Okay, working my way through Order of the Pheonix. I could probably handle super angsty Harry if Umbridge wasn't so awful. Oh well, I'll power through it al. Happy Reading!

CHAPTER FIVE

I looked around Privet Drive and shook my head, this was exactly what I had pictured after Louisa's not so flattering descriptions of the Durlseys. They were people who desperately wanted to excel at being normal, so they lived in a cookie cutter neighborhood full of well tended and pruned houses. I had a feeling that this little visit was not going to go over very well, but I was already here so I might as well just go through with it. Hopefully this wouldn't land Harry in more hot water with the muggles. I sighed and walked past their car to knock on their stately door. Immediately the sound of yelling from inside stopped and the door was opened by a large purple faced man who I could only assume to be Mr. Dursley.

"What?"

"I'm Cedric. I came to see Harry," I knew this wouldn't get me far but to my surprise he let me in despite turning a much darker shade of purple.

"Here to expel him are you? Look at what he did to my son!" He pointed a finger at a very round kid about Harry's age who looked very pale.

I fished a bit of chocolate out of my pocket, "Have him eat this, it will help." I handed it to the thin woman who looked at it in disgust.

I just rolled my eyes and turned to Harry, "You all right?"

"I s'pose. Would be better if I knew what was going on," Harry sighed, "Did he send the Dementors?"

"We believe so," I nodded, "I can't talk much about it here Harry. Just don't worry, Dumbledore is taking care of everything. If somehow he doesn't then I'm sure Louisa will tear the Ministry to pieces with her bare hands."

Harry smiled at that, "Did she send you to check on me?"

"Not exactly, she was raising all hell though wanting to come herself, but it would be too dangerous for someone underage," I smiled at the memory, "So I decided to come and put her mind at ease, and yours." I glanced around, "Listen Harry, I really can't stay. Stay here and stay safe. We'll do what we can to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Harry gave me a resentful look and just shrugged, "Fine. Bye, Cedric."

I nodded, "Good bye Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, you have a lovely home," I told them before I disapparated. I glanced around the street before entering number 12 Grimmauld place. I could hear them still arguing in the kitchen so I went in that direction. I was sure Louisa was still raging about the situation, and threatening to beat sense into Mundungus. I stopped in the hallway though to listen when I heard my name pop up.

"Where is Cedric?"

"He went to check on Harry," Louisa replied defiantly, "Because I apparently can't!"

"Louisa you shouldn't have sent him," Remus sighed, "It's dangerous to have too many wizards popping in and out of there."

"Well no one else was going to check on Harry and I wasn't about to leave him to Mundungus Fletcher's mercy again," Louisa snapped, "Besides, I didn't send him. He volunteered to go."

"Only because you wanted him to."

"No, I wanted to go."

"Well he was trying to make you happy then," Remus sighed, "I'm not trying to argue with you and we'll get Harry in a few days when the place is ready. Just be careful with Cedric. He's practically going to be your professor next year it's hardly the time for a teen romance..."

"Don't be an idiot," I could almost hear Louisa rolled her eyes, "Cedric is my friend, that's all."

Sirius decided to speak then, "So what do you and Cedric talk about when you're whispering quietly together in dark corners?"

"Nothing that you should worry about," Louisa said and quickly changed the subject, "If Harry is coming in a few days then you need a reality check too. He's going to look up to you and it's important that I remind you that no matter his physical appearance Harry is not James."

"I know that..."

"You may know it but that doesn't stop you from projecting this image of James onto him, you and Snape." Louisa cut him off, "You're his parent now, and he needs a parent that actually sees him."

"Snooping, Diggory?" Snape practically sneered it into my ear and I jumped.

"Bloody hell Severus," I rolled my eyes and just went into the kitchen, "Harry's fine. Agitated and confused, but he's fine."

"I told Dumbledore we need to be keeping him informed," Louisa shook her head, "Could you imagine knowing that someone wants to murder you but not being told anything at all? Maddening. I'd be agitated too."

