"I never look back, darling, it distracts from the now."

-Edna Mode (The Incredibles)

"It's weird leaving this place for good," Scarlett sighed. She was standing on the front lawn of Hogwarts with Erica, looking up at the school. "I'll miss it."

"Yeah, me too," Erica agreed with a sigh. "We've had lots of memories here." After a moment, she spoke again. "Come on. Let's get down to the carriages."

Scarlett nodded and turned to follow her best friend. "Justin said he'd meet us on the train."

Erica nodded. "The other night would have been the perfect time to tell him the truth, you know."

Scarlett sighed and climbed into a carriage. "I know. I think I'm going to tell him this summer."

"You just think? I think you should know for sure by now," Erica said, climbing into the carriage as well. "And when this summer? If you wait until the very end, it's another two and a half months."

"I know. And I'm planning on telling him as soon as I can, but I'm thinking this summer's going to have to be it." She rested her chin in her hands as the carriage moved forward.

"He's going to be heartbroken," Erica said, her tone sympathetic.

"I know," Scarlett groaned. "And don't you think I'm heartbroken, too?"

"Are you more heartbroken or relieved that once you tell him, you don't have to stress over it anymore?" Erica asked.

"What kind of question is that?"

"A legitimate one," Erica answered calmly.

Scarlett sighed. "I am relieved that I'll finally be getting everything out in the open, but I'm not happy about any of it. Trust me."

"I know," Erica said. "I really am sorry that you have to go through this. I know I put a lot of pressure on you before to tell Justin the truth, but I do understand that it can't be easy."

"It's not," Scarlett sighed. "I can't even believe I waited this long to tell him in the first place. I'm a terrible person."

"You're not," Erica said as their carriage slowed to a stop. "You're just very conflicted."

"I'll say," Scarlett sighed.

The two girls climbed out and began lugging their things onto the train. "Are you planning on seeing Fred this summer?" Erica continued a few minutes later, pushing her trunk onto an overhead rack as Scarlett did the same.

"Probably," Scarlett nodded. "I want to tell him the news about being able to become a Healer. He'll want to know. Besides, I really want to see the shop."

"So do I," Erica said, sighing, sitting down and setting her sketchbook on her lap. She began working on a recent design while Scarlett sat down across from her.

"I wonder what it's like," Scarlett continued thoughtfully, her mind still on the shop as she tucked her feet under her and sat crossed legged.

"You wonder what what's like?" Justin asked, appearing at the doorway and grinning.

"Fred and George's shop," Erica said.

"Yeah, I'm curious about it as well, actually," Justin said, dragging his trunk inside and setting it on the overhead rack next to Scarlett's.

"You are?" Scarlett asked.

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "I've been hearing they're doing really well. Based on how many people at school used the owl-order business, they're quite popular. As always," he sighed.

Scarlett looked out the window in silence as her stomach churned nervously. Of course, out of all the people she had to end up marrying, it had to be the one guy that Justin felt threatened by.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked, reaching over and gently turning her face towards him.

"Nothing," she said quickly, flashing him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," she answered. "I'm just feeling a little weird about leaving Hogwarts for good." It was partly the truth. Leaving Hogwarts was odd and kind of sad, but that was the least of what Scarlett was truly worried about.

"When do you start Healer training?" Erica asked.

"I have to go over to St. Mungo's within the next week and give them all of my paperwork. If they want to hire me, they'll be in touch. Then I'll be in training and I'll shadow a more experienced Healer for a while until I'm ready to work on my own."

"That's exciting. They'd be mental not to hire you," Erica said confidently.

"Exactly. I'll bet they'll hire you on the spot," Justin said, grinning and kissing Scarlett's cheek.

"Oh, please," Scarlett blushed.

"We're serious!" Justin laughed.

Scarlett smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You have nothing to worry about," Justin whispered as he rubbed his thumb over her upper arm. "You'll be a wonderful Healer."

Scarlett felt tears come to her eyes and she did her best to hide them. She was thankful that Justin couldn't see her face. She didn't need him inquiring about why she was crying.

Suddenly, the compartment door slid open and Ginny walked in with Dean, the boy she had been dating recently.

"What are you doing here?" Scarlett asked in surprise, raising her head from Justin's shoulder and quickly blinking back her tears.

"What, I can't sit with a friend?" Ginny asked as she and Dean took their seats next to Erica.

