When Bree burned the list part of it survived. It had been badly damaged by smoke and fire and the only thing that could be read were the letters "D" and "A" which the Minister of Magic decided that those letters stood for "Dumbledore's Army" despite Harry's protests that it stood for "Defense Association." So instead of Harry getting expelled, Dumbledore left the school, which resulted in the following notice.
BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
Dolores Jane Umbridge (High Inquisitor) has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-eight.
Signed: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic
The notices had gone up all around the school overnight, but they did not explain how every single person within the castle seemed to know that Dumbledore had overcome two Aurors, the High Inquisitor, the Minister for Magic and his Junior Assistant to escape. No matter where you went within the castle, the sole topic of conversation was Dumbledore's flight, and though some of the details may have gone awry in the retelling (Bree overheard one second-year girl assuring another that Fudge was now lying in St. Mungo's with a pumpkin for a head) it was surprising how accurate the rest of their information was. Everybody knew, for instance, that Harry and Marietta were the only students to have witnessed the scene in Dumbledore's office and, as Marietta was now in the hospital wing, Harry found himself besieged with requests to give a first-hand account.
"Dumbledore will be back before long," said Ernie Macmillan confidently on the way back from Herbology, after listening intently to Harry's story. "They couldn't keep him away in our second year and they won't be able to this time. The Fat Friar told me -" he dropped his voice conspiratorially, so that Harry, Ron and Hermione had to lean closer to him to hear "- that Umbridge tried to get back into his office last night after they'd searched the castle and grounds for him. Couldn't get past the gargoyle. The Head's office has sealed itself against her." Ernie smirked. "Apparently she had a right little tantrum."
"Oh, I expect she really fancied herself sitting up there in the Heads office," said Hermione viciously, as they walked up the stone steps into the Entrance Hall. "Lording it over all the other teachers, the stupid puffed-up, power-crazy old -"
"Now, do you really want to finish that sentence, Granger?"
Draco Malfoy had slid out from behind the door, closely followed by Crabbe and Goyle. His pale, pointed face was alight with malice.
"Afraid I'm going to have to dock a few points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff," he drawled.
"It's only teachers who can dock points from houses, Malfoy," said Ernie at once.
"Yeah, we're prefects, too, remember?" snarled Ron.
"I know prefects can't dock points, Weasel King," sneered Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.
"But members of the Inquisitorial Squad -"
"The Inquisitorial Squad, Granger," said Malfoy, pointing towards a tiny silver 'I' on his robes just beneath his prefect's badge. "A select group of students who are supportive of the Ministry of Magic, hand-picked by Professor Umbridge. Anyway, members of the Inquisitorial Squad do have the power to dock points… so, Granger, I'll have five from you for being rude about our new Headmistress. Macmillan, five for contradicting me. Five because I don't like you, Potter. Weasley, your shirts untucked, so I'll have another five for that. Oh yeah, I forgot, you're Mudbloods, Granger, Smith, so you each get ten off for that."
Bree grinned. "Malfoy, you're a jerk and a racist, so that will be… all the points from Slyterin." She said.
"You can't do that!" Draco protested.
"Draco, Draco, Draco." Bree chastised, grabbing him by the shoulder and turning him towards the giant hour-glasses set in niches along the wall behind them, which recorded the house-points. "You haven't even scratched the surface of what I can do."
Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had been neck and neck in the lead that morning. Even as they watched, stones flew upwards, reducing the amounts in the lower bulbs, but that was nothing compared to what happed to the Slytherin hourglass. All of the emeralds in the lower bulb moved upward until it was left empty.
"What? How!" Draco exclaimed.
"I am all powerful!" Bree shouted before laughing manically. Draco fled, Crabbe and Goyle following him.
"Noticed, have you?" said Fred's voice. He and George had just come down the marble staircase and joined Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bree, and Ernie in front of the hour-glasses.
"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George. "What the?" he said when he caught sight of the Slytherin hourglass.
"Malfoy just docked us all about fifty points," said Harry. "And then Bree docked him all of the points from Slytherin.
"What did you mean, 'tried'?" said Ron quickly.