"It would seem you already are," Remus noted in amusement.

Louisa was sitting at the table with one leg folded under the other so that the toe of her dangling sneaker only barely touched the ground. She was leaning over a copy of the Daily Prophet, she shook her head and flipped to the next page angrily. I moved to sit next to her and lean over to read the paper on my own. It didn't bother me that Remus and Sirius seemed to think we were secretly dating. Over the past few weeks we had become closer than ever, our bond was the secret we shared that neither of us were supposed to be alive.

"You should stop reading that paper, it just makes you cross," I noted and received a scathing look for my trouble.

"Diggory I do hope that when you are at Hogwarts you will avoid favoritism amongst the students." Snape had joined us from the hall followed shortly by Molly Weasley.

"Tell you what Severus, I will avoid favoritism if you do the same." I countered and that made him scowl at me but he didn't reply.

"What will you be doing at Hogwarts Cedric dear?" Molly asked and moved to start making tea.

I shrugged, "I'm to be an Assistant Professor. Dumbledore says I will be helping some of the other professors with their classes. Mostly first and second year students."

"Oh, well that's good," I caught her glance from me to Louisa and then back as if measuring the proximity.

As if on cue Louisa shoved the paper aside and got up, "At least you didn't get stuck in the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Not a great track record. Remus got out the most unscathed I'd think, at least he wasn't held hostage for a year, or had his memory wiped, or died."

I got up as well and started to follow her out, both of us avoiding Snape's glares, clearly he hadn't gotten it either. I thought she would head up to her room but instead she started into the parlor where my cot was set up in the corner. I had been staying here the past month since I had become a member. My parents suspected I was getting involved with Dumbledore and that I believed Harry, but they didn't dare ask questions they didn't want an answer to. I had decided to just move to the Headquarters, since I would be a member of the Order of the Pheonix anyway. It had been Dumbledore's idea to send me back to school, I think he liked the idea of having another member there just in case. I also think he wanted Louisa and I to stick together for some reason. It didn't matter.

Louisa fell onto the tattered sofa and shook her head, "I just feel so... helpless. They won't even let me use owls because they think I would sneak information to Harry."

"Well, would you have sent Harry information?" I challenged and sat down next to her, moving a particularly questionable looking cushion out of my way.

"Of course I would have," Louisa shrugged, "This is ridiculous. I should be helping, they won't even let me into the meetings. I mean... I know I'm a student but I'm almost sixteen, close enough right? You could tell me what goes on the meetings."

I rolled my eyes, "Not much, just planning and searching and keeping Harry safe. You know that though from using those weird ear things the twins concocted."

She huffed at this useless information, "I'm so worried about him Cedric."

"I know you are," I shook my head, "I heard what you told Sirius. That was really good of you, I know it couldn't have been easy, he is your dad."

Louisa shrugged, "Someone needed to say it." She looked at me speculatively, "I'm afraid Cedric. What if I've done something in all these years that has... made it worse? I don't know if I can make it better or if I should. Would it be better if I just ran away and disappeared like it was supposed to be?"

Louisa was easily one of the strongest people I knew, even if she felt vulnerable she could use her stubbornness to power through it. I could read her though, everything really was in those eyes, ever since the end of the last term she had been particularly downcast. I knew she was afraid, and I hated it. Sure, I was in a similar situation, but I had decided that by joining the Order and fighting against Voldemort would cancel out any bad that could have been caused by my survival. Louisa wasn't finding it so simple. I didn't really understand why she felt this responsibility so deeply.

"Don't be stupid," I told her gently and shifted to put an arm around her thin shoulders, she was so familiar with this that she automatically leaned against me, the top of her head leaning against my jaw. The sent of honey and lavender was stronger than ever, and still just as comforting. "Dumbledore was right. If anything you can only help Harry. I firmly believe that we are better off with you here. Sure, you can be absurdly stubborn and you definitely have a temper, you are easily one of the most terrifying people I've ever encountered. However, you are stubborn in your resolve to do good, and your temper flairs when you are protecting the people you care about. You are kind and good and I have complete and utter faith in you."

