Chapter 7: Thy Name Was Sephiroth!

Harry's eyes snapped open as he was the first to wake up in his dormitory the next morning. He lay there in his bed for a moment, watching dust swirl in the chink of sunlight coming through the gap in his four-posters hangings. He savored the thought of how it was Saturday. The first week of term seemed to have dragged on forever.

"Like one gigantic History of Magic lesson…" Harry muttered as he sat up at the side of his bed, his feet resting on the floor as he glanced around to the others.

Judging by the sleepy silence and the freshly minted look of the sunlight coming through, it must have been just after daybreak. He stood as he pulled open the curtains around his bed, starting to get dressed. The only sound apart from the distant twittering of birds was the slow, deep breathing of his fellow Gryffindors.

"You weren't thinking of going somewhere without me, were ya?" Ron asked in a near incoherent rumble as he awoke, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Yeah man," Neville said as he joined the awakened, "We buds gotta stick together."

"Then get dressed quickly," Harry said quietly, "Because I don't have time to waste this morning." and with that, Harry opened his schoolbag carefully, pulling out parchment, ink, and quill before he headed out of the dormitory for the common room while Ron and Neville got dressed for the day.

Harry made straight for his favorite squashy old armchair beside the now extinct fire, settling himself down comfortably while glancing over his chosen apparel for the day. A simply dark blue shirt and black trousers with his dark black shoes made for acceptable wears as Harry couldn't find himself caring much for school robes on an off-day.

"Alright then," Ron's voice came from the stairs as he descended them, cracking his knuckles as he came down, "Let's start the day."

"Hold up!" Neville's own voice came as he stumbled down the stairs while trying to hop and place his left shoe on, "Wait up, Angeal!"

Ron came down dressed in what appeared to be a skin-tight black t-shirt which displayed his forming muscles, and a baggy pair of dark blue cargos that Harry hadn't even been aware the youngest male Weasley owned. In fact, now that Harry thought about the outfit as he gazed upon it, the clothes really seemed like a pale and lame attempt at the recreation of the SOLDIER uniform from Shin-Ra. Ron must have noticed his watching and guessed at what he was thinking because he looked directly at Harry before politely showing the intellectual the middle finger.

"Not one word about my clothes, you." Ron said, "Genesis will already give me hell, and I don't need you adding to it."

Neville tumbled the rest of the six steps down to the landing with Harry and Ron watching on as though it were a regular occurrence.

It wasn't, but it sure was amusing.

"I'm okay!" Neville said proudly as he got up, dusting off his own clothes, which were an old faded grey t-shirt and some baggy blue jeans while his trainers looked fresh and unused.

Harry said nothing as Ron and Neville settled around him. He unrolled his parchment before uncorking his ink bottle, dipping his quill into it.

"I need to be sure that I can establish contact with our… special informant." Harry glanced up at Ron as he held the quill suspended an inch above the smooth yellowish surface of his parchment. Their eyes met and Ron understood as he nodded to Harry's unspoken warnings, "We also need to be sure that he is still searching for the information he tasked him to find. Then there is the matter of the new information I have for him."

Ron understood as he nodded once again, knowing that they couldn't quite say Sirius's name aloud even if the man was innocent of his crimes. Neville glanced between the two of them before huffing, knowing that he was being kept out of the loop on purpose just because he hadn't been apart of their little golden posse before.

"What's this new information?" Ron asked as he glanced at Neville's anxious face.

"The toad." Harry said simply as Neville looked up, knowing what that coded phrase meant.

"Then might I suggest using only encrypted phrases our informant would understand." Ron said as Harry scoffed.

"Are you attempting to insult my intellect as well?" Harry said, a small spark of amusement in his otherwise icy tone.

"Not at all." Ron defended, "Merely our informant's own ability to miss the point."

Hmm… noted." Harry said, knowing that Sirius really could be oblivious at times when it came to subtle and sensitive things, "Hmm… now then; what would an average fifteen year-old wizard such as myself write to those away from him."

