Typical Disclaimers Apply

A/N: I'm not quite sure whether or not it said it in the books, but Ginny is taking DADA, Muggle Studies, Transfiguration, and Potions as some of her N.E.W.T.s.

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"I'm going to pull a Weasley!" Esme shrieked. She looked at Sirius expectantly and he stared back in a sort of stunned awe.

"I'm sorry," he said faintly, still looking rather bewildered, "what did you just say you're going to do?"

"Pull a Weasley. You know," he shook his head. "Well, do you remember when Umbridge was here?"

"Quite well, thank you," he said through grit teeth. Dolores Umbridge was one of the few Ministry officials who didn't even offer an apology to Sirius after he was proven innocent. She'd also been the one who monitored his classes with the hope that he'd do something disapproved of by the Ministry and eventually led to his and Esme's dismissal. Well, the dismissal part had been mostly Esme's fault, but if not for Umbridge, she wouldn't have done what led to them getting sacked anyway. "What about her?"

"Well, you know how Fred and George let off all those fireworks and created swamp right before they escaped, right?"

"Yes…" he said slowly, remembering the incidents that led up to the re-legalization of physical punishments at Hogwarts.

"Well," she said tactically, "I was thinking of doing something like that. Especially since I, being there dear older sister, have first hand on their merchandise." Her blue eyes glinted in the candlelight.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Sirius cried. "We'll get sacked! We'll get sent to Azkaban! We'll more than likely get killed!" He paused to think, "Although, overall, I do rather like the plan. What do we need to do first?"

Esme grinned; she loved it when Sirius agreed to everything she said. "You need to make sure we have strong alliances with McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout. Don't trust Slughorn and do not breathe a word of this to Hagrid. That man cannot keep a secret." Sirius nodded. "I am going to write some boys about some pranks."

--

"Alright," Esme said, overlooking her sixth years, "now I'm sure you've heard other students talk about the Felix Felicis potion, and I'm sure you all know the rules. You can't use it for tests, sporting events, et cetera. It's quite a difficult potion but I'm sure..." It was about a week and a half later, and Esme looked away from the board where she was writing the ingredients and instructions and over at the class. Her eyes immediately focused in on Ginny, who was sporting a black eye, as well as a few bruises around her collarbone. She'd seen a few other kids looking banged up, and it was beginning to bother her. "I'm sure you all can handle it," she finished faintly.

As the students began to brew their liquid luck, Esme marched straight over to Ginny's work table. Luna smiled at her warmly, and Esme noticed a dark splotch near the back of her neck. "Come with me, little redheaded girl," she hissed and stalked out of the dungeon. Ginny obediently followed her sister.

"Sit," Esme said, pointing at the ground. She pulled out a small jar of cream and rubbed it all over the black eye. The cream absorbed and the skin slowly returned to its original color. "Now, explain."

"Well, you were there when Alecto gave me detention with Amycus," Ginny tried to explain. Her cheeks flushed red and she didn't look straight at Esme.

"A teacher did this to you?" She clenched her teeth and the vein in her right temple began pulsing and a muscle in her cheek started to jump. Ginny had only seen her sister mad beyond the point of screaming once before, and it had not turned out well.

"Esme, wait, it's not—"

"Do not finish that sentence, little girl. 'A professor shall never lay hands on a child,' is the number one rule in Hogwarts history. It was the first rule the four founders came up with that they all agreed on," she said factually. "It is written in stone!" That was partly true. Legend stated that Godric Gryffindor had taken a large slab of stone and carved all of the rules into it. Not that the stone had ever been found or anything…

"Amycus didn't hit me, Esme," Ginny whispered. The vein in Esme's forehead returned to a normal size and the muscle stopped jumping.

"Oh, okay," she said calmly, her eyes softening. "What happened?"

"It's not a big deal."

"Yeah, about that, if you don't tell me, I'll write to Mum. When she finds out that you're covered in bruises she'll have you out of here faster than you can say, 'I ran into a doorknob.'"

"Fine," she sighed and looked away from her sister. "Amycus's style of detention is….different. He lets his upper-level students punish the kids in detention. As…practice, he calls it."

"In what way?" Esme growled. Ginny muttered something incomprehensible. "Repeat that louder and enunciate."

"The Cruciatus Curse." She braved looking at her sister for just a second. Esme's eye was twitching, the vein in her forehead had begun to throb, her teeth were clenched and she seemed to be trying to stay calm by breathing in a loud, frightening fashion. "Esme?" She wanted to punch someone, and, although she was the nearest target, Ginny probably wasn't the best choice.

"I will kill that man," she muttered, a flush rising in her cheeks while her nails dug so deep into her palms that her knuckles turned white. "I will kill him in the most violent way I can think of. I will put the sword of Gryffindor through his stomach."

"Esme, I know how much you love fighting pointless battles, but is this really worth getting fired?"

She stared at her younger sister for about a minute, thinking it over. She took in her bruised collarbone and frightened stare. "Yes. Yes it is." She walked back into the dungeon, with Ginny at her heels. Brushing past all of the other students, she burst into Slughorn's office. "Horace," she growled, "I need you to take over my class for today. I'm going to escort Ginny back to the tower, and then I'm going to have a little talk with the new headmaster."

"Now, Esme," he said, following her back out into the classroom. "You don't want to do anything rash."