She was quiet for a while after that and I just let her be, I could feel her relaxing slowly. I did really enjoy these moments with her, they made me think of what Cho had said when she had broken up with me. Holding Louisa was nice, she was soft and warm, but mostly I loved that she trusted me enough now to share these vulnerable moments with me. Maybe it was because we shared this secret, or maybe it was something more. I couldn't consider the latter at the moment though. Everyone was right, I was going to be almost a professor at Hogwarts and she was still a student. That would not end well.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked after a while.

I felt her shrug as she answered, "No idea. Whatever we can I guess. I just hope the Ministry doesn't expel him. He'll need his wand."

"What are you two talking about all hush hush in here?" Fred peered into the room.

"Nothing, really," I shrugged casually as Louisa sat up.

"Did that look like nothing to you Fred?"

"No George, it did not."

Louisa glared at them until they snickered and apparated away, as they were prone to do since passing their test. It was getting quite annoying, I mean I could apparate now too but I still used the stairs. Then again, what did we expect? They were Fred and George, they probably did it mostly so they could just pop in on people and make them uncomfortable. It was probably a big joke, hey, if we weren't all so tense maybe I wouldn't mind it so much. Louisa had even started losing patience with them, then again she was definitely feeling the pressure of the situation very acutely.

In a few days Harry was with us, he seemed to believe Louisa when she said they hadn't let her write to him. Of course he would, he knew what she was like. There was some disagreement on filling Harry in one some things but Louisa argued his point and actually ended up doing a lot of the talking. I got a few accusing looks for that one, but I tried to ignore it. I hadn't told her much, really, she had heard it all herself with the twins' help. I stayed at Grimmauld place mostly for the next week and helped attempt to clean it out.

Cleaning the Black family's house was like a very hands on Defense against the Dark Arts class. It was actually quite fun to shake doxies out of the curtains and spray them quickly, to go through all of the enchanted knick knacks throughout the house. They were dangerous but it was a big group of us so no one ever felt like there was any real danger. We came across a book that shot fire out when opened one day and I ended up with blistered fingers. I was easily enough repaired and it was definitely entertaining. Sirius kept giving me strange looks though, as Louisa and I would sit down next to one another sifting through strange artifacts. Or when a doxie had latched on to a strand of her hair and I had been the one to paralyze and disentangle it. I knew he and everyone else thought we were secretly an item, but neither of us really felt the need to bring it up or argue otherwise.

The morning of Harry's trial at the Ministry I got up early and left, I had decided to visit dad at the Ministry under the pretense of learning more about the different departments there. I had told him that I was grateful to try my hand at teaching for a year or two but I wanted to know what other opportunities were out there. I think he believed me. Really I wanted to be there just in case Harry lost and Louisa caused trouble. She was going of course, it had taken some convincing on her part but in the end I think they all realized that she would probably go regardless of what anyone said. Sirius couldn't go and so Louisa was insistent that someone needed to be there for Harry. I was talking with my dad by the Fountain of Magical Brethren when I saw them enter. Harry looked a bit pale but fairly normal and Louisa was walking beside him with a determined look of calm on her face. Dad followed my glance and shot me an accusing look as they approached. He definitely made the assumption that they were the real reason why I was visiting the Ministry.

"Hello Cedric, Amos!" Mr. Weasley greeted in his normal amiable tone, "You both know Harry and Louisa."

"Yes," Dad said shortly, "Good morning Mr. Potter, Miss Randall..."

"Black," Louisa interjected with a smile, "I'm going by Louisa Black now, the cat's out of the bag, no sense in going by an alias. Besides, I suspect everyone calls me Black behind my back so..." she shrugged.

"Ah..." Dad said lamely, "So you're here for the hearing are you?" He asked Harry in an accusing tone.

