Chapter 63.

The following day dragged by for Magnolia. Between the memory of what Professor Snape had said to her in the career meeting, and the prospect of being able to talk to Sirius again later that day, Magnolia could barely focus on any of her lessons. She was eager to get the day over and done with so she and Harry could talk to their Godfather and get some answers about the memory they had witnessed.

George and Fred had told the twins that they would cause the distraction after lessons that day, when as many students as possible would be in the halls. All Magnolia and Harry would have to do would be to sneak into Umbridge's office and use her fireplace whilst she was busy dealing with the Weasley's.

"Lia."

Draco's whispered voice and his hand on her thigh under the desk they were sat at, pulled Magnolia out of her own mind. She glanced over to him, his eyes filled with questions and worry. Magnolia smiled smally and let out a sigh as she glanced towards Umbridge who was watching her intently.

"Sorry, I'm fine." Magnolia murmured to Draco.

She could see that he barely believed her, but as she braided her fingers through his she could see his shoulder relax ever so slightly. As soon as she knew he felt better, she let go of his hand and started writing the notes she'd been too distracted before to do.

At the end of the lesson, Magnolia told her friends that she would be having dinner with her brother and the other Gryffindors after some more studying in the Library. She easily caught up to her brother, linking her arm through his with a little skip. The anticipation of seeing Sirius was only overpowered by the thrill that sent shockwaves through Magnolia's body knowing that they were defying Umbridge.

Together, the pair hurried along the corridor towards Umbridge's office, and the answers Magnolia wanted. Halfway along the corridor, Magnolia faltered when she heard the obvious sounds of the Weasley twins' distraction. Bangs and explosions, students shouting and screaming, drifted through the Castle's walls. Magnolia pulled Harry to a stop as he tried to keep running down the corridor away from the sudden noise.

"Wait, Harry!" Magnolia rushed to tell her brother as he tried to pull her along, "Umbridge will come out the classroom in a moment, and if she see's us running in the opposite direction she'll know something is up! Just wait for her to see us, and for Merlin's sake, try to look like you don't know what's going on down there."

Almost as soon as Magnolia finished talking, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom door opened and Umbridge rushed out, glancing all around the hall. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the twins, as they huddled further down the hall.

"Headmistress? What is all that noise? Do they not know we have O.W.L's to study for?" Magnolia called, making sure to have an element of worry and annoyance in her tone, "Shall I get Draco and the rest of the Inquisitorial Squad?"

Instantly, Magnolia could tell she had made the right decision in calling out to her Professor. She practically hear the gleeful thoughts in Umbridge's mind at the fact that she had Magnolia on side.

Umbridge smiled at the twins and paused. "No need, my dear. You two hurry along."

"Yes, ma'am."

With that, Magnolia pulled her brother into a casual walk until they rounded the corner and were out of the sight of the toad like woman. The pair began running through the corridors and up the stairs until they reached the corridor of Umbridge's office. The halls were quiet, on the way they had seen many students going in the opposite direction, either to the Great Hall for dinner or to see what all the ruckus was about.

As the twins reached Umbridge's office door, Harry pulled a knife out of his pocket that he had received from Sirius at Christmas; a knife that could open any lock. Magnolia had already told her brother that Umbridge likely had spells on her door that would stop them using a spell to open it. She glanced up and down the corridor as her brother worked at unlocking the door, sighing in relief when she heard the tell tale click of the door opening.

Rushing in, Magnolia closed the door behind her and quickly made her way to the fireplace with her brother. Her heart pounded in her chest, the anticipation of facing Sirius pulsating through her as Harry dropped the Floo Powder in the fireplace. The fire glowed green and roared for a few moments before everything calmed down, and Magnolia could see the kitchen of Grimmauld Place come into view in front of her. Immediately, her racing heart slowed; she was looking at home.

"Sirius?"

Harry asked; all they could see from the fireplace was a set of legs sat at the kitchen table. Magnolia giggled as the owner of the legs jumped up and span around, obviously looking for the owner of the voice. As he looked into the fire, his face fell into a frown of concern, and Magnolia couldn't help but feel the slight stab of disappointment and jealously that instead of Sirius it was Remus they had found at the table.

"What are you- what's happened? Are you two alright?"

"Yeah..." Harry answered, suddenly hesitant, "We just wondered… well we sort of fancied… we wanted-"

"Urgh, is Sirius around?" Magnolia interrupted her stammering twin, "We need to talk to him."

Remus nodded, "I'll get him."

"Are you going to dither like that when we talk to Sirius?" Magnolia snapped at her brother once Remus had left the room.

