The Fire in Umbridge's Office

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

'Listen, Kat,' said Harry catching up with Kitty in corridor the next evening, 'I am going to talk to Sirius, face to face.'

'What?' asked Kitty.

'Yes, you can come if you want, Fred and George are about to cause a diversion any minute now, and I am going to sneak into Umbridge's office to talk with him through her fire. So tell me, are you coming with me?' said Harry, expecting Kitty to retaliate.

To his surprise however, Kitty nodded and followed him towards Umbridge's office. They reached the corridor to Umbridge's office and found it deserted. Dashing behind a large suit of armour Harry pulled open his bag, seized Sirius's knife and donned the Invisibility Cloak over Kitty and himself. They then crept slowly and carefully back out from behind the suit of armour and along the corridor until they reached Umbridge's door.

Harry inserted the blade of the magical knife into the crack around it and moved it gently up and down, then withdrew it. There was a tiny click, and the door swung open. They ducked inside the office, closed the door quickly behind them and looked around. Harry pulled off his Cloak and, striding over to the fireplace, found what he was looking for within seconds: a small box containing glittering Floo powder.

They crouched down in front of the empty grate and stuck their heads into the fireplace. Harry took a large pinch of powder and dropped it on to the logs stacked neatly beneath him. They exploded at once into emerald green flames.

'Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!' Harry and Kitty said loudly and clearly.

Kitty's knees remained firm upon the cold floor of Umbridge's office, and only her head hurtled through the emerald fire ...

And then, as abruptly as it had begun, the spinning stopped. Feeling rather sick and as though she were wearing an exceptionally hot muffler around her head, Kitty opened her eyes to find that she was looking up out of the kitchen fireplace at the long, wooden table, where a man sat poring over a piece of parchment.

'Remus?'

The man jumped and looked around.

'Kitty! Harry!' he said, looking thoroughly shocked. 'What are you-what's happened, is everything all right?'

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'I just wondered-I mean, I just fancied a-a chat with Sirius.'

'I'll call him,' said Lupin, getting to his feet, still looking perplexed, 'he went upstairs to look for Kreacher, he seems to be hiding in the attic again ...'

Remus returned with Sirius at his heels moments later.

'What is it?' said Sirius urgently, sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes and dropping to the ground in front of the fire, so that he and Harry and Kitty were on a level. Remus knelt down too, looking very concerned. 'Are you all right? Do you need help?'

'No,' said Harry, 'it's nothing like that ... I just wanted to talk ... about our dad.'

They exchanged a look of great surprise, but Harry did not have time to feel awkward or embarrassed; his knees were becoming sorer by the second and he guessed five minutes had already passed from the start of the diversion; George had only guaranteed him twenty. He therefore plunged immediately into the story of what he had seen in the Pensieve.

When he had finished, neither Sirius nor Remus spoke for a moment. Then Remus said quietly, 'I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there. He was only fifteen-'

'I'm fifteen,' said Harry heatedly.

'Look, you both,' said Sirius placatingly, 'James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be-he was popular, he was good at Quidditch-good at pretty much everything.

'Yeah, and arrogant too,' said Kitty.

'And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts, and James-whatever else he may have appeared to you -always hated the Dark Arts,' continued Sirius.

'Yeah,' said Kitty, 'but he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because-well, just because you said you were bored,' she finished.

'I 'm not proud of it,' said Sirius quickly.

Remus looked sideways at Sirius, then said, 'Look, what you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did- everyone thought they were the height of cool-if they sometimes got a bit carried away-'

'If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean,' said Sirius.

Remus smiled.

'He kept messing up his hair,' said Harry in a pained voice.

Sirius and Remus laughed.

'I'd forgotten he used to do that,' said Sirius affectionately.

'Was he playing with the Snitch?' said Remus eagerly.

'Yeah,' said Kitty, watching uncomprehendingly as Sirius and Lupin beamed reminiscently. 'Well ... I thought he was a bit of an idiot.'

'Of course he was a bit of an idiot!' said Sirius bracingly, 'we were all idiots! Well- not Moony so much,' he said fairly, looking at Remus.

But Remus shook his head. 'Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?' he said. 'Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?'

'Yeah, well,' said Sirius, 'you made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes ... that was something ...'

'And,' said Harry doggedly, determined to say everything that was on his mind now he was here, 'he kept looking over at the girls by the lake, hoping they were watching him!'

'Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around,' said Sirius, shrugging, 'he couldn't stop himself showing off whenever he got near her.'

'How come she married him?' Harry asked miserably. 'She hated him!'

'Nah, she didn't,' said Sirius.

'She started going out with him in seventh year,' said Remus.

'Once James had deflated his head a bit,' said Sirius.