"He never managed to get all the words out," said Fred, "due to the fact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."
Hermione looked very shocked.
"But you'll get into terrible trouble!"
"Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him," said Fred coolly. "Anyway… we've decided we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."
"Have you ever?" asked Hermione.
"Course we have," said George. "Never been expelled, have we?"
"We've always known where to draw the line," said Fred.
"We might have put a toe across it occasionally," said George.
"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem," said Fred.
"But now?" said Ron tentatively.
"Well, now -" said George.
"- what with Dumbledore gone -" said Fred.
"- we reckon a bit of mayhem —" said George.
"— is exactly what our dear new Head deserves," said Fred.
"You mustn't!" whispered Hermione. "You really mustn't! She'd love a reason to expel you!"
"You don't get it, Hermione, do you?" said Fred, smiling at her. "We don't care about staying anymore. We'd walk out right now if we weren't determined to do our bit for Dumbledore first. So, anyway," he checked his watch, "phase one is about to begin. I'd get in the Great Hall for lunch, if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can't have had anything to do with it."
"Anything to do with what?" said Hermione anxiously.
"You'll see," said George. "Run along, now."
Fred and George turned away and disappeared into the swelling crowd descending the stairs towards lunch. Looking highly disconcerted, Ernie muttered something about unfinished Transfiguration homework and scurried away.
"I think we should get out of here, you know," said Hermione nervously. "Just in case"
"Yeah, all right," said Ron, and the three of them moved towards the doors to the Great Hall, but Harry had barely glimpsed the day's ceiling of scudding white clouds when somebody tapped him on the shoulder and, turning, he found himself almost nose-to-nose with Filch the caretaker.
He took several hasty steps backwards; Filch was best viewed at a distance.
"The Headmistress would like to see you, Potter," he leered.
"I didn't do it," said Harry stupidly, thinking of whatever Fred and George were planning. Filch's jowls wobbled with silent laughter.
"Guilty conscience, eh?" he wheezed. "Follow me."
Harry glanced back at Ron and Hermione, who were both looking worried. He shrugged, and followed Filch back into the Entrance Hall, against the tide of hungry students.
Bree went and sat down at the Gryffindor table and began eating. A little while later… BOOM! Bree dashed out to the Entrance Hall to see what was going on.
Dragons comprised entirely of green and gold sparks were soaring up and down the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs as they went; shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers; rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls; sparklers were writing swear words in midair of their own accord; firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere you looked, and instead of burning themselves out, fading from sight or fizzling to a halt, these pyrotechnical miracles seemed to be gaining in energy and momentum the longer he watched.
Bree grinned and bounced in excitement. Fred and George had really outdone themselves. Soon Flich and Umbridge had run down from upstairs. They stopped halfway down the stairs and gaped in horror at the scene.
One of the larger Catherine wheels seemed to decide that what it needed was more room to maneuver; it whirled towards Umbridge and Filch with a sinister 'wheeeeeeeeee'.
They both yelled with fright and ducked, and it soared straight out of the window behind them and off across the grounds. Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat that was smoking ominously took advantage of the open door at the end of the corridor to escape towards the second floor.
"Hurry, Filch, hurry!" shrieked Umbridge, "they'll be all over the school unless we do somethin - Stupefy"
A jet of red light shot out of the end of her wand and hit one of the rockets. Instead of freezing in midair, it exploded with such force that it blasted a hole in a painting of a soppy-looking witch in the middle of a meadow; she ran for it just in time, reappearing seconds later squashed into the next painting, where a couple of wizards playing cards stood up hastily to make room for her.
Bree skipped over to a tapestry that concealed a door and slipped through it to find Fred and George hiding just behind it, listening to Umbridge and Filch's yells and quaking with suppressed mirth. Harry slipped in just after Bree did.
"Impressive," Harry said quietly, grinning. "Very impressive… you'll put Dr. Filibuster out of business, no problem…"
"Cheers," whispered George, wiping tears of laughter from his face. "Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next… they multiply by ten every time you try."
"That's amazing!" Bree exclaimed.