"Are you going to be that blunt?"

"If I have to." Magnolia shrugged.

It was only moments later, of increasingly awkward silence between the twins, that Remus returned with Sirius in tow. Sirius instantly knelt in front of the fire, his eyes sweeping over Magnolia and her brother.

"What is it?" he asked, concern dripping from his voice, "What's happened? Are you alright? Do you need help?"

"No… it's nothing like that. It's just… we wanted to… we were wondering if…"

"We want to talk about our dad." Magnolia told Sirius, speaking over her brother who still seemed to be having difficulty with his words.

Magnolia glanced at her brother, before reminding him that George had only promised them a certain amount of time, and if they wanted their questions answered then they had to be up front about it. Facing her Godfather again, Magnolia took a deep breath and told him and Remus what they had seen in Professor Snape's memory.

"I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw in that memory." Remus began quietly once Magnolia had finished, "He was only fifteen-"

"We're only fifteen!" Harry replied, making Magnolia smile a little.

"Your father and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other." Sirius told them, "It was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be- popular, good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts. James- whatever else he may have appeared to be- always hated the Dark Arts."

Magnolia scoffed, "He attacked Professor Snape for no reason! No reason other then that you were bored. Maybe if he wasn't bullied mercilessly, he wouldn't have had such hatred in him to turn to the Dark Arts."

"I'm not proud of it, Princess."

"What you have to understand," Remus spoke as Sirius continued watching Magnolia, "is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did, everyone thought they were the height of cool, if they sometimes got a bit carried away-"

"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean."

Magnolia smiled softly at her Godfather, at least he knew they had been arrogant. She couldn't ask him to go and change the past, but he could maybe change how he treated Professor Snape now.

"He… he kept messing up his hair." Harry said in a pained voice, causing Sirius and Remus to laugh.

"I'd forgotten he used to do that."

"Was he playing with that Snitch?"

"Yeah." Harry replied with a small laugh.

"He seemed like a bit of an idiot, to be honest." Magnolia replied.

"Of course, he was a bit of an idiot!" Sirius barked with laughter, "We were all idiots! Well, not Moony so much."

Magnolia noticed the pained look on Remus' features as Sirius said it, almost like he was ashamed. Her mind took her back to her Professor's memory, where Remus just sat by the tree, his head in the book he was reading like if he didn't look up, he wouldn't have to accept it was happening. For a moment, she wondered what it must be like to have friends who would go through so much to keep him company during a full moon but also be so cruel to others.

"Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape? Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?"

"Yeah, well, you made us feel ashamed of ourselves after… that was something."

"He kept looking over to the girls at the Lake, like he was hoping they would watch him." Harry brought up after a moment of tense quiet.

"Oh, well he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around." Sirius shrugged, "He couldn't help himself showing off when she was around."

"How come she married him?" Harry asked.

"It seemed like she hated him." Magnolia added.

"No, she didn't. She started dating him in Seventh Year." Remus told them with a small smile, "Once he deflated his head a bit and stopped hexing people for the fun of it."

"Even Professor Snape?" Magnolia asked, hopeful.

"Snape was a special case," Sirius answered, having the decency to actually look apologetic, "he cursed James at ever opportunity, and James was never one to take things like that lying down."

"And mum was ok with that?" Magnolia asked, sure that her mum wouldn't have stood for her dad hexing someone.

"She didn't know too much about it, James didn't often jinx Snape in front of her." Magnolia sighed at Sirius' words, "Your father was the best friend I ever had, and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at fifteen. He grew out of it."

"You and Professor Snape still bicker like that though." Magnolia murmured, barely able to look at her Godfather as she spoke.

"There are other things at stake now, Princess." Sirius replied softly, "A lot has been said and done between us, there is a lot of mistrust there, and with the roles we have each had to take during this war- well that breeds a great deal of anxiety and anger towards each other."

Magnolia blinked at her Godfather, it seemed there was so much more he was trying to say to her, but she didn't know what. Beside her, she could hear Harry and Remus talking about what had happened after Professor Snape found them in the memory, and the obvious yells from Sirius and Remus once they found out that the twins' Occlumency lessons had been stopped.

"Stop!" Magnolia cried, as she heard footsteps, "Is that Kreacher coming down the stairs?"

"No." Sirius peered behind him, "It must be your side."

Magnolia jumped up quickly, and rushed to the closed door, listening for who it may be. A gleeful voice drifted through the walls, and Magnolia hurried back to Harry's side.

"It's Filch! We have to go!"

