Chapter 19: Order of the Phoenix part 3

After a few minutes break, Hermione called everyone back to attention. She was conscious of wasting time. Besides, the quicker they got this year out of they way, the better. She glanced over at Remus. The poor man was about to become the last of his friends, for real this time. He only just got his best friend back, only to lose him again. Remus gave her a small smile, which she returned and then she spoke.

"Right, shall we continue?" Everyone nodded. "Ok. So, the next day I went back to Hagrid's to convince him to show us some less dangerous creatures this year. We knew that Umbridge would be looking for any excuse to sack him, being only part human and close to Professor Dumbledore. However he didn't take any of my advice, saying he didn't want his lessons to be boring."

"Oh Hagrid, that is the least of your worries." Lily sighed.

"Hagrid didn't quite understand exactly how bad Umbridge was, or how much power she had." Hermione sighed.

"Did the rest of the staff not explain to him?" McGonagall asked.

"I'm not sure. You may have had a word of warning, but either he still didn't understand, or he just thought there was nothing wrong with what he was doing anyway."

"Probably the latter." James grinned.

"Naturally his first lesson with us was inspected. He was showing us Thestrals."

"Ooh. That's not a bad lesson." Lily smiled.

"Maybe a bit advanced for fifth year though. We didn't study them until NEWTS." Remus said, looking apprehensive.

"Umbridge was horrible. She pretended not to be able to understand him, which totally confused poor Hagrid. She was making horrible notes, but muttering loud enough so Hagrid could hear which threw him off the lesson slightly. Then she asked loads of questions to the Slytherins who made out they couldn't understand him and made out that students were too intimidated to admit Hagrid frightened them."

"That twisted, evil, scumbag." Remus growled.

"This is outrageous." Flitwick squeaked, frowning.

"Unless you make him really mad nobody is afraid of Hagrid." Sirius said, shaking his head.

"After that it was our last DA meeting of the term. It went really well, Harry was a wonderful teacher and everyone was making amazing progress. Afterwards, he stayed behind to talk to Cho Chang. Apparently she was crying and wanted to talk about Cedric. In the end they kissed and then Harry met us in the common room."

"It took my son five years into Hogwarts to even get his first kiss?" James asked in horror. Hermione smiled indulgently but nodded.

"Good lord." Sirius cried.

"Who stays behind wanting to kiss someone you like and then starts crying about their ex-boyfriend?" James queried. "I mean, I totally get that it's upsetting, but why would you mention it when you're about to kiss another bloke?" Hermione and Lily shared a look.

"I explained that one to Harry as well. Anyway, that night he had a vision. He was Nagini, Voldemort's snake, and he was heading towards the Department of Mysteries. There was a man on guard duty and he started to see the snake, so it bit him. Harry woke up and knew it had been a real vision, not just a dream. A giant snake had attacked Mr Weasley while he was on guard duty for the Order."

"No!" Everyone cried, looking worried

"Arthur can't die." Lily looked horrified.

"Well, as soon as Harry woke up, he tried to tell Ron what had happened, but they all thought he was going crazy. Neville ran to fetch Professor McGonagall. She took him to Professor Dumbledore."

"Oh thank goodness." McGonagall heaved a sigh of relief.

"Harry explained what he had seen and Professor Dumbledore sent some of the portraits to get help for Mr Weasley."

"They were in time right?" James asked anxiously.

"Yes. They got to him just in time and moved him to St Mungo's."

"Oh thank God." Remus sighed.

"Harry saved his life." James breathed.

"Yes." Hermione smiled. "Then Harry, Ron, Ginny and the twins took a portkey to Sirius' house. They wanted to go running off to the hospital then and there but Sirius stopped them. They had to wait at least for Dumbledore to inform Mrs Weasley. She soon sent a letter saying he was still alive and she was on her way to the hospital."

"Well done Harry." Lily smiled.

"At least he is alive. That will be a nasty bite though." Remus said.

"Well done for stopping them Sirius." McGonagall told him with a small smile. Sirius beamed proudly.

"Hey, Prongs, did you see that? Minnie smiled at me." He whispered to James.

"You must have imagined it." James whispered back.

"Naa, I knew she always liked me." Sirius grinned wickedly. "She even called me Sirius."

"Enough Mr Black." McGonagall said sharply. Sirius' face fell slightly.

"Oh well. We had a good run Minnie." He chuckled. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with amusement and James was laughing loudly. Even Lily looked like she was fighting a smile.

"Mrs Weasley soon came to Grimmauld Place and they had breakfast. Mr Weasley was sleeping and alive. It was decided that they would all stay with Sirius for Christmas as it was closer to the hospital."