'And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,' said Remus.

'Even Snape?' said Harry shrewdly.

'Well,' said Remus slowly, 'Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James so you couldn't really expect James to take that lying down could you?'

'And mum was OK with that?'

'She didn't know too much about it, to tell you the truth,' said Sirius. 'I mean, James didn't take Snape on dates with her and jinx him in front of her, did he?'

Sirius frowned at Kitty, who was still looking unconvinced.

'Look,' he said, 'your father was the best friend I ever had and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it.'

'Yeah, OK,' said Harry heavily. 'I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape.'

'Now you mention it,' said Remus, a faint crease between his eyebrows, 'how did Snape react when he found you'd seen all this?'

'He told us he'd never teach us Occlumency again,' said Harry indifferently, 'like that's a big disappoint-'

'He WHAT?' shouted Sirius, causing Kitty to jump and inhale a mouthful of ashes.

'Are you serious, Harry?' said Remus quickly. 'He's stopped giving you lessons?'

'Yeah,' said Harry, surprised at what he considered a great over-reaction. 'But it's OK, I don't care, it's a bit of a relief to tell you the-'

'I'm coming up there to have a word with Snape!' said Sirius forcefully, and he actually made to stand up, but Remus wrenched him back down again.

'If anyone's going to tell Snape it will be me!' he said firmly. 'But Harry, first of all, you're to go back to Snape and tell him that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons-when Dumbledore hears-'

'I can't tell him that, he'd kill me!' said Harry, outraged. 'You didn't see him when we got out of the Pensieve.'

'I did try to tell him, Remus,' said Kitty quietly.

'And, what did he say?' asked Remus at once.

'He refused,' said Kitty, 'But he said that I could continue learning.'

Harry looked at her in surprise. She hadn't told him about the talk she had had with Snape.

'Well, Kitty,' said Sirius, 'I want you to keep going to Snape for Occlumency, and learn everything you can. And then, you can come back and tell Harry whatever Snape taught you. You get that?'

Kitty nodded. Everyone fell silent. Kitty could hear distant footsteps.

'Is that Kreacher coming downstairs?'

'No,' said Sirius, glancing behind him. 'It must be somebody your end.'

Harry's heart skipped several beats.

'We'd better go!' he said hastily and pulled his head backwards out of the Grimmauld Place fire. 'Quickly, quickly!' he heard a wheezy voice mutter right outside the office door. 'Ah, she's left it open-'

Harry dived for the Invisibility Cloak and had just managed to pull it back over Kitty and himself when Filch burst into the office. He looked absolutely delighted about something and was talking to himself feverishly as he crossed the room, pulled open a drawer in Umbridge's desk and began rifling through the papers inside it.

'Approval for Whipping ... Approval for Whipping ... I can do it at last ... they've had it coming to them for years ...'

He pulled out a piece of parchment, kissed it, then shuffled rapidly back out of the door, clutching it to his chest.

Harry leapt to his feet and, making sure he had his bag and that the Invisibility Cloak was completely covering them, he wrenched open the door and hurried out of the office with Kitty after Filch, who was hobbling along faster than Kitty had ever seen him go.

One landing down from Umbridge's office, Harry thought it was safe to become visible again. He pulled off the Cloak, shoved it in his bag and hurried onwards. Kitty followed him. There was a great deal of shouting and movement coming from the Entrance Hall. He ran down the marble staircase and found what looked like most of the school assembled there.

'So!' said Umbridge triumphantly. Kitty realised she was standing just a few stairs in front of her, once more looking down upon her prey. 'So-you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?'

'Pretty amusing, yeah,' said Fred, looking up at her without the slightest sign of fear.

Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, almost crying with happiness.

'I've got the form, Headmistress,' he said hoarsely, waving the piece of parchment Kitty had just seen him take from her desk. 'I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting ... oh, let me do it now ...'

'Very good, Argus,' she said. 'You two,' she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, 'are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school.'

'You know what?' said Fred. 'I don't think we are.'

He turned to his twin.

'George,' said Fred, 'I think we've outgrown full-time education.'

'Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself,' said George lightly.

'Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?' asked Fred.

'Definitely,' said George.

And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together:

'Accio brooms!'

Kitty heard a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Looking to her left, she ducked just in time. Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor towards their owners; they turned left, streaked down the stairs and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.

'We won't be seeing you,' Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.

'Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch,' said George, mounting his own.

Fred looked around at the assembled students, at the silent, watchful crowd.

'It anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley-Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes,' he said in a loud voice. 'Our new premises!'

'Special discounts to Hogwart's students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat,' added George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.

'STOP THEM!' shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.

'Give her hell from us, Peeves.'

And Peeves, who Kitty had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.