Scarlett smiled. "You know Erica and Justin, don't you?" she asked.

Ginny nodded. "I do," she said, glancing at Erica and the two shared a smirk. Scarlett knew they hadn't forgotten the fact that they both agreed on how Scarlett should be handling her love life.

"So, how are you doing?" Scarlett asked Ginny.

"Great," she answered with a grin. "What about you?"

"Alright," Scarlett shrugged.

"She talked to Dumbledore about that toad changing her grade and he fixed it, so she's all set to become a Healer now," Erica said excitedly.

Ginny beamed. "That's great!"

"Congratulations," Dean chimed in.

"Thanks," Scarlett blushed.

"So," Dean said, "what are everyone's plans for the summer?"

"I'll most likely be busy. That is, if St. Mungo's decides to let me train and work there," Scarlett said.

"They will," Justin insisted. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

Scarlett shook her head and kissed his cheek. "You're sweet, but we won't know until probably next week sometime."

"I'm going to be looking for my own place," Erica said. She looked at Scarlett and smiled. "Actually, Scarlett and I were going to look at flats together."

"Thinking of being flat mates?" Ginny asked.

Scarlett nodded. "Oh, and by the way, we were just talking about how excited we were to go see Fred and George's shop."

"Oh, me too!" Ginny grinned. "Although I doubt I'll be able to go until right before school starts again and we have to go to Diagon Alley for school supplies. See, Percy and Charlie aren't around, Bill, Mum and dad are really busy—Fred and George as well, obviously—and Ron and I can't Apparate yet. So no one's available to bring me and I can't get there on my own. I don't know if Mum will let me use Floo powder either because she only likes to use it when it's absolutely necessary. It's expensive to buy more, so…." She trailed off and shrugged.

"Ginny, I get it, remember?" Scarlett said. She smiled and played with the locket that Justin had given her for her birthday. She had filled it with a picture of the two of them together as well as a picture of her and Erica.

"Yeah, I know," Ginny said quietly, with a small smile.

"I can take you if you want," Scarlett continued. "Just write me whenever you want to go. Or I'll write you." She shrugged. "We'll keep in touch."

"Really?" Ginny's face lit up.

"Yeah of course." Scarlett looked at Erica and Justin "You're welcome to come, too, of course."

"I don't know," Justin said quietly.

"I thought you wanted to go," Scarlett said, confused.

"Yeah, but…never mind." Justin looked past her out of the window.

Suddenly, it clicked. Justin felt out of place around Ginny. He didn't feel he was close enough to her to be considered her friend. Besides, she was Fred's sister and Justin had his inferiority issues with Fred. Of course it would feel odd to him if Ginny was with them in Diagon Alley.

"What if we spend a day this summer in Diagon Alley just me and you?" Scarlett whispered in his ear.

He smiled. "That would be great."

Scarlett fought the urge to sigh, wondering if that day in Diagon Alley would even happen.

"Hey, what's that?" Ginny asked, leaning over to peer at Erica's sketch.

"Oh, it's nothing," Erica said, moving her arm to cover the drawing.

"No, it's incredible," Ginny said, gently moving Erica's hand away. "You designed that?"

Erica nodded. "I want to design clothes."

"Well, you have your first buyer right here," Ginny said. "If you ever make that shirt, let me know. I want it."

Erica and Scarlett laughed. "Deal," Erica said.

"When you actually start selling things, do I get discounts?" Ginny smirked. "Since I know you and all?"

"Yes, everyone I simply know gets a discount," Erica laughed. "But I might consider it since you are my first potential customer."

"I thought I was your first potential customer," Scarlett gasped. "I love the stuff you design."

"Ooh, that's true," Erica said. She tapped her chin. "I don't know," she smirked. "This is a tough one."

"Who says you have to pick?" Justin asked. "Just give them both a discount." He and Dean shared an eye roll.

"They just don't want to hear anything else that has to do with clothes or shopping," Ginny sniffed.

"Boys," Scarlett said, smirking at Justin.

"Girls," he replied, rolling his eyes.

Scarlett giggled and shook her head as he leaned in to kiss her. When he did, her stomach lurched nervously again and she really wished it wouldn't.

Right from the beginning, Scarlett found her summer to be incredibly busy, just as she knew it would be. Within the first few days, she delivered her paperwork to St. Mungo's and planned a day during the following week to go flat hunting with Erica. It wasn't until the end of her first week home that she even remembered to talk to her mother about Umbridge.