"Yeah, and it wasn't really difficult to-" the rest of what George was going to say was cut off when Bree grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him in close, and kissed him enthusiastically. When she let him go she hugged Fred, leaving George looking rather dazed.
"You two are completely brilliant!" Bree exclaimed before turning to Harry.
"Let's go, we're going to be late for our next class." She said. "See you two later." She waved goodbye to Fred and George as she pushed Harry out the door, leaving the twins alone.
"Did Bree just kiss me?" George asked after a moment.
"Yeah." Fred replied.
"Because of fireworks?"
"Yep."
"… Let's go whip up a new batch."
The fireworks continued to burn and to spread all over the school that afternoon. Though they caused plenty of disruption, particularly the firecrackers, the other teachers didn't seem to mind them very much.
"Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame. "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the Headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"
The upshot of it all was that Professor Umbridge spent her first afternoon as Headmistress running all over the school answering the summonses of the other teachers, none of whom seemed able to rid their rooms of the fireworks without her. When the final bell rang and they were heading back to Gryffindor Tower with their bags a disheveled and soot-blackened Umbridge tottering sweaty-faced from Professor Flitwick's classroom.
"Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether or not I had the authority."
Beaming, he closed his classroom door in her snarling face.
Fred and George were heroes that night in the Gryffindor common room. Even Hermione fought her way through the excited crowd to congratulate them.
"They were wonderful fireworks," she said admiringly.
"Thanks," said George, looking both surprised and pleased. "Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs. Only thing is, we used our whole stock; we're going to have to start again from scratch now."
"It was worth it, though," said Fred, who was taking orders from clamouring Gryffindors. "If you want to add your name to the waiting list, Hermione, it's five Galleons for your Basic Blaze box and twenty for the Deflagration Deluxe…"
Hermione returned to the table where Harry and Ron were sitting staring at their schoolbags as though hoping their homework would spring out and start doing itself.
"Oh, why don't we have a night off?" said Hermione brightly, as a silver-tailed Weasley rocket zoomed past the window. "After all, the Easter holidays start on Friday, we'll have plenty of time then."
"Are you feeling all right?" Ron asked, staring at her in disbelief.
"Now you mention it," said Hermione happily, "d'you know… I think I'm feeling a bit… rebellious."
When the party finally wound down, Fred and Angelina could be found on one of the sofas, asleep and leaning on each other. On a nearby couch, George had his arm around Bree.
"So, um, about that kiss earlier…" George murmured. Bree blushed.
"Ah, sorry about that. I just got really excited." She muttered.
"It's fine." George said softly before giving Bree a kiss on the cheek.
BANG!
Bree woke up with a start. Fred and Angelina somehow fell off of their sofa and ended up on top of each other on the floor. George rushed over to the window.
"Looks like one of the Catherine wheels hit a rocket." He said.
"Awesome!" Bree exclaimed as glittering pink and silver winged piglets were now soaring past the windows of Gryffindor Tower.
"I am so bored right now." Bree complained. It was the third day of Easter Holidays and Bree, Luna, Neville, Fred, and George were gathered in Gryffindor's secret room.
"We could talk about mortality." Luna suggested.
"Why would we want to talk about that?" Fred asked incredulously.
"Bree said we could." Luna replied.
"When?" George questioned.
"When Luna, Neville, and I confronted Snape the other day." Bree explained.
"It was right after you talked about having your mind ripped open." Neville stated.
"Yeah, it was." Bree agreed. Everyone stared at her. Well everyone except Luna who was staring at something on the ceiling.
"What?" Bree asked.
"So did you have your mind ripped open?" Neville inquired.
"Oh, yeah. It's not that big of a deal." Bree said with a shrug.
"Not a big deal!" George exclaimed. "Bree, people who attack the minds of others go to Azkaban."
"Yeah, people, I don't think that law applies to parasites." Bree muttered.
"Parasite?" Fred questioned. And so Bree told them about the psychic worm and showed them the scar hidden in her hairline on the back of her neck from the surgery that removed the worm.
"So you weren't making up the Weeping Angels?" Neville asked.
"In my defense, I thought they were fictional." Bree replied.