"Yay! Company." Sirius beamed. It was depressing thinking of himself cooped up in that damned house alone, all Christmas.

"And what am I? Dead meat?" Remus asked indignantly.

"I mean...Yay, more company." Sirius corrected and Remus grinned.

"Harry then told Sirius about him seeing the vision from the Snake's point of view. Sirius tried to reassure him, but Harry was now terrified that it was him that did the attacking. Nobody explained that his connection to Voldemort allowed him to see, not that he had to have physically been present. So now he was terrified to fall asleep in case it happened again."

"The poor boy. Albus why did you not explain anything to him?" McGonagall asked. Hermione scowled slightly. Dumbledore was looking grave, he could guess what his future self was doing.

"Everyone went to visit Mr Weasley later that day, after they had slept for a little bit. After the children had said hello, they waited outside while the Order spoke to him. The twins used extendable ears to hear what was going on."

"Brilliant." Beamed the marauders. McGonagall looked disapproving.

"They said that the snake had vanished and there was no sign of it. Moody also suggested that Harry could be being possessed, which of course freaked him out even more."

"Oh great. Because Harry really needs more things to worry about." James sighed.

"Shouldn't have been eavesdropping then." Lily replied. "Not that, with your genes, he would ever do anything else." She added, looking over at James.

"Harry then started isolating himself from everyone."

"No. Thats exactly what he needs to not do." Sirius groaned.

"He wanted to run away to try and protect everybody else, in case Voldemort was using him as a spy on the Order by possessing him."

"Someone really need to sit down and explain things to the poor boy." Flitwick said.

"It would have saved an awful lot of worry and problems." Hermione agreed heavily. "It would also have made a difference to Harry because he wouldn't feel so isolated."

"Professor, why aren't you explaining things to Harry, he is clearly able to handle it?" Lily asked Dumbledore. He refused to meet her gaze.

"I'm not sure Lily. I have only theories." He replied.

"Then the portrait of Phineas Nigellus said that Dumbledore told him to stay put. He was confused, terrified, and now angry that he was not being told anything at all. However he did decide that since Professor Dumbledore told him to stay, they he was allowed to sleep. Then he didn't go down to dinner. Next day they started decorating for Christmas and were subjected to listening to Sirius singing."

"Oh no. You poor things." James cried, throwing his arms around Hermione."

"I wasn't there yet. I was in France."

"Count yourself lucky." Remus grinned.

"Hey!" Sirius protested. "I am not that bad."

"Yes you are." James, Remus and Lily chorused together. Sirius pouted and turned to Hermione with puppy dog eyes.

"I'm sorry Sirius, but I can't lie to you." She grinned. "I've never heard you sing, but by all accounts I don't want to." She chuckled.

"You lot are so mean to me." SIrius grumbled.

"You wouldn't have us any other way Pads." James grinned, ruffling Sirius' hair. Sirius growled and threw him off, desperately trying to fix his hair.

"That evening, I arrived and finally got Harry down to talk to everybody. After talking to Ginny, we determined he was not being possessed. I assured him that he couldn't have been transported out of Hogwarts to the vision, and so we finally convinced him that it had just been a vision. Nothing more."

"Oh good. Now he doesn't have quite so much to worry about." Lily sighed in relief.

"Thanks 'Mione." James smiled over at her.

"He became a lot happier and joined in decorating the house for Christmas. The only problem was that he now joined in singing with Sirius 'God rest ye, Merry Hippogriffs.'"

"Ahhh, my favourite." Sirius beamed.

"If he is anything like James, then having both him and Padfoot singing together is something I never want to hear." Remus muttered. Both James and Sirius looked at him, offended.

"Oh you suffered right along with us Remus." Hermione grinned. "Christmas was great. After presents, we all went to visit Mr Weasley. Mrs Weasley started yelling at him for trying to use muggle stitches on the wound."

"That is a reasonable idea." Lily pointed out.

"I agree, but the venom in the snake kept dissolving them." Hermione said.

"What on earth are stitches?" Sirius asked. Lily shook her head at him.

"You took Muggle studies."

"Only to annoy mum. I didn't pay attention."

"We all went to get a cup of tea while she yelled at him and we ran into Professor Lockhart." Hermione continued.

"That idiot?" James said, exasperated. "Really did a good job on himself then didn't he?" He smirked.

"Serves him right for trying to remove Harry's memory and leave Ginny to die." Sirius snorted.

"We also ran into Neville. He was visiting Frank and Alice." Everybody paled and looked down.

"A fate worse than death." James murmured,

"Indeed Mr Potter." Dumbledore sighed.

"Just before we went back to Hogwarts, Snape arrived, to tell Harry he would be teaching him Occlumency."