"Mum?" Scarlett asked, appearing in her mother's bedroom doorway and knocking on the doorframe. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure, honey." Her mother pulled off her reading glasses and placed them on her blanket covered lap. Then, she patted the empty space next to her on the bed.

Scarlett crossed the room and crawled in beside her mother. "What are you up to?" she asked.

"Work," her mother sighed, gesturing to the papers at the end of the bed.

"Order work, or actual work?"

"Actual work."

Scarlett's mother had worked for the Daily Prophet since she had left Hogwarts. She hadn't been enjoying it as much lately, but she had worked hard to get to where she was, and quitting wasn't really an option now, being a single income family. Although, with a little luck, Scarlett would be soon living on her own with her own job and financially, she and her mother would only have to take care of themselves.

"Looks fun," Scarlett giggled.

"Hardly. Thankfully, they haven't asked me to write any rubbish articles calling Harry or Dumbledore liars. If they did, I'm afraid I'd have to refuse. I just wouldn't feel right writing those kinds of things."

"Would they fire you if you refused?"

Her mother shrugged. "Possibly."

"Is it even worth it, then?"

"Oh, honey, of course it is," her mother replied, brushing a strand of hair off of Scarlett's face. "Now, let's talk about you! I feel as if I haven't seen you all week! What's been going on?"

"I dropped my papers off at St. Mungo's the day after I got home, so I should be hearing from them next week. I'm also going flat hunting next week with Erica."

"That'll be fun. Although," her mother smirked, "I am a bit sad you're leaving me."

"Oh, please, I know you're excited to throw crazy parties every week once I'm gone," Scarlett laughed.

"How did you ever guess?"

Scarlett smiled, but after a moment, it faded. "Mum?"

"Yes?"

"The reason I came in here….Well, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

Scarlett looked down at her hands, then back up at her mother, unsure of how to phrase what she wanted to ask. "Were you at all aware of who was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts this year?" she finally asked.

Her mother sighed. "Dolores Umbridge, yes, I heard. Why are you asking?"

"Well," Scarlett began slowly, "she wasn't exactly all that nice to me. She wasn't all that nice to anyone, actually, but especially to me. When I asked Dumbledore about it, he said to talk to you."

"What do you mean she wasn't all that nice to you? What did she do?"

"Do you know something?" Scarlett asked.

"Scarlett, tell me what happened," her mother ordered. "Did she hurt you?"

Scarlett paused. "Not really. She just…she had some crazy punishment methods. Whenever somebody—anybody—got a detention, she made them write lines with a quill that wrote with their own blood." She held up her hand and showed her mother the scars. "The only thing was that at my first detention, she kept me double the amount of time that she kept everyone else. She kept me for eight hours as opposed to four."

"Oh, honey," her mother gasped, taking Scarlett's hand in hers and examining the scars. "I can't believe I never noticed this before."

"You didn't notice because I didn't want you to notice."

"Why? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want you to worry. Besides, I found out pretty early on that Umbridge was treating me differently and I wanted to figure out why on my own."

"What else did she do?"

"She locked me in a classroom overnight once, and she purposely tried to fail me. She changed my Defense Against the Dark Arts grade so I wouldn't be able to become a Healer. I tried sneaking into her office to find my files—that's why I was already with Ginny and the others before we went to the Ministry. They were in her office as well, but for other reasons."

"I don't believe this!" her mother exclaimed. "That woman—she can't get away with this! I'm going to-,"

"No, you're not going to do anything," Scarlett said firmly, grabbing her mother's wrist. "I dealt with it. Dumbledore knows the truth and my grades are fine. Umbridge isn't at Hogwarts anymore and neither am I. I won't have to deal with her again."

"She's not gone for good," her mother sighed.

"Mum," Scarlett said, "please tell me whatever it is that you know about her."

"Dolores and I," she began slowly, "went to school together. She was a seventh year when I was a fourth year. We weren't even in the same house, but she always tried to boss younger kids around. She acted like she knew everything—very superior, too, even though she wasn't. She particularly hated me because I came back to school that year dating your father. As you know, he was a Muggle boy from the next neighborhood. He didn't know at the time that I was a witch. He thought my sister and I—your Aunt Emily—went to boarding school."