Harry had been rather subdued since he saw Snape's memory. It reminded Bree of the old saying "Don't meet your heroes." Or it this case "Don't view memories of your father and godfather when they were fifteen because all fifteen year olds are stupid compared to adults. But that second one is way too long so Bree just stuck to the first one.
Bree tried to talk to Harry to try to bring him out of his funk. But Harry wasn't interested in talking to anyone other than Sirius, which he couldn't since the floo network was being monitored.
It was the day before the end of Easter break. George and Bree were in an unused classroom.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Bree asked.
"Fred and I have a shop all ready in Diagon Alley." George explained.
"That's great!" Bree exclaimed.
"Yeah, we couldn't have done it with the money you and Harry gave us." George said.
"I was happy to do it. You and Fred are really inventive. I knew you could get a business started. But… now that you have, I guess you two will be leaving soon." Bree replied
"Yeah, we're leaving tomorrow. We plan on making a big exit." George explained. He grabbed Bree's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Listen, I was thinking… you could come with us."
"Come with you?" Bree repeated.
"Yeah, you could work at the shop with me… and Fred." George suggested.
"George, that sounds wonderful, but I can't. I'm only fifteen." Bree replied. George sighed and let go of Bree.
"Yeah, you're right. I just…" he sighed again. "We're not going to see each other every day anymore. I'm going to miss you."
"I'll miss you too. You're one of the most important people in my life." Bree said.
"I feel the same way about you." George replied. "I guess we had better make the most of the time we have left."
"Yeah, we should." Bree agreed before she kissed him.
"George, you in he-" Lee stopped mid-sentence and stared into the unused classroom Bree and George were in for a moment before closing the door. After a minute or so he opened the door again.
"You want me to get Fred so he's doesn't feel left out later?" he asked.
"Shut up Lee!"
As though to underline the importance of their upcoming examinations, a batch of pamphlets, leaflets and notices concerning various wizarding careers appeared on the tables in Gryffindor Tower shortly before the end of the holidays, along with yet another notice on the board, which read:
All fifth-years are required to attend a short meeting with their Head of House during the first week of the summer term to discuss their future careers. Times of individual appointments are listed below.
Bree looked down the list and found that she was expected in Professor McGonagall's office at half past twelve on Monday. Bree was the only fifth year that didn't bother looking at any of the careers information.
When George and Bree met up with Fred in the common room Harry, Ron, and Hermione immersed in pamphlets.
"Where have you two been all day?" Fred asked. George shrugged.
"We were talking." He answered.
"Really?" Lee chimed in. "It must have been pretty hard to talk with the way you were-"
"Lee, if you finish that sentence terrible things will happen to you." Bree interrupted. Lee wisely shut up.
Fred stared at his blushing brother for a moment before joining Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Hey, Ginny's had a word with us about you," said Fred, stretching out his legs on the table in front of them and causing several booklets on careers with the Ministry of Magic to slide off on to the floor. "She says you need to talk to Sirius?"
"What?" said Hermione sharply, freezing with her hand halfway towards picking up MAKE A BANG AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL ACCIDENTS AND CATASTROPHES.
"Yeah…" said Harry, trying to sound casual, "yeah, I thought I'd like -"
"Don't be so ridiculous," said Hermione, straightening up and looking at him as though she could not believe her eyes. "With Umbridge groping around in the fires and frisking all the owls?"
"Except Aries." Bree commented as she flopped into a chair. "She tried to get him once and it didn't work out well for her."
"So Harry could use him then." Hermione said. Bree shrugged.
"If you can find him." She said.
"What do mean?" Hermione asked.
"He's spends a lot of time with his lady owl friend in the Forbidden Forest. He shows up on Wednesdays, Friday's, and Sunday's." Bree explained. "But you if go into the forest and find him he'll probably take a letter."
"I wanted to speak to Sirius in person." Harry put in.
"Can't help you there." Bree replied.
"Well, we think we can help," said George, stretching and smiling. "It's a simple matter of causing a diversion. Now, you might have noticed that we have been rather quiet on the mayhem front during the Easter holidays?"