Harry just nodded and Arthur excused them, they walked toward the lifts quickly. I looked at my dad in annoyance I had told him that Harry wasn't like that, that nothing I had ever experienced about Harry would back up the Ministry's claims. It was no use, he was determined to view Harry a certain way, had been since Harry's name had come out of the Goblet of Fire. So I just let out a huff of breath, "You should get back to work. I think I'll go see what the Department of Mysteries is like. Maybe I could be an Auror, could probably use a few in times to come."

He gave me a sharp look and I almost regretted adding that last bit on, but it made me angry that he was choosing to be so willfully blind like everyone else. So I gave him a smile and followed the others to the lift. We didn't talk much after that, I pretended to question Kingsley Shacklebolt about being an Auror and he pretended to answer. We only exchanged a few words about the Order, a few vague inquiries is all. It wasn't safe here to talk openly about it. No one seemed to notice us though, or they assumed that I was really looking into becoming an Auror, who knew, maybe after Hogwarts I would. So it wasn't a complete deception.

Whatever it was happened quickly and suddenly the others had disappeared, and then I was left to go looking for them all on floor nine. Apparently Harry's hearing had been moved, seemed like the sort of sneaky thing Fudge would do. I found Louisa and Arthur waiting outside one of the old courtrooms. Neither of them seemed to know what was going on, but Dumbledore had made it. That made me feel better, with Dumbledore here there's no way they would find Harry guilty. I was right, Harry got off, and rightfully so. I wandered a ways ahead with Louisa, she was practically giddy with relief and couldn't contain her energy. So we only noticed that Lucius Malfoy was talking with both the Minister and Harry after the conversation was nearly over. Louisa's expression hardened again and she started over, planting a smile on her face as she walked.

"Oh and look, Miss... Black is it?" He drawled, clearly expecting this to make her uncomfortable.

Louisa just smiled coldly and put an arm around Harry's shoulders, "As your god-sister I declare that we must go celebrate at once. What do you say Mr. Weasley?"

Arthur smiled, "Oh yes, I know several people eager to hear about the outcome. I'll get you two back... it was nice to see you again Cedric. Good luck on the job hunt."

I nodded and waved to them before turning to go find my father again before I would head back to headquarters. I hadn't missed the suspicious look Lucius had given me, he definitely had an idea that I was a new member of the Order. Fudge didn't though, clearly he just thought I was Cedric Diggory, Golden Boy. Still, I needed to be careful, we had decided it would be best to keep my membership under wraps for as long as possible.

I was busy doing research for the Order after that, I spent most of my time with Mad Eye and Remus after that. We were trying to track own possible Death Eaters, trying to estimate how many he had recruited in addition to those in the cemetery. It wasn't easy going, it was very difficult to tell since they weren't really putting signs up on their doors. Yet we soldiered on, keeping an eye on those who had been suspected before. Mad Eye was convinced all of them were in on it, then again he probably thought everyone was out to kill him these days. Who could blame him after spending nine months in a trunk last year? Still, it was a relief when the day came to go to Hogwarts. I was taking the Hogwarts Express with everyone else, I liked the idea that I would be there just in case. Dementors had boarded the train before, so it wasn't exactly impenetrable.

I stayed away from the group as they were boarding and stowed my things in an empty car before I moved up and down the train. I felt nervous, mostly about my new position, I was glad I would just be helping with the younger students. I had a feeling if I attempted to teach a class any older they would just remember me as a student. I'm sure the Hufflepuffs would be supportive, but I was also sure the Slytherins would turn against me this year. They knew I was close with Louisa and so, by default, Harry as well. That's why it was so important to try and keep my distance and avoid drawing attention to our friendship. So I kept moving as the train started to go, it was a while before I made my way back to where my things had been put. It seemed the others had found it too, and in the doorway Draco Malfoy was sneering something. I could see the badge shining on his chest, I rolled my eyes and moved forward.

"Everything all right?" I asked lightly and he looked up at me in confusion.

"Diggory? What are you doing here?"

"It's Assistant Professor Diggory," I heard Louisa correct him from inside the compartment.

