AN: I meant to have a double update today (since there was no update on Thursday last week) but the dreaded spring cleaning has gotten in the way. Hopefully I can get it out tomorrow or I will be very upset with myself.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Drabble 27: Step One

Sirius paced furiously like an animal in a cage while Remus wrung his hands while he resisted the urge to also begin pacing. Sirius growled and kicked the couch.

"Ah!" The dark haired man grabbed his foot and hissed out a pain breath.

"Abusing the furniture, and your foot, will not solve this problem." Remus chided. Siruis rolled his eyes.

"Normally I'd say something like 'at least it felt good', but in this case it most certainly did not feel good."

"Learnt your lesson, did you?" Remus managed a weak grin. Sirius glared.

"Hush." Sirius let his foot drop and leaned against the couch. "I don't know what angle to take with this issue. It's so stupid that I don't understand how to explain it in political-ese."

"That is a problem." Remus raised an eyebrow. "How about step one? Let's figure how to describe the problem in—uh, normal language."

Drabble 28: Star struck

Riddle eyed his students as the paired up. This was the first real duel he had allowed for the class. A few weeks ago he wouldn't have even considered it what with tensions being so high but…the air in the castle didn't feel quite so stifling.

Even so, Riddle had an annoying feeling that this was a bad idea. Maybe he should have assigned permanent groups? He wanted people to practice with as many different people as possible but he didn't quite like looks some of the students were giving others. Well, hopefully everything would turn out well enough or he would be most cross.

"Ready, class?" Riddle resisted the urge to roll his eyes when most of his students gave him blank-eyed stares. "Begin!" Lights flashed wildly across the room and Riddle had to quickly clamp down on his rage when someone erected a reflective barrier.

"Bollocks." Riddle muttered.

Drabble 29: Insidious

Hermione blinked rapidly, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, against the bright lights of the Hospital Wing. Her body ached all over.

"Finally awake?" Madame Pomfrey bustled over with potions already in hand. Hermione hadn't even had time to say anything before she was getting a dose of several abhorrent concoctions. At least, Hermione thought as she sat upright, one of them was working wonders on her pain.

"Hello Miss Granger." Professor Riddle stepped into view when Madame Pomfrey hustled to another end of the room. "Are you lucid?"

"Yes, professor." Hermione gulped. She didn't know why but it felt oddly intimate for him to visit her in the Hospital Wing.

"Do you recall what happened?" He conjured a stool to sit on.

"No. I don't." Hermione frowned.

"That's unfortunate." The professor sighed. "While this looks like an accident on the surface, this incident wasn't innocent."