"What was the point, we asked ourselves, of disrupting leisure time?" continued Fred."No point at all, we answered ourselves. And of course, we'd have messed up people's studying, too, which would be the very last thing we'd want to do."
He gave Hermione a sanctimonious little nod. She looked rather taken aback by this thoughtfulness
"But it's business as usual from tomorrow," Fred continued briskly. "And if we're going to be causing a bit of uproar, why not do it so that Harry can have his chat with Sirius?"
"Yes, but still," said Hermione, with an air of explaining something very simple to somebody very obtuse, "even if you do cause a diversion, how is Harry supposed to talk to him?"
"Umbridge's office," said Harry quietly.
He had been thinking about it for a fortnight and could come up with no alternative. Umbridge herself had told him that the only fire that was not being watched was her own.
"Are - you - insane?" said Hermione in a hushed voice.
Ron had lowered his leaflet on jobs in the Cultivated Fungus Trade and was watching the conversation warily.
"I don't think so," said Harry, shrugging.
"And how are you going to get in there in the first place?"
Harry was ready for this question.
"Sirius's knife," he said.
"Excuse me?"
"Christmas before last Sirius gave me a knife that'll open any lock," said Harry.
"So even if she's bewitched the door so Alohomora won't work, which I bet she has"
"What do you think about this?" Hermione demanded of Ron.
"I dunno," said Ron, looking alarmed at being asked to give an opinion. "If Harry wants to do it, it's up to him, isn't it?"
"Spoken like a true friend and Weasley," said Fred, clapping Ron hard on the back. "Right, then. We're thinking of doing it tomorrow, just after lessons, because it should cause maximum impact if everybody's in the corridors - Harry, we'll set it off in the east wing somewhere, draw her right away from her own office — I reckon we should be able to guarantee you, what, twenty minutes?" he said, looking at George.
"Easy," said George.
"What sort of diversion is it?" asked Ron.
"You'll see, little bro'," said Fred, as he and George got up again. "At least, you will if you trot along to Gregory the Smarmy's corridor round about five o'clock tomorrow."
The next day Snape seemed to have decided to act as though Harry were invisible. Harry was pleased to find that when left well alone, he was able to concoct an Invigoration Draught quite easily. At the end of the lesson he scooped some of the potion into a flask, corked it and took it up to Snape's desk for marking, feeling that he might at last have scraped an E.
He had just turned away when he heard a smashing noise. Malfoy gave a gleeful yell of laughter.
Harry whipped around. His potion sample lay in pieces on the floor and Snape was surveying him with a look of gloating pleasure.
"Whoops," he said softly. "Another zero, then, Potter."
Harry was too incensed to speak. He strode back to his cauldron, intending to fill another flask and force Snape to mark it, but saw to his horror that the rest of the contents had vanished.
"I'm sorry!" said Hermione, with her hands over her mouth. "I'm really sorry, Harry. I thought you'd finished, so I cleared up!"
Bree bared her teeth at Snape as her pupils changed into catlike slits. Snape took a step back. He blinked, and in that instant Bree reverted to normal.
"Hello Professor." Bree greeted with she arrived at Professor McGonagall's office.
"Hello Smith, you're right on time" she said briskly, but as she spoke, somebody else sniffed from the corner.
Bree looked around.
Professor Umbridge was sitting there, a clipboard on her knee, a fussy little pie-frill around her neck and a small, horribly smug smile on her face.
"Sit down, Smith," said Professor McGonagall tersely. Her hands shook slightly as she shuffled the many pamphlets littering her desk.
Bree sat down with her back to Umbridge.
"Well, Smith, this meeting is to talk over any career ideas you might have, and to help you decide which subjects you should continue into the sixth and seventh years," said Professor McGonagall. "Have you had any thoughts about what you would like to do after you leave Hogwarts?"
"Well, my current plan for the future is to cause widespread chaos and panic through the liberal use of flying simians." Bree stated.
"Smith, this is serious." McGonagall replied tersely. Bree sighed.
"I am probably going to work at my Aunt's company once I finish school." She said.