"So why did Umbridge hate you for that? Was she a lonesome cat woman even back then?"

Her mother laughed softly. "She did have quite a liking for cats. And the color pink. Anyway, word somehow reached her that I was dating a Muggle boy and she hated it. She was very opinionated and bossy and she always stuck her nose in business that wasn't hers. She told me that dating your father would tarnish me. As in I was dirty for dating a Muggle."

"That's not true," Scarlett whispered. "You know that, don't you?"

"I do," her mother said softly, smiling and running a hand through Scarlett's hair. "Well, anyway, I think Dolores thought that if word got out, nobody would speak to me anymore. She thought she could bring me down that way.

"She was jealous, wasn't she?" Scarlett asked.

Her mother shrugged. "I don't know what her problem was."

"She was probably jealous that you had friends and she didn't," Scarlett smirked.

"She had friends. She had decent grades as well, but I'm sorry to say that she did always look like a toad."

Scarlett giggled. "So, what did she do?"

"She spread around the school that I was dating a Muggle and should be treated like something gross or diseased. She also started going out of her way to make my life miserable. But, actually, things didn't work out as she'd hoped. Instead of turning against me, people stood up for me and turned against her. Now it was her life that was becoming miserable and she's hated me ever since. I never thought she'd take it out on you, though, which is why I never said anything. It's why I never mentioned her or warned you. I didn't even know if she'd recognize you. She knew me by my maiden name, and as far as I know, she never knew your father's last name. And I also always thought you looked more like him."

"Yeah, but on the other hand, lots of people say I look like you," Scarlett said. "I mean, I look enough like you where people can make the connection, especially if they knew you when you were younger, which Umbridge did."

"That's true."

"She must have really hated you," Scarlett said, leaning sideways against the bed's headboard. "Although, she hasn't changed much either. I mean, she hates anything that's not a hundred percent one thing or the other. We all know she hates half breeds and it looks like she hates half-blood people as well. And of course their parents, because they're…what was it you said? Tarnished?" She rolled her eyes before sighing. "Although, she really went after me not only because of that but because of a grudge she held onto for years. It's ridiculous, really. I mean, she couldn't just let it go?"

"I guess not," her mother sighed. "It sounds a bit unhealthy really, that she focused so much on the past."

"Things would have been so much easier if she had just moved on. I mean, nothing that happened was really anybody's fault. If anything, she brought it on herself."

"Honey, listen to me," her mother said. "Don't spend too much time stressing over her. You were right. Dumbledore knows the truth about her and you don't have to see her anymore. She can no longer bother you. You dealt with her on your own, and I'm so proud of you, really."

"You said she won't be gone for good," Scarlett argued.

"From the Ministry, no, but I don't think she'll be attacking you personally from now on. It'll be okay. And for the record, you aren't dirty, or tarnished, or whatever other negative things she thinks you are."

Scarlett smiled. "Thanks. Neither are you." She allowed her mother to kiss her forehead before she made her way out of the bed and towards the door. "I'm going to write to Ginny. I promised I'd take her to visit Fred and George's shop and I'm planning on going next weekend, so I'd better invite her now so we can see it for the first time together. I don't think she'd like it too much if I saw it before her."

"That's a good idea. I'm glad to see you're keeping in touch with Fred."

"Yeah, well, he's still with Angelina and I'm still with Justin. I feel terribly for not coming forward about everything to Justin after all this time, but I'm planning on telling him within the next few weeks."

"Before I even got the chance to meet him?" Her mother tried to hide her teasing smile, but she was unsuccessful.

Scarlett smiled. "As much as I want you to meet him, I get the feeling that bringing him home to meet my mother will only make him think our relationship is more serious than it's allowed to get."

"I agree. Well, we'll just have to have Fred over for dinner so that I can at least have somewhat of a bonding experience with my daughter's Prince Charming."

"Mum!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, is that not accurate?" Her mother grinned somewhat cheekily at her.

"He's not my Prince Charming. Merlin, it's like you think we're in one of those fairy tales."

"Well, you never know. He very well could be," her mother said lightly, slipping her reading glasses back on.

"Mother!"

"Oh, just hush and go write to Ginny."

A/N: Umbridge just seems to get more and more annoying with every chapter, doesn't she? Anyway, Fred will be back next chapter! And George too, of course :)

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback and I hope everyone enjoys the chapter.