The twins pulled away from the fireplace, Harry grabbing the Invisibility Cloak and throwing it over the pair, and Magnolia took one last look at her Godfather before he disappeared from sight too. She knew he had more to tell her about Professor Snape, about the War, and she was determined to find out what it was. As the Potter twins huddled together, pressing against the wall of Umbridge's office as Filch rifled through her drawers, Magnolia decided that she would find out everything Sirius was hiding from her when she saw him over the Summer.

They didn't breathe again until Filch had left the office and his footsteps had dimmed, and then rushed from the office themselves. Eager to find out what the twins had planned, they both ran through corridors, following the sound of carnage that had followed George and Fred's distraction. As they ran down a set of stairs that led to the hall leading out of the Castle, Magnolia paused. Below them, George and Fred were surrounded by a circle of eager onlookers and the Inquisitorial Squad.

Walking towards them, her head held high with a smug grin on her face, was Umbridge. Magnolia felt Harry grasp her arm and pull her down the few remaining steps, before they walked around the group of students to get a better look at what was happening in the centre.

"So, you think it's funny to turn my school into a swamp, do you?" Umbridge practically purred with anger.

"Pretty funny, yeah." Fred grinned back.

"You two, are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

"You know what? I don't think we are." Fred smirked, turning to George, "George, I think we've outgrown full time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself." George grinning back.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?"

George glanced at Magnolia, sending a wink her way before turning back to his brother, "Definitely."

"Accio brooms!" The twins shouted together.

Magnolia heard the quiet crash and moments later saw the twins' brooms zoom from around the corner and directly into their hands. The pair jumped on their respective brooms and circled higher into the air laughing loudly with the rest of the students in the entrance hall. Magnolia couldn't help the laugh that bubbled from her own lips.

"We won't be seeing you." Fred called to Umbridge, as he did a loop.

"Yeah, don't bother keeping in touch." George finished.

"If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley- Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!" Fred called to the crowd.

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat!" George laughed as he pointed to Umbridge.

Around Magnolia a loud cheer erupted from the students at George's words. She, herself, couldn't stop the smile and laughter as they flew around the hall high above them all as Umbridge cried to Filch to do something, and called the Inquisitorial Squad into action.

"Ready to go Georgey?" Fred called to his brother from where they hovered now by the entrance to the school.

"Actually, Freddie, there's just one more thing I need to do." George sent a wickedly mischievous smile to his brother.

Fred smiled back, punching the air in excitement as if he knew what his brother was planning already. George flew around the crowd, before briskly lowering his broom so he was just a few feet above the ground. Students moved out of his way quickly, parting like the sea. Magnolia gasped as he flew straight towards her, turning his broom at the very last moment and reaching a hand out to her waist.

Magnolia felt him pull her towards his broom, so she was sat sideways facing him as he hung above the ground. She gripped his arms, only one of which held the broom beneath them, to stop herself from falling off as his hand left her waist and trailed up her side. Her heart pounded and she could barely breath as she looked at the ground that felt miles away from her feet.

"George, let me down." Magnolia pleaded.

"I won't let you fall Nola, trust me." George replied, staring intensely into her eyes, "There's just this one thing I need to do before I leave."

Magnolia was aware of his wandering fingers tracing the side of her body, caressing the skin on her chest and neck, softly stroking her cheek. George never took his eyes off of her, only breaking their eye contact when his eyes flickered down to her lips as his fingers found their way into her hair.

"George-"

"Trust me Nola, I will never hurt you." He whispered back, his lips a breath away from hers, "But I can't leave without letting you feel how much I care about you."

With that, George closed the gap between the pair, gripping Magnolia's hair with soft passion. The breath left Magnolia completely as she felt George's lips move with hers. The need, the care, the passion he poured into her almost made her forget that he had her sat on his broom high above the ground. Somewhere, in the furthest reaches of her awareness, she could hear cheering and whooping from the students below them, but she couldn't focus on them at all.

As her feet touched the stoned floor, Magnolia pulled further away from George and off his broomstick. She hadn't even realised that he had been lowering them back to the ground during the kiss. She couldn't stop looking at him as floated in front of her, a wide grin on his face like he had had the best news told to him.

"I'll see you during the Summer, Nola."

Magnolia was still frozen as he sped back to Fred and the pair waved at the crowd before flying out of the Castle and away from Hogwarts and Magnolia. Gasping as she tried to catch her breath and process everything that happened since their class ended, Magnolia pulled her eyes away from the shrinking Weasley twins and instead looked over the crowd. Immediately, she wished she hadn't.

Stood opposite her in the crowd, staring at her openly with fists clenched by his side, his body tense and eyes filled with hurt and anger, was Draco.