And we're back to serious—or at least serious-er. I've got two more chapters in this year and then the girls graduate and we're into the Post-Hogwarts chapters.

We're off to Save the Wizard

June 17th, 1996
Seventh Year
-

Fred and George had left school in late April, almost two months ago now. The bangs of fireworks and the chittering of mice that used to be wands and the occasional shriek when someone fell into the swamp had all died down. The school had become oddly lonely without all that cheerful noise. On the upside, students were smuggling in mail-order products from the newly opened Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes ("Located at 93 Diagon Alley. A special discount to any Hogwarts student or staff who swears they're going to use our products to get rid of that old bat!").

The fake blood quills did their job well, near as the girls could tell. No one had any fresh scars after an hour when the illusion spells wore off. They were still having no luck getting rid of Umbridge and she now banned all use of wands and demanded ministry-approved textbooks be used for all classes, and Firenze had been sacked. Firenze couldn't return to the Forest so he lived in the Room of Requirement, having been smuggled in after his very public ousting. He continued to teach the students who knew he was there.

The same week the twins had fled the school, Morgan had given birth to a litter of tortoiseshell kittens. Leilani had been horrified to find out not only did she now have kittens all over the floor but the pet shop where she had adopted Morgan had in fact not spayed her and for the past seven years, Leili hadn't noticed—that alone was embarrassing. She wrote a sternly worded letter to the shop and took the basket of cats to a local Wizarding Vet during the next Hogsmeade weekend—it was a miracle those hadn't been cancelled alongside Quidditch.

She had taken the scolding in silence, bore the indignity of being called irresponsible for allowing this accidental pregnancy to happen and swore to find good adoptive parents for the kittens.

So far today was just an ordinary day, Jo was having a potions lesson, allowed with special permission from Umbridge for all students—provided they hadn't been in detention for at least a week and their lesson plan had met her seal of approval, among other strict requirements—and Leili was reading outside the door. An ordinary day… until Draco came sauntering into the room.

"Headmistress Umbridge wants to see you, sir," he said snobbishly.

Professor Snape uncrossed his arms and began to follow Draco out, pausing only briefly to freeze Jo's potion so it didn't explode while he was gone. "That concludes your lesson for now, Miss Montgomery. You would do well to make yourself scarce," he told her, carefully enunciating the last three words just enough.

"Yes, Professor," Jo said and when he continued out she followed with her things gesturing to Leili who was waiting just outside the door. When Draco and Snape turned a corner, the girls kept straight for a few feet before quietly Disillusioning themselves and going to follow Snape and Draco.

"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" He asked as he walked into the office.

"Ah, Professor Snape, yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum. Quick as you can please," Umbridge said with a wide grin.

"I'm afraid I am out of Veritaserum at the moment, surely you didn't use all of the last bottle I gave you? I told you that three drops would be sufficient."

"You can make more, can't you?" she flushed, her voice becoming that sickly sweet little girl tone she adopted when ever angry.

"Certainly; however it takes a full moon cycle to mature so I should have it for you in about a month," he said, his lip curling.

"A month? A month?" she screeched before her voice turned petulant, "But I need it now! I have just discovered Potter using my fire to communicate with a person or persons unknown!"

"How unsurprising," he drawled. "Potter never has shown much inclination towards following the rules."

Her voice rose to almost a shriek and she look as though she might stomp a foot as she declared, "I wish to interrogate him! I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!"

"As I said before, I have no current stock of Veritaserum so unless you wish to poison him, and I would have the greatest of sympathy with you if you do, I cannot help you. Of course, the only problem with poisoning him is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim time for any truth-telling…"

"You are being deliberately unhelpful! You are on probation! I expected better, Lucius always speaks so highly of you! Now get out of my office!"

Snape gave an ironic bow before turning on his heel and walking out.

As Snape approached the door, Harry cried out in desperation, "He's got Padfoot! He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"

Snape stopped cold and looked coolly back at him.

"'Padfoot'? What is 'padfoot'? Where what is hidden? What is he talking about?" Umbridge asked looking back and forth at Snape and Harry.

The corners of Snape's mouth turned down and his eyebrows rose, "No idea," he said before turning and walking off, Jo and Leilani close behind.

He said nothing but Leili was sure he knew they were there. They followed him to his office and pressed their ears to the door, they heard Snape say, "Albus Dumbledore", and then heard Dumbledore's voice.

"Hello, Severus."

"Headmaster, Potter seems to think Black has gone missing. I suspect the Dark Lord used the link between them to send him a vision of Black in the Prophecy Hall. He and his friends are no doubt headed there now."

"Sirius is safe, Severus; I'll send the Order to meet with Harry in the Department of Mysteries now. Try to stop Harry if he hasn't left already."

The girls never heard Snape's reply, nor did they know how Snape had managed to contact Dumbledore. They didn't hear the reply because they had already taken off down the hall to find Harry. They ran past Umbridge's office only to find Draco and his friends stunned, disarmed and bat-bogey hexed.

"We're too late; judging by the bat bogeys converging on Draco, they've been gone a while," Jo said.

"The fastest way to get there is by Floo and look, an unoccupied fireplace right here, hooked up and ready to go, wasn't that nice of Professor Umbridge?" Leili said as she took Jo's hand and led her to the fireplace. "You want me to go first?" she asked, as Jo had never travelled by Floo before.

"Toss a handful of powder, step in, speak clearly and keep your arms and legs inside the fireplace at all times?"

"That's it!"

"I can do that, but where exactly are we going?"

"The Ministry of Magic."

"And I'll know when to get out?"

Leili nodded.

Jo took a deep breath, grabbed a handful of the powder, tossed it on the fire, stepped inside and enunciated very, very clearly, "The Ministry of Magic."

With a woosh and a yelp she was sent off to her destination. Leili waited two minutes; it was all she felt they could spare, before taking her own handful of the powder and repeating the process. She had travelled by Floo once and it was just as unpleasant this time as it had been before. She soon joined Jo in the gorgeous Ministry lobby; it was a bit 'Emerald city' but still, quite lovely.

As the girls ran down the hallway, still under the Disillusionment charm—anyone who saw them go by basically saw a ripple in the scenery that may have been vaguely girl-shaped—Leili fought the urge to hum 'We're off to see the Wizard'.