"Your Aunt is a muggle, correct?" McGonagall inquired.
"Yes." Bree answered, behind her Umbridge let out a disdainful snort.
"What kind of company does your Aunt run?" McGonagall inquired.
"Imports and exports." Bree answered.
"So she's a merchant?" McGonagall clarified.
"Yes." Bree replied. "And since I'll be doing work that doesn't necessarily require magic I can pretty much pick and choose which classes I want to take.
"So there isn't any work in the magical world you'd be interested in?" McGonagall inquired.
"Well," Bree began, a grin spreading across her face, "The twins plan on opening a shop as soon as they leave Hogwarts. My cousin Alice has already turned a profit with what she is doing in America, and speaking of America they could always use hunters, granted that's not exactly a job you choose, you just sort of fall into it."
"I'm afraid that I'm not quite sure what you mean by "hunter."" McGonagall replied.
"Oh right. Well in America there's a big problem with attacks by Supernatural creatures. The U.S. doesn't have the ancient wards that keep dangerous creatures subdued." Bree explained. "You don't get Wendigos or Violent Spirits in the U.K. America dosen't have wards so there's werewolves and vampires that are a lot nastier then the kind you have to deal with here. There are also arachnes, ghouls, skinwalkers and a whole lot more, including creatures from overseas that tagged along with immigrants." Bree paused and stretched.
"So you see, hunters are people who hunt and kill dangerous creatures. It doesn't pay well and there's a rather high mortality rate, so people don't really choose to become hunters. Even so the hunting community is rather large." She continued.
Professor Umbridge gave a cough.
"If no one wants to be a hunter than how can the hunting community be large?" she asked.
"Hunting is a family business. At some point in the family's history someone lost a person close to them after a creature attacked, so that someone began hunting dark creatures and taught their children to hunt dark creatures." Bree answered.
"So you're interested in killing dark creatures?" Umbridge inquired. Bree thought she heard a tiny bit of approval in her voice, which wasn't surprising considering what Bree knew about Umbridge.
"Not exactly." Bree answered. "But I have a big family, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that one of them will be killed by some kind of horrible creature."
McGonagall sighed.
"You can go, Smith." She said.
377. "To cause widespread chaos and panic through the liberal use of flying simians" is not a goal for the future.
"It's almost time. Fred and I will be out of here soon." George stated. Classes were over for the day and Bree and George were waiting for Fred to show up.
"I guess this is goodbye then." Bree said before passionately kissing George.
A minute or so later Fred rounded the corner.
"So are we going to do this, or are you just going to snog Bree all day?" he quipped. The young couple broke apart.
Students panicked and chaos reigned. Fred and George had turned Gregory the Smarmy's corridor into a swamp. It was awesome. Some students fell in and were pulled out covered in sticky goo similar to stinksap.
The twins were soon cornered in the Entrance Hall. It was just like the night when Trelawney had been sacked. Students were standing all around the walls in a great ring; teachers and ghosts were also in the crowd. Prominent among the onlookers were members of the Inquisitorial Squad, who were all looking exceptionally pleased with themselves, and Peeves, who was bobbing overhead, gazed down at Fred and George who stood in the middle of the floor with the unmistakable look of two people who had just been cornered.
"So!" said Umbridge triumphantly
"So - you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"
"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred, looking up at her without the slightest sign of fear.
Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, almost crying with happiness.
"I've got the form, Headmistress," he said hoarsely, waving the piece of parchment. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting… oh, let me do it now…"
"Very good, Argus," she said. "You two," she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."
"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are."
He turned to his twin.
"George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."
"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly. A grin spread across Bree's face.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.
"Definitely," said George.
And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together:
"Accio brooms!"
There was a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor towards their owners; they turned left, streaked down the stairs and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.
"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.
"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own.
Fred looked around at the silent, watchful crowd.
"If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley - Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes," he said in a loud voice. "Our new premises!"
"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," added George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.
"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.
"Give her hell from us, Peeves."
And Peeves, who had never taken an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.
Go read Nick Cronwell's The Raven and the Cursed Wand. I'm letting him use Bree as a supporting character.
