Jade glared at the post hanging on the wall. "What the hell?"

"What is it?" Jessica asked, walking closer. Jade pointed to the post and Jessica squinted her eyes. "Decree No. 1." Her lip curled. Jade watched her friend skim through the rest of the order, deeming all groups and clubs be approved by Umbridge.

Jade thought back to the meeting they had had at the Hog's Head with a nervous feeling. She remembered Irene, who had shown up with Luna Lovegood. Jade had tried to tell her she wasn't allowed to join, but it hadn't worked out well. Her younger sister had simply laughed, telling her she was perfectly capable of making her own decisions. "Besides," she had added, "Luna, Ginny, and a bunch of other kids in my year are here. Why can't I be?"

Of course Jade couldn't say, "Because you're my baby sister!" So she had kept her lips sealed as Irene signed up with everyone else. Her stomach flipped thinking of Irene being one of Umbridge's targets.

When Jessica had turned her brown eyes back to her friend, Jade started her rant. "Who does she think she is? She's taking over the school! This isn't a coincidence. She found out."

Jessica knew she meant Dumbledore's Army, and nodded skeptically. "Who would it be?"

"My money's on Zacharias Smith."

Jade and Jessica jumped at Ron's voice as he and his usual three companions joined them. "So you've seen this?"

Harry nodded, his green eyes hard with anger. "This morning."

"I don't think we should start pointing fingers," Hermione chimed in sensibly. "After all, I put a charm on the parchment I had us all sign."

Jade blinked. "You what?"

Hermione blushed, smiling sheepishly. "If anyone had snitched, we'd know."

Jade and Jessica walked through the dungeon doors into Snape's room, only to be greeted by Malfoy standing at his desk, waving around a piece of parchment. "Yeah, Umbridge gave the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to continue playing straightaway, I went to ask her first thing this morning. Well, it was pretty much automatic, I mean, she knows my father really well, he's always popping in and out of the Ministry...It'll be interesting to see whether Gryffindor are allowed to keep playing, won't it?"

Jade sighed as she made her way to the her station shared with Draco. "I mean," he continued, "if its a question of influence with the Ministry, I don't think they've got much chance. ...From what my father says, they've been looking for an excuse to sack Arthur Weasley for years...And as for Potter...My father says its a matter of time before the Ministry has him carted off to St Mungo's...apparently they've got a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic..."

Jade shot him a glare just in time to see Draco make a grotesque face, his mouth sagging open and his eyes rolling. Grabbed and Goyle, hanging around their station, grunted in laughter, while Pansy Parkinson shrieked with glee across the room. "That's incredibly insensitive," Jade said coolly.

Draco looked down at her, before he grabbed her wrists and began moving her. "Neville, no!" She heard someone yell as he got her behind him. Peeking out from behind Draco's tall frame, she saw as Harry struggled to pull Neville Longbottom back, while Crabbe and Goyle closed in front of Draco. Ron shot forward, and together he and Harry managed to drag Neville to the Gryffindor line.

He was mumbling something about the joke about Mungo's not being funny when the dungeon doors were thrown open. "Fighting, Potter, Weasley, Longbottom?" Snape said in his cold, sneering voice. "Ten points from Gryffindor. Release Longbottom, Potter, or it will be detention."
"I had to," she heard Harry gasp. "Crabbe and Goyle would have torn you apart." Neville walked away, and they began walking to their stations. Ron was breathing heavily, and Jade saw Emma brush her hand over his shoulder. Harry's eyes made their way to where Jade still stood behind Draco. Blushing, Jade pushed him out of her way and took her place at the station. Jade couldn't make herself look at him, she felt extremely awkward, but she heard his deep threat, "Watch it, Malfoy. Next time I see you manhandle her, I'm going to fight you myself."

Jade's eyes widened. Was that protectiveness she had heard? "You will notice," Snape said in his low, sneering voice, bringing her back to the class, "that we have a guest with us today."

Jade narrowed her eyes as she looked to Umbridge sitting in the dim corner of the dungeon. "We are continuing with out Strengthening Solutions today, you will find your mixtures as you left then last lesson, if correctly made they should have matured over the weekend - instructions on the board."

Jade grabbed her things and continued on her potion, adding everything with ease and smiling to herself as she perfected it. "Salamander blood, Harry!" she heard Hermione hiss, and saw Harry carelessly adding mixtures to his already failing potion. "Not pomegranate juice!" Jade bit her lip. Maybe she should offer him tutoring.

"Now, how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" she heard Umbridge ask sweetly.

"Fourteen years," Snape replied, his expression unfathomable.

"You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?"

"Yes," Snape said quietly.

"But you were unsuccessful?"

"Obviously."

Jade almost laughed. She tried to block out the rest of Umbridge's investigation - about Dumbledore's consistent refusal to appoint his as the D.A.D.A. professor - and focus on her work. She finished it with satisfaction just as Snape said maliciously, "No marks again, Potter. You will write me an essay on the correct composition of this potion, indicating how and why you went wrong, to be handed in next lesson, do you understand?"

"Yes," said Harry furiously. Jade saw his brows scrunch together as he worried about the extra work he had been given.

Abandoning her station, Jade quickly made her way to Harry, feeling nervous. "Uh...I'll write that essay."

Harry blinked, looking at her in surprise. "What?"

Her heart was beating extremely fast. "I mean - we already got homework and isn't Gryffindor Quidditch practice tonight? Besides, I know this potion, its easy for me. I was watching - I probably know what you did wrong better than you do. It'll take me ten minutes, really."

Emma had to walk quickly to keep up with Ron and Harry as they strode to Divination after their dramatic Potions lesson. "I want to skip," Harry groaned.

"You cant," Emma insisted, "You missed History of Magic today."

