was trained on them, and a sneer spread across his face. "I guess being in Slytherin does mean something, after all," she said in disgust. "You traitor."

"Put your wands down," O'Reilly said. Hastings, Gabe and Sirius lowered their wands reluctantly. "Oh, and I'm not a traitor" said Professor O'Reilly, "I've been on Professor Greene's side from the beginning."

"Why? Because you're her little brother or something?" asked Gabe sarcastically.

"No," said Jade. "That would be Mr. Puddinghaste… or, should I say, Falcon Greene." She shrugged, "At least that's what he currently believes."

Inside came the man, Falcon, followed by a Gryffindor seventh year. "Found him in a cupboard, Professor," said the boy. "I un-petrified him."

"Excellent," said Professor Greene. "Falcon, I need you to lead the students. O'Reilly, if you could." She nodded towards Hastings, Sirius and Gabe.

"You can't do that!" said Hastings as he moved in front of her.

"Drop your wands," O'Reilly said.

Sirius turned toward O'Reilly and said, "I've wanted to do this for some time…" he nodded at Hastings who dropped to the ground and swept her leg around to trip O'Reilly.

Caught off guard, he tripped and his wand fell out of his hand. Gabriel grabbed for it and pointed one at Falcon and one at Professor Greene.

Meanwhile, Sirius balled up his fist and punched O'Reilly in the nose as he was getting back to his feet. O'Reilly cupped his hands over his face and dropped to his knees, effectively incapacitated. Hastings had a wand pointed at Greene along with Gabe and Sirius pointed his wand at Falcon.

"You forget something," said Professor Greene calmly. "I have the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students under my control. They're on my side and you'll never get past all of them."

"I DON'T THINK SO, JADE!" A voice shouted from the doorway. Professor McGonagall raised her wand, "CONTEGGIO!" A blue light filled the room and the students and Falcon were trapped behind a shimmery shield.

"Professor!" Sirius said as Minerva slumped to the ground, the exertion of running to the castle and the spell being too much for her weakened body. The three of them rushed to her.

Professor Green laughed mockingly as she advanced, her wand trained on them, "Expelleramus!" She said, catching their wands as they flew towards her. "Don't have much training in the area of defense do you? I'm disappointed in you Miss Applespice, I expected so much more. Foolish of you to think you could stop me. Thought I was as weak as my father? I can guarantee you that I'm not. I was hoping I could convince you to see my side of things – we almost had Odessa before you broke the spell. But I see that I will have to kill you instead. Who should I kill first?'' Greene pocketed the wands, but Sirius' wand slipped from her hand to the floor, unnoticed. Sirius eyed his wand, trying to figure out how he was going to get it back. Greene took another step forward, right onto the wand. It moved beneath her and she fell to the ground with a crash, banging her head on the stone floor. Sirius moved quickly and grabbed his wand, tripped over his robe and landed on top of her. Sitting up on the unconscious Greene he looked over at Hastings, who had O'Reilly effectively locked down on the floor in some shape that looked rather unpleasant.

Hastings looked at Sirius and burst out laughing.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You really did defeat a dark witch by sitting on her!" She cracked up, trying not to lose her hold on O'Reilly. Trying to laugh with her he bound Greene up and went over to check on Minerva.

"Are you okay?" he asked as she slowly sat up.

"Of course I am," she snapped. "Just a little out of practice." She looked around, "What happened?"

"Sirius sat on Greene and defeated her!" Hastings crowed.

"Would you shut up?" he said, trying to look annoyed.

"Greene tripped," Gabe said from his position by the shield that was holding Falcon and the students. "Knocked herself out. Hastings put O'Reilly in a…a…I don't know what, but he can't move."

"Where's Odessa?" Minerva asked.

"Guarding the rest of the students.

"I'll go get her," Sirius volunteered. He made his way out of the dungeon and back to the secret entrance. A few minutes later he found Odessa and the students.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at her face and the faces of the other students.

"The students are now very good at bat bogey hexes," she said. "The problem is that you never taught me the cure and these things are really uncomfortable."

"Did you really think a bat bogey hex would stop Greene?" he asked as he performed the counter curse.

"Well…no. But we went over several other jinxes first and then they asked to learn this one. I was getting worried you know, what took so long?"

"Turns out O'Reilly was working with Greene. Falcon, it appears, has been bewitched to think he is Greene's brother and assistant."

Odessa bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Who took Greene out?" She asked.

Sirius smiled proudly, "I did!"

"By sitting on her," a voice said behind them.

"Sitting on her?" Odessa asked, turning to look at Gabe.

"That's not quite how it happened," Sirius grumbled, shooting daggers at Gabe.

"Yeah, it really is," Gabe said, smiling. "Anyway, McGonagall sent me down here to make sure everyone is okay. They've rounded up the students in a dungeon, along with Falcon. They just have to wait for the spell to wear off. And Aurors are here taking Greene and O'Reilly away.

"Perfect!" Odessa said excitedly. "Do you think we could get something to eat? I'm starving."

"Spoken like a true girl," said Hastings, who had just entered. As they walked out, and headed for the teachers' lounge, everyone felt a little tired and a lot hungry.

"What did you do to O'Reilly?" asked Odessa.

"Exactly what I did to Forester Ackerly in third year," said Hastings, "When he said I looked like a dung beetle."

"You didn't…" said Odessa, dawning with realization.

"Yup," said Hastings. "I gave him the pretzel."

"What exactly does that entail?" asked Gabe.

"You put them in a Full-Nelson and then tie them in a knot. Then you kick them in the—"

"So, are you scared of your girlfriend yet?" asked Sirius, laughing.

"Nope," said Gabe, beaming with pride. "She's my knight in shining armor, after all. I don't have to be afraid of anyone with her around."

"Who loves ya, baby?" asked Hastings with a wink, and hooked her arm through his.

"Of course," Gabe added. "It'd be nice if I could rescue you next time."

"Just sit on her," Odessa said, ducking out of Sirius' reach. Laughing, the four of them made their way to the Great Hall.