"HE WHAT?" Roared James. "Why would you let that slimy git teach Harry something so important?" He asked.

"James. He is not a slimy git. And he is very skilled at Legilimency. It does make sense." Lily pointed out.

"Snape teaching Harry in extra lessons definitely does not make sense. They hate each other with a passion." Remus pointed out.

"I guess Albus won't teach him." McGonagall sighed. Dumbledore was staring at his feet.

"Well Sirius and Snape were arguing after he told Harry that it would be Snape himself teaching him. The Weasley's all came in and stopped them actually duelling."

"Damn." Sirius sighed.

"When we got back to Hogwarts, Harry finally managed to ask Cho out to Hogsmeade on Valentine's day."

"About time son." James rolled his eyes.

"In his first Occlumency lesson, Snape explained that the vision before Christmas had made Voldemort aware of the connection between himself and Harry. Meaning he could send Harry false visions." Hermione flinched slightly as she said that. "Which was why he had to take these lessons. Snape just kept breaking into Harry's mind without really teaching him how to defend himself."

Everyone exchanged worried glances. James looked murderous. Lily looked disappointed.

"Then he told him he had to let go of his emotions while he was taunting him. The lesson really didn't go very well. However, during one attempt he saw the door at the Department of Mysteries and worked out that was the door Voldemort was thinking about. He told me and Ron about it. We went to the common room and found Fred and George demonstrating their new product. Headless hats."

"Wicked." James and Sirius grinned.

"They are incredibly clever, those two." Remus grinned.

"That night Harry felt weaker rather than stronger and felt Voldemort's joy. Something good had happened. Next morning we found out that 10 high security Death Eaters had broken out from Azkaban, including Bellatrix Lestrange. They tried to pin it on Sirius as well."

"Like I would ever help that scum escape." Sirius scoffed.

"We also found out Hagrid had been put on probation. Umbridge seemed to be making it even more important to bring every aspect of Hogwarts under her control. The news that the Death Eaters had escaped drove everyone in the DA to perform even better. However, since starting Occlumency, HArry's sensitivity to Voldemort's moods became stronger than ever. He had dreams about the Department of Mysteries more often as well."

"Damn Snivellus." Sirius growled.

"Albus, you really shouldn't let Severus teach Harry." McGonagall sighed. "The history is too much."

"Then came Harry's date with Cho. I asked Harry to meet me in the Three Broomsticks around midday. They talked about Quidditch on the way there."

"A Quidditch fan? She's a keeper Harry."

"Actually she's a seeker." Hermione smirked. Sirius and James gaped at her.

"Did you just make a Quidditch joke?" James asked.

"She did. I knew you were perfect." Sirius grinned, pulling Hermione into a rib cracking hug.

"Can't. Breathe." She choked.

"Oops. Sorry." Sirius chuckled and looked sheepish. Hermione laughed, a bit pink in the face.

"Well, Cho dragged him to Madam Puddifoot's."

"Yuck!" Sirius exclaimed. "That place is evil."

"He mentioned he was meeting me, but she didn't take that very well. Then she started wanting to talk about Cedric and so their date didn't go very well."

"Well stop bringing up her ex-boyfriend then and she might have a good time." James rolled his eyes.

"He found me with Rita Skeeter."

"Why on Earth would you be with that woman?" Lily asked in disgust.

"Well, as a favour to me, she agreed to do an interview with Harry about what really happened in the graveyard with Voldemort. Luna had agreed to get it published in the Quibbler."

"Harry agreed to talk about that with the public?" James asked, raising an eyebrow. Hermione blushed.

"I didn't exactly ask him. I kind of told him when he showed up. He agreed to do it. So we did the interview and Luna said it would be published quite soon."

"That's great. But the Quibbler?" Remus asked with a bemused smile.

"Well we couldn't exactly put it in the Prophet." Hermione sighed. "A few days later Harry got loads of mail. The interview had come out. Some thought he was crazy and other people were convinced by his argument. Umbridge saw and gave him detention, stopped him going to Hogsmeade and took points for doing the interview."

"She what?" McGonagall's nostrils flared. Everyone else looked outraged.

"She can't do that." Lily cried.

"She could do whatever she liked." Hermione sighed. "However, she then banned the Quibbler."

James, Sirius and Remus chuckled to themselves. "That's the best way to spread it around." Remus laughed. Hermione nodded with a grin.

"Soon everyone had read it. Seamus now came up saying he believed Harry. Cho was back on good terms with him. And then Harry had another dream. Bode had been bewitched to remove something from the Department of Mysteries and failed. Now Rookwood was going to help him correct the mistake."

"Augustus Rookwood?" Dumbledore asked sharply. Hermione nodded.