Malfoy's expression soured at this so I just spoke, "I see you made prefect Malfoy, interesting choice. I hope all of you prefects remember not to abuse your power, those badges can be taken away..." I turned my head to include Ron and Hermione in this but my gaze never left Malfoy. He paled lightly at the threat and just stormed off.

I ducked into the compartment and was greeted warmly by people I mostly knew. I knew of Luna Lovegood, and decided what I had heard was pretty accurate from the intense stare she was now fixing me with. I focused on trying to ignore those wide pale eyes as I sat down next to Louisa and let them pick up the normal conversation themselves. Harry was giving us all pointed looks so I assumed Malfoy had said something that bothered him. Sirius had come to the train station against Dumbledore's advice, could that be it? Voldemort and the Death Eaters would know that he was an animagus because Peter Pettigrew knew and he had no doubt shared this information. If Malfoy was saying something about it though that meant he was more involved than I would have guessed. He was still a student! Lucius Malfoy was awful but surely he wouldn't be dragging his underage son into this madness. I shook these unpleasant thoughts from my head and just focused on the others.

In the first week both Harry had gotten detention. I was just glad Louisa had been able to keep her head down so far, I knew it hadn't been easy for her. I heard all of this second hand of course and I didn't get to see any of them much. Part of this was because I didn't want Umbridge to catch on to our friendship, the other was that I was pretty busy helping with the first and second year classes. Fortunately Professor Umbridge hadn't wanted my assistance, probably because no one was actually doing magic in her class.

I was glad I was keeping busy, it distracted me from how strange it felt to not be talking to Louisa every day. Especially after living at Headquarters over the summer, it was an odd feeling. Louisa seemed distracted though, and at long last I got to talk to her, she had finally yelled at Umbridge and gotten herself detention for the week. It had happened right after Harry had finished his stint in detention. I was a little fuzzy on the details but I'm sure whatever it was Louisa had reached the end of her rope and had acted accordingly. She was walking down the hall now, having finished her last session of detention with Umbridge. I sighed and moved to catch up with her quickly, glancing around to make sure no one was around.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, my last night of detention was tonight, I'm sure you heard." She shook her head, "Harry and I are lunatics, I guess at least I can chalk mine up to breeding."

I sighed, "She's awful, but you need to keep your head down Louisa..."

"You didn't see what she did to him!" Louisa snapped suddenly and held up her hand, angry unhealed words seemed to have been scratched deeply into the skin there reading: I must show respect. I took her hand to examine it more closely, and I recognized it as Louisa's own handwriting, "She had us do lines."

I had never been so disgusted before, I felt a cold hard pit of anger settle in my stomach as I looked at those scarred letters, "This is... you should tell Dumbledore."

"You read the paper this morning, Dumbledore can't do much at this point, the Ministry is starting to take over Hogwarts," Louisa said impatiently and shook her head, "Inspections..." she shook her head angrily.

"Louisa..." I grimaced, "Please stay out of trouble with this woman."

"I'll try okay?" She sighed and I released her hand, "I've missed you."

"We should meet in Hogsmeade," I noted, "We can talk more freely there."

"That should be fine," she agreed but had a strange thoughtful look on her face, "I just don't understand it. How can someone be so evil? How can you enjoy causing someone pain? I mean... she's sick."

"I don't know," I noted softly and glanced around before I hugged her for a moment, "Just stay out of trouble okay? Don't give her an excuse to hurt you again, don't give her the satisfaction."

She nodded and pulled back after a long moment, "I have to go, homework."

Then she was gone again and I was left with a very unsatisfactory feeling. I hadn't liked Umbridge, but I hadn't spent much time with her. I hadn't heard about her idea of what was an acceptable punishment. I'm sure Filch was thrilled about it. I hadn't liked her, now it was safe to say I loathed the woman. As I started to my room for the night I couldn't get the sight of those bloody words out of my head. They would scar. I couldn't wait for Umbridge to get what was coming to her, I just hoped it was sooner rather than later.