"Horace," she turned sharply, "I can fight my own wars."

Ginny and Esme rushed down the halls. They were stopped twice: the first time by a prefect who didn't realize Esme was a professor. Once she'd caught Esme's death stare she looked like she wanted to melt into a wall. The second time was by McGonagall, stepping out of her classroom looking almost panicked. "Esmeralda Black, don't you dare do whatever you're planning on doing," she said, blocking their path.

"How can you know I'm planning something?" Esme said, forcing the calm again. Her heart was racing, she couldn't wait to get a hold of Snape and give him a piece of her mind…or her fist.

"I've known you for twelve years. You have your typical 'I'm about to go light someone on fire' look in your eyes."

"I'm sorry Minerva, but he's gone too far."

"Esme, you'll regret whatever you do. Just let it go!"

"I can't!" She yelled. She very badly wanted to hurt somebody. "Why does know one understand that? I can put up with the insults. I can put up with his hatred of my husband. I can put up with the fact that he's pushed me out of a second story window, broken my shoulder, and completely betrayed my trust. I can deal with all of that, but I can't allow him to mess with my family. People who mess with my family die." She paused, not sure if she could continue. She took a deep breath and growled, "Step aside Minerva. Oh, and could you take Ginny up to Gryffindor Tower?" she asked politely. "I want to finish my tirade and it's sort of out of my way." McGonagall sighed in a defeated sort of way.

"I suppose."

"And Ginny, take this," she handed her a small square of folded paper, and then turned to McGonagall. "You saw nothing."

--

Ginny sat up in her dormitory staring at the letter. She was wondering how the hell Esme could have been stupid enough to leave a paper trail, and who she was going to bring to the meeting. She read it over again.

Dear Ginny,

After seeing your Muggle Studies class, my husband and I believe that you kids deserve better. We're starting our own Muggle Studies class, taught by Sirius, this Saturday at eleven a.m. Invite anyone you don't think will rat us out. We're going to be majorly mad if this turns into another "Dumbledore's Army" fiasco. Burn this letter after you finish reading it.

Hugs and Kisses,

Esme

Ginny stared at the letter for a few more moments, shrugged, and whispered "Incendio."

--

"Argh! Wake up and move you bloody gargoyles! I need to kill that bastard and you're in my way!" She kicked one of the large stone gargoyles as hard as she possible could. How had Snape even gotten this room? "Bloody hell!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Stop kicking those!" She turned sharply to see Snape, holding what seemed to be a steaming cappuccino. He was staring at her like she'd gone mad. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm….breaking into your office in order to kill you!" She sighed, it had sounded so much better in her head. Snape was actually smirking at her!

"Care to tell why?" His eyes were dancing. It would have been so easy to just reach out and strangle him.

"Do I need a reason?"

"Touché. Still, I'd prefer if you told me why."

"And I should do this because….?"

"Because, if you don't and you take one more step towards me, I'll poor steaming hot cappuccino on you."

"That wouldn't stop me."

"Well then, I suppose I'll just leave you alone with the gargoyles. Unless you tell me what's wrong." He whispered the password to the gargoyles, and they jumped aside. "Come up to my office with me." She followed quietly, but when he attempted to get her to sit down, she exploded.

"Your fucking Death Eater friends have gone too far!" she yelled. After a moment of hesitation, she grabbed his cappuccino and poured it all over his desk.

"You mean even worse than their countless brutal murders and mistreatment of muggles?" Snape said sarcastically, wiping away the mess with a swipe of his wand.

"YES!" she screamed. "They messed with my family!"

"They haven't done that before?"

"Your buddy Amycus is encouraging his students to use the Cruciatus Curse on kids in detention!" Snape looked at her, shocked for a second.

"I did say that it would be used as a punishment," he said coolly.

"How can you do this?! How can you stand aside while children are tortured?!"

"Have you ever thought that maybe I just don't give a damn?" Esme stood there, her expression a mix of horror, shock, anger, and crushing depression. Something in Snape's head screamed "Say something you son-of-a-bitch! Rectify the situation! RECTIFY THE SITUATION!" But he just stood there, unable to speak.

"How can you…I can't believe I was ever…I hate you!" She stormed out of the office and down the stairs.

"Esme…" he turned toward the wall of portraits, many of which looked completely livid. It seemed like that was the typical emotion of portraits these days. "I said the wrong thing, didn't I?"

"YES!" At least a dozen portraits, including Dumbledore screamed.

--

Esme stormed down the halls, taking points from anyone who dared to cross her path. She didn't take points from their House, of course, she was taking them from Slytherin.

Instead of rushing back to the dungeons, which was really probably the best thing to do, she stalked over to the Transfiguration classroom. She couldn't believe Snape. He'd treated her like trash and she hadn't even gotten one punch in! All that would change in time.

With all of her might she whipped out her wand and blasted the door to the classroom open. Sirius jumped up, his wand drawn and McGonagall clutched her chest. For a moment Esme feared she may have had a heart attack, but from the livid look rising in McGonagall's face, she seemed not to be dying. However, the class of second years couldn't have looked more frightened if Voldemort himself had burst into their class.

"Esmeralda, I command you leave my—!" Esme silenced her with a hand. She turned to Sirius, who was still brandishing his wand like a sword. Icily, she whispered,

"It begins."

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A/N: Thus begins one of many two thousand word or greater chapters!