"Dolores Umbridge," Ron said flatly as he slid into a seat next to Hermione in Transfiguration.

Harry glanced around himself, half-expecting to see her. "What?"

"That pink-frocked toad--" (Hermione stifled a laugh)-- "is being considered for the post of Advisor to the Minister of Magic."

Harry's face fell. "If she gets in there again--"

Tonks appeared behind them, pink hair blazing. "Ron... go on, tell them who else is up for the post!"

Ron grinned. "My dad."

"Really?" Harry's eyes grew wide.

"Ridiculous, innit?" He toyed with his wand. "Mum just sent an owl. I guess Scrimgeour's impressed with his work ethic, or something..." He broke off, mumbling, but he was flushed, and Harry could tell he was very proud of his father.

"Good for him," Hermione said supportively, brandishing her new Self-Inking Quill as she prepared to take notes.

"Yeah. And Bill is off somewhere, Mum didn't say where, but I assume it must be Order business, and Fleur too-- she went back to France with Madame Maxime."

"Maxime?" Harry said. "She didn't stay here long."

"She's right hacked off," Ron said, "obviously. Maybe she's bringing back an army of giant women to fight against You-Know-Who..."

Harry smiled.

"Alright. I thought we'd start off today with a review of what we did yesterday." When no one said anything, Tonks smiled brightly and turned her nose into a beak. "Beginning stages of human Transfiguration."

Several students laughed and got to work. Within moments, Parvati had managed apeish lips; Lavender was howling with laughter.

"Look at him," Hermione said, lowering her voice. She nodded at Draco, who was at a table by himself. "Odd, isn't it?"

"Odd?"

Harry nodded. "Used to seeing him flanked by Crabbe and Goyle."

"Now Crabbe won't even be seen around him," Ron said disdainfully.

"I had Ancient Runes with him earlier," Hermione remarked, "and he didn't talk to anyone there either. Not even Pansy."

"So he's a git," said Ron impatiently. "Why are we wasting our time worrying about it? Here, Hermione, let's give you a great furry face..." He pointed his wand at her and she pushed it away with a smile.

Hermione glanced at Harry. "I wonder if it's because of his mother." She shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe Voldemort would have threatened to kill his parents-- and then kill his mother even though he... well, he did what he was meant to do."

He shrugged. "Guess he can share something with Neville and Susan and me now."

"I almost feel sorry for him." She paused, noticing Ron's death glare. "But not quite."

"He's a wanking git," Ron stated firmly, "and deserved everything he got. Including his mum dying."

"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione flushed. "That's awful!"

A crash sounded from the hallway, and Tonks turned from showing Pansy some wand techniques.

"Wonder what that was?" Tonks said.

Ron smiled. "You forgotten about Peeves?"

Tonks gave him a half-smile and marched to the back of the classroom, peeking her head out the door. There was another loud bang, and a chorus of screams.

Shutting the door fast behind her, Tonks held herself against it and looked back at her students, who all stared back at her, wide-eyed and frightened.

"What is it?" Harry finally said.

"Goblins," Tonks said, and Harry noticed a chunk of her hair had been burnt off.

"Tonks..."

She reached up and felt the section of hair. "At least it didn't hit me," she said with a nervous smile.

Parvati, still sporting big, thick lips, was ready to cry. "What do we do?" she wailed, while Hermione kindly returned her lips to normal size.

"Colloportus," Tonks said, sealing the doors, and swept into action. "We need to get you hidden," she said immediately, her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she searched for a good place.

"In here," she said, pointing at one of the cabinets in the back.

"But Professor," Pansy complained, "it's tiny!"

"Oh, be quiet," said Tonks impatiently, and cast a spell. "Now go!"

Reluctantly, Pansy climbed in, and found herself in a large log cabin. Her classmates followed.

"Harry?"

"I'm not going."

Tonks looked round at Ron and Hermione, who stood their ground beside him. "Fine," she said, knowing it was useless to argue, "but don't blame me for what Molly says to the three of you when this is all done." She was about to shut the door when she noticed there was another student who hadn't joined his classmates.

"Draco?" she said, approaching him. "Get in, why don't you?"

His sullen glare met her eager, helpful eyes. "I don't think goblins are any harder to kill than deer," he said steadily.

"Goblins will hex you back," Tonks reminded him, ignoring the reference that she didn't understand.

"Only as good as a half-breed could," came his sour response.

There was nothing for it. Tonks shut the door of the cabinet.

The doors of the classroom shook. Harry prayed that the goblins wouldn't be smart enough to realize that there should be a whole class. He didn't want them to go searching for the rest of his classmates.

Another shake, then-- "Alohomora!" With a blast of light, the doors came crashing open, and a flood of armoured goblins burst into the room, their helmets glinting in the pale sunlight.

The one in the front laughed. "This ought to be easy," he said condescendingly.

Draco's eyes blazed. "Avada Kedavra!"

And just as soon as the captain had spoken, he had fallen to the ground. There was a murmur through the rest of them.