"During an Occlumency lesson, Snape saw his dream and was angry that Harry wasn't working hard enough. Then they heard a scream upstairs and found that Professor Trelawney had finally been sacked. Umbridge had made a public spectacle of it. However, Professor Dumbledore said that she didn't have to leave Hogwarts even if she wasn't teaching."

Dumbledore looked relieved.

"Why is that so important?" James asked. Both Dumbledore and Hermione shook their heads. James scowled.

"Professor Dumbledore had also enlisted Firenze the Centaur as the replacement teacher."

"Ha! Bet she loved that. Another part human." Remus grinned delightedly.

"She was, angry, to say the least." Hermione grinned back. "Apparently Divinations lessons were rather different."

"Being taught by a centaur. That is so cool." James whispered in awe.

"In one DA lesson we were producing Patronus' until Dobby arrived warning us that Umbridge had found out and was on her way. Thanks to his warning everyone except Harry had managed to get away."

"No! Now she is going to take that away from him too." James groaned.

"Take it away from him? She will probably expel him." Lily shrieked.

"She dragged him to Professor Dumbledore's office, where Fudge and Professor McGonagall were waiting. Apparently Cho friend had told her what was going on. My charm on the parchment everyone signed meant that she now had the word sneak written across her nose and cheeks in spots."

James and Sirius sniggered.

"Awesome magic 'Mione." Sirius congratulated her.

"She refused to say anything more in case it made the spots worse. As they were talking Kingsley managed to put a spell on Marietta so that it sounded like this was the first DA meeting since it was set up. Then they showed Professor Dumbledore the parchment with the name Dumbledore's Army on. It allowed Professor Dumbledore to take the blame for setting it up not Harry and so Harry was off the hook. However it meant the Professor had to leave the school."

"Thank you Professor." Lily said fervently. Dumbledore looked lost in thought, but smiled at her.

"My pleasure."

"Umbridge was instated at headmistress. Fred and George now decided it was time to wreak absolute havoc. They didn't care about staying in Hogwarts and so they made things somewhat interesting." Hermione grinned.

The marauders all leaned forward, eager to hear what happened.

"I can't wait to hear what they do." James grinned.

"They are so brilliant. We have little marauders in training." Sirius rubbed his hands together.

"Umbridge tried to get Harry to tell her where Professor Dumbledore had gone and where Sirius was hiding. She put veritaserum in the tea she offered him, but he knew better than to drink it."

"At least he has some sense." McGonagall sighed in relief.

"He was reminded of Moody." Hermione smiled.

"Good." Sirius said. "At least he taught him something."

"A loud noise disturbed them and they ran upstairs to find out what was going on. The twins had set off some of their homemade fireworks. When she tried to stun them they exploded violently. Apparently they multiply if you try and vanish them."

"Wicked!" James cried.

"They really are good." Sirius laughed.

"Impressive magic." Remus said, looking impressed.

"All the teachers could easily have got rid of them, but they decided that, every time a firework got into the classroom, they would send for Umbridge to get rid of it instead."

McGonagall gave a vindictive smile at that and Flitwick gave a chuckle.

"Go Minnie!" Cheered James and Sirius.

"As he was about to start his next Occlumency lesson, Malfoy came in saying Umbridge needed Snape. He left and as Harry was about to do the same, he saw a pensive. Being nosy, he decided to go and look."

"He saw Snape's memories?" Lily asked, looking horrorstruck.

"What did he see?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"Your DADA exam in fifth year." Hermione told him with a frown.

"Crap. Not one I would have chosen for him to see." James groaned. "Did he see the whole thing?"

"Where Snape called Lily a mudblood? Yes. He saw everything up to you about to take Snape's pants off."

"Damn. I really wish he hadn't. I didn't exactly cover myself in glory." James sighed.

"No. Harry was rather upset. Mainly because he saw that you were exactly as arrogant as Snape had always told him. And the fact that he saw Lily hated your guts. He couldn't understand how she agreed to go out with you."

"None of us understand that one, and we lived through it." Remus snorted.

"Oi." James said indignantly.

"How did Severus react when he found Harry there?" McGonagall asked nervously.

"He refused to teach Harry anymore."

"No!" Cried Lily. "He needs to learn."

"He can't just stop teaching him." James growled.

"Well by all accounts Snivellus was making it worse. Maybe it's a good thing." Sirius reasoned. Hermione frowned at him.

"It's definitely not a good thing." She sighed. "Harry should have learnt Occlumency." Everyone looked at her, alarmed by her tone of voice.

(A/N I'm so so sorry for the horrendously long update time. I will try to update at least once a week from now on. Please review, it gives me incentive. Hope you liked it. Up next...Sirius's death. *Sobs in the corner*)