Christmas Holiday was far from pleasant this year, and now Harry had arrived back at Hogwarts with a bitter taste in his mouth. He'd already been worried for his godfather but then the new minister of magic had shown up out of the blue to talk to him. He'd arrived with the intention of trying to persuade Harry into being a poster boy for the ministry. An offer Harry quickly turned down hardly having forgotten the way the ministry had treated him just last year. The minister was angry when Harry shot him down, standing by Dumbledore in the process.

This was hardly the worst of his drop by visit though, because the minister hadn't arrived on his own accord. He'd shown up with Percy, lying through their teeth that it was Percy who'd wanted to stop by and visit his family. Mrs. Weasley was ecstatic to see her son but the rest of his family was much less pleased to see him. By the end of his visit Percy was being chased out by curses from Ginny and the twins. Mrs. Weasley was in tears by the end of the day and her mood hadn't improved much after that the entirety of Harry's visit.

Lupin had made a promise to Harry that he would be in contact with Harry had he gotten any word from Sirius. He'd also said he'd do some digging into where he had gone. His work with the Werewolves put him in close contact with Death Eaters. Harry knew Lupin would be honest with Harry if he had found out any information.

Now he was strolling through the halls of Hogwarts again replaying this all to Hermione who had been home with her family missing it all. She listened intently as they walked towards their next lesson which was Defense Against the Dark Arts, with Snape. Harry was hardly looking forwards to seeing his least favorite teacher and gladly took the opportunity to keep busy talking with Hermione. Ron was missing from their group as he was off snogging with Lavender somewhere.

Hermione was disappointed in not having any word from Sirius still. She mainly was enraged the minister had the nerve to think Harry would do his bidding to make the Ministry look good. She was fuming by the time they reached the door to Snape's class room. They leaned against the brick wall among the other students waiting for class to start shortly.

"Hey Potter, have a good holiday?" said a familiar drawling voice from behind Harry. He turned around to see Malfoy leaning against the wall casually. Crabbe and Goyle stood beside him with menacing looks upon both their faces as usual, waiting to do Malfoys bidding if need be.

"Yep, it was great Malfoy." He said before promptly turning his back to the three Slytherins again. He was in no mood to deal with Malfoy and his cronies, and neither stupid enough to allow them to provoke him right outside Snape's classroom. It was bad enough he was going to have to sit through a lesson with a loathing Snape, but he didn't need to give him an excuse to dock Gryffindor points before class even started.

"Ah not talkative today, Potter." Malfoy teased, his voice mocking. Crabbe and Goyle both laughed stupidly in response.

"Just ignore him." Hermione said with a significant look at him, before tossing her head back up in a dignified way.

"Shut up you little Mudblood, I was talking to Potter. Besides don't you know he's upset over his godfather bailing on him for Christmas?" Malfoy sneered. Harry spun around on his feet so quickly he nearly hit Hermione with his bag. Hermione slowly turned around to face Malfoy as well. She gave Harry a nervous look before tentatively reaching out to grab his arm but he ripped it away before she could make full contact with him.

"What did you just say?" He asked quietly as he surveyed Malfoy's face. Malfoy wore a superior expression, his eyes shining with glee.

"You may have not seen him over break, but I did." Malfoy said with a smirk and he lost it before even had time to think anything through. He lunged forward at Malfoy before Crabbe or Goyle could register what was happening to stop him. His fist collided hard with the side of Malfoys slender face.

"Harry no!" Hermione cried out but Harry could barely hear her, there was a ringing in his ears. He got two more punches in before Crabbe yanked him off Malfoy effortlessly, tossing him aside. Goyle was rushing towards him with his fist balled up. He may be stronger than Harry, but he was quicker, thrusting his hand into his pocket he found his wand and pointed it at Goyle.

"Petrificus totalus!" He bellowed and Goyle's limbs snapped together, before he fell to the ground with a loud thud unable to catch himself. He rounded on Crabbe who was attempting to reach him but he was still quicker, and Crabbe too fell to the ground next to his friend in a similar fate.

"Where is he?" Harry asked brandishing his wand at Malfoy now who had just sat up, trying to gather himself. His lip was bleeding and the left side of his face was swollen but he still managed to wear an expression of infuriating mockery under it all.

"What, is going on here?" a voice said from behind him, another voice he very much didn't want to hear at this moment. He didn't turn around to look at Snape, he kept his eyes and wand on Malfoy.

"Potter! Put, your wand, away." He said it slow and drawling voice so much like Malfoys, but his tone was firm and angry. Harry hesitated for a moment, but slowly lowered his wand, his hands shaking in rage. His classmates around him wore looks of shock, all of them looking between him and Malfoy with wide curious eyes. Some of his fellow Gryffindor's looked pleased though, Dean Thomas wore a grin he wasn't even attempting to hide.

Snape raised his wand and uttered a counter curse, Crabbe and Goyle then scrambled to their feet wildly. If Harry hadn't been so angry it would have almost been amusing to watch the two oafs scramble about. His hands were still shaking as he took deep breaths attempting to calm himself down, he didn't find anything about this situation funny currently.

"Crabbe and Goyle take Malfoy to the hospital wing." Snape commanded lazily, and soon the pair had Malfoy on his feet dragging him towards the direction of Madam Pomphrey.

"100 points from Gryffindor, and you can get out of my sight and report to your head of house." Snape said curtly to him before turning on his heel and walking into his class room. Slowly the students started to follow him into class upon his command.

"Harry." Hermione said quietly but Harry shook his head and put his wand back into his pocket.

"Just go to class, it's fine." He muttered but Hermione stayed planted there in front of him looking anxious with her wide eyes baring down on him.

"He could have just been bluffing." She suggested lightly.

"There is no way he could know about Sirius, no one knows besides the Order, Ron, and you." He replied and in one of those rare moments it looked like Hermione didn't know what to say.

"Just get to class before Snape rounds on you, I'm going to talk to Dumbledore." He said before taking off down the corridor before she could argue with him.

He walked slowly towards Dumbledore's office, not sure if Dumbledore would even be at Hogwarts with how often he was absent as of late. Despite his efforts to keep it at bay, fear was creeping to the surface, ebbing away at his anger to take its place.

How had Malfoy known about Sirius, and most importantly did that mean he was being honest about seeing him? If he was that meant Sirius had been caught by Death Eaters in his attempts to help Embry.