"Didn't count on a fine, upstanding Hogwarts scholar having enough hate running through his veins to use an Unforgivable Curse?" he yelled, brandishing his wand at the group of them.

A couple of the goblins nearer the back turned and ran down the hall.

"Draco," Tonks began.

But as the others ran, another goblin spoke up. "It's not like you've never seen death before," he growled, his dark, slanted eyes glowing like veiled fireflies. "Get rid of them."

A battle cry went up from the lot, and several of them pulled finely-made silver swords from scabbards.

Ron gulped. "Does Expelliarmus work against those?"

"Stupefy!" Hermione yelled, with a mind to Stun as many of them as she could before their weapons could do any damage. "Stupefy!"

Following her example, Harry managed to Stun one goblin before he found a sabre slicing through his robes and into his back. He turned, wincing in pain. "Stupefy!"

Tonks took out several goblins, immobilizing them deftly with well-aimed curses. She was considerably less clumsy in battle than in everyday life, Harry noticed.

"Reducto!" yelled Hermione, reducing one of the swords to the size of a quill. She grinned at the approaching goblin, who threw his weapon to the ground in disgust.

"Brilliant," Ron said approvingly, and in that second, a goblin slashed into his leg. Blood spurted from the wound. He cried out, and as he fell to his knees, another one thrust a sword through his shoulder.

"Sectumsempra!" shrieked Hermione, and at hearing her use the spell she'd been so against, Harry turned to see her standing over the goblin, wand hand trembling. "Sectumsempra!"

"Hermione," he said. "Hermione, stop..." He went to her-- she was sobbing, watching the goblin drown in his own blood.

Draco Malfoy pushed Harry out of the way. "Avada Kedavra!" In a flash of green light, he put the goblin out of his misery. The throng of goblins was thinning considerably.

"Ron?" Hermione dropped to her knees.

Tonks turned and saw Ron. "He needs Madam Pomfrey. Hermione?"

Hermione bobbed her head and ran out of the room, Stunning goblins as she went. There were only five of them left by the time Hermione escaped into the hallway, and Tonks was giving orders. "We're taking at least one prisoner," she said. "Harry, you make sure they stay away from Ron. Draco--"

"Incarcerous!" yelled Draco, binding a rushing goblin in ropes. He pulled the sword out of his hand and vanished it with his wand, then dragged him by his bounds to Tonks' feet. "Here."

A pair of goblins came forward to free their friend, and Tonks shot them down with jets of red light; Harry took care of the remaining goblins and joined her.

Tonks seized the goblin by his bounds. "What's your name?"

The goblin glared at her. His pointed nose twitched irritably.

Draco kicked at his leg. "Name!"

"Zubnok."

"Why have you come to Hogwarts?"

Silence.

Putting his wand to the goblin's temple, Draco issued a final threat. "Don't think I'm afraid to use the Unforgivables."

"Draco," Tonks admonished, "I forbid you to."

He ignored her. "I'm not listening to her," he said to the goblin. "I'll use the Cruciatus Curse."

The goblin looked from Draco to Tonks.

"Draco!"

"The Dark Lord sent us," said Zubnok.

"Goblins have joined with Voldemort?" Tonks' eyes flashed.

"He has promised us--" he coughed. "He has promised that he will give us rights. Everything that you deny us."

Draco laughed bitterly.

"What are you talking about?" asked Tonks.

But Harry knew. He remembered the Fountain of Magical Brethren with the goblin gazing adoringly at the wizard. "You haven't been treated very well," he conceded, and Zubnok snapped his head around. "But Voldemort wants nothing but murder. You're only pawns to him."

A scornful smile crossed the goblin's face. "And you're the mouthpiece of the other side," he pronounced. "Their hero." He made a gurgling sound in his throat. "Tell me-- what is it that you have to offer us?"

Harry paused, a little taken aback.

"Not all of us fight for free."

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey burst in with Hermione, Filch and Professor Slughorn.

"Oh, dear," said Madam Pomfrey at once, and magicked up a stretcher. "Help me get him on there, would you?"

Harry and Slughorn picked Ron up, who was slipping in and out of consciousness, while Hermione fretted at their side.

"Wouldn't a levitating spell be better?" she said worriedly, peering over to check on his wounds.

"Not in this case," Madam Pomfrey said. "Now come, follow me up to the hospital wing."

Harry and Slughorn hefted the stretcher; Hermione kept right alongside it, her fingers gripping the blood-stained canvas.

"You've got one here?" Filch said to Tonks.

"Yes. Maybe you ought to take him up to see the Headmistress."

Filch wrested the goblin to his feet. "Have you cracked him yet?"

Tonks nodded.

"Shame," he said ruefully. "Thought I might have been able to torture him a bit." Grabbing him by the back of the neck, he dragged him to the door.

"Just so you know," Draco called to the goblin, "the Dark Lord doesn't always keep his bloody promises. Maybe you ought to keep that in mind before you do his dirty work for him."

Tonks stared down at her student, watching as he nonchalantly wiped the blood off his face and strolled out of the classroom.