"But I had a reason," Harry answered sadly. Emma was worried about Hedwig, she too had her own owl (a barn owl named Rose), and couldn't imagine how worried Harry was. Not only for Hedwig's health, but also if the letter she was carrying had been read. Umbridge was cracking down on the school and the Wizarding World, and if she knew Harry Potter was conversing with Sirius Black... Emma didn't want to think about it.

Once up the silver ladder, Emma plopped down on her pouf next to Ron. He was complaining about his dream journal again when Professor Trelawney threw a book so hard at his chest that it nearly knocked him backwards. Ron shot Emma a look and asked, "What's her problem?"

Professor Trelawney aggressively passed out the rest of the books before standing in front of the class. "Well, carry on!" Professor Trelawney snapped in a high pitched voice. "You know what to do! Or am I such a substandard teacher that you have never learned how to open a book?"

Ron nudged Emma and widened his eyes. She raised her eyebrows before looking away, her cheeks flushing. Emma had felt extremely confused after Ron had kissed her the night before. So far, he hadn't mentioned it.

"Professor?" asked Parvati Patil in a hushed voice, "Professor, is there anything - er - wrong?"

"Wrong!" cried Professor Trelawney. "Certainly not! I have been insulted, certainly. . . . Insinuations have been made against me. . . . Unfounded accusations levelled . . . but no, there is nothing wrong, certainly not." Professor Trelawney choked back a sob.
"I say nothing," she cried, "of sixteen years' devoted service. . . . It has passed, apparently, unnoticed. . . . But I shall not be insulted, no, I shall not!"

"Who's insulting you?" Lavender asked in a hushed voice.

"Her!" cried Professor Trelawney. "This establishment!" The bug-eyed teacher blew her nose into a handkerchief, earning a snigger from Ron.

"CONTINUE!" Professor Trelawney snapped.

"You should have seen the bloody lunatic," said Ron as he, Emma, Harry, and Hermione took their seats in DADA. "Crying and yelling."

"It sounds like Umbridge put her on probation," Hermione said, almost sympathetically.

Umbridge herself walked in a moment later, ordering as usual, "Wands away."

Emma lounged in her favorite chair once again, able to relax because all her homework was done. Ron and Harry, on the other hand, were scrambling to finish their studies. Hermione was attempting to teach Emma to knit, with slow but sure success. So far, the girls had created a stack of ten new hats. While Emma agreed with Ron on the fact that the elves wanted to be enslaved, it was still enslavement all the same.

"Just look at them," Hermione glowered. Across the common room, Fred and George were making a spectacle with their Puking Pastilles. One puking, one commentating, and Lee Jordan making sales.

Emma vaguely heard Ron and Harry having a heated conversation with Angelina. "She said she needed time to think it over."

"Sounds like Harry's got the Quidditch team suspended," Hermione whispered.

"Umbridge is completely unfair," Emma responded, tossing a completed hat- with a bell and all- on the stack.

"At least he'll have time to do his potions paper," Hermione chided.

"Jade is doing my potions," Harry snapped, having overheard the past remark.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I hope you don't expect to pass your potions OWL."

"At least Snape will stay off my back a bit, Jade's brilliant and maybe he will be impressed by my writing," Harry shot back, his cheeks flushing slightly at the mention of Jade.

"But it isn't your writing, Harry, and has Snape ever once been impressed?"

Emma distanced herself from the argument, knitting absentmindedly. Her eyes drifted to Ron, who was lounging in his chair, laughing at Fred and Georges' demonstration, his Prefect badge appropriately smudged and skewed. Her red haired friend looked up at her, their eyes meeting. Emma felt her cheeks grow hot, she climbed from the chair and out through the portrait hole without a word.

"Hey- wait!"

Emma turned to see Ron climbing after her, the Fat Lady's painting swinging shut behind him. She was so confused on why Ron had kissed her, they were best friends for years.. of course she liked him- but in a romantic way? She wasn't sure.

"Why-" "I-" they both started at the same time. Both smiled.

"I know why you want to talk," Emma started.

Ron's eyebrows raised hopefully. "You do?"

"Yeah," Emma's cheeks flushed. "I kept giving you fire whiskey-"

Ron's face changed suddenly. "Oh- yeah, right. I was drunk. I didn't know what I was doing."

For some reason, Emma's heart sunk. "Right."

Ron's cheeks seemed even darker than Emma's felt. "So, let's just forget it happened."

"Of course."

Ron hesitantly turned and led the way through the portrait hole. Emma followed, holding back tears. Why are you sad? she scolded herself. You don't want things to change.

Once back in her chair, Emma managed to compose herself and continued to help Hermione knit. Slowly, the common room began to clear, leaving only Emma, Hermione, Ron, and Harry, gathered around the fire place. A few times Emma looked at Ron. His eyes were downcast, his shoulders slightly slumped.

After a few moments, it was Ron who spoke. "Sirius!"

A scruffy head had appeared in the hearth, beaming at the four teens. "Hi!" he greeted.

"Hi," the others chorused. Emma was still so distraught that she could hardly listen to Sirius's report from Grimmauld Place.

"Mundungus overheard your plans for the secret meetings," Sirius said, a twinkle in his eyes. "And I am to pass along a message from your mother, Ron."

"Yeah?" Ron and Emma made brief eye contact.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also" - Sirius's eyes turned to the other three - "advises Emma, Harry, and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

Emma and the others exchanged a glance, each knowing that Molly's warning would not be heeded.

Sirius and Harry went back and forth about Umbridge and her antics for a moment before Sirius got a look of panic on his face. "I've got to go."

Just after Sirius disappeared, a fat hand with stubby fingers appeared in the fire, reaching around blankly. Umbridge.