Neville seemed to jump at the chance to be helpful, bouncing up and down in his seat, "Oh! Oh! Let me help! Please, Sephiroth!"

"Fine, but keep quiet." Harry snapped as Neville grinned and thrust his fist high into the air as though he had won some great victory.

With Neville's help in the way he worded himself, and Ron's own help with the key placement of several secret phrases, Harry felt as though he had penned the perfect secret message that could have taken him at least half an hour on his own.

Dear Snuffles,

I hope you're doing well, or at least better than when I found you this summer. The first week back in school has been little short of terrible. I'm just glad it's the weekend, is all. We've got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; like we do every year. This one is named Dolores Jane Umbridge. She's nearly as wonderfully charming as your mother. She, however, does not hold a candle to your mother's warm welcomes of hospitality.

I'm writing this because that thing we've previous discussed has occurred once more again; last night, detention with Umbridge. Also, I was wondering if you found anything on that thing we talked about before my departure on the Hogwarts Express.

I'm sure that by now, everyone is missing our great big friend, and we hope he'll be back soon. We also miss our paranoid friend as well, though we know he's keeping himself busy.

Reply quickly.

Your Friend,

Harry

"That makes a good letter, right?" Neville asked as Ron nodded his head in approval.

"The only way they would know what any of this means would be if they had even the slightest clue as to who Snuffles was, or knew about the talks Harry shared with Snuffles." Ron commented, crossing his arms with a small smile.

"It'll do… for now." Harry said, if only to appear aloof as he read over the letter several times, looking at it from the point of someone not particularly close to either him or Sirius. He could not see how anyone would know what he was talking about, or even who he was talking to, just from reading the letter.

"I hope he picks up on the subtle digs to the research we tasked him with finding." Ron said as Harry stood from his chair, folding his letter.

"He'll understand." Harry said, "I think we give him too little credit sometimes."

It had only taken ten minutes to get their wording just right to fit in with Harry's new personality, but it was ten minutes well spent as Harry sealed the parchment carefully. The three former Shin-Ra soldiers then climbed through the portrait hole and headed off for the Owlery.

"So, if you've classified Umbridge as a Beta-level threat, then what will we do to her?" Ron asked, a dark look on his face as the hand he was gesturing with clenched into a fist to say the things he didn't want to speak aloud.

"I figure that if she's done this to my hand, then she most likely has a way to cover it up." Harry said, "Especially if she's done it so openly for anyone to see. Like I said before; we're still not sure just how much power she may possess in this matter."

"Done what to your hand?" Neville asked as Harry raised his right hand, which he had covered with an old ratty dark glove he had clipped the fingers from last year. He took off the glove and displayed his now almost healed scarred hand, which still displayed the message of not telling lies. "Holy Shinra, dude! That bitch is crazy!"

"That she is." Harry said quietly, "However, this matter is still a private one for the time. I will find a method of dealing with Umbridge myself. She is my prey, after all."

"Shouldn't you tell someone about this?" Neville asked, "I mean, carving words into your hand is pretty illegal; even amongst wizards!"

"See! See!" Ron said, gesturing wildly toward Neville, "Listen to the pup!"

Harry said nothing as he stepped past his friends. Umbridge was a problem like never before. If he went to someone, she most likely had a way of covering up his scar. However, if he didn't tell one of the other teachers, then he still needed to find a way to deal with Umbridge.

Sending a letter to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry was out since the Ministry were the ones most likely screening mail, and Harry was sure that the last thing they wanted getting past them and into the papers were about how he was being illegally tortured by the very representative they had sent. Besides, he didn't trust Madam Bones' competence nor that of her department.

"I would not go that way if I were you," Nearly Headless Nick said, drifting disconcertingly through a wall just ahead of them as he walked down the passage. Neville jumped back in surprise. "Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor."

Ron and Harry exchanged looks before turning to Nick, brows quirked high.

"Let me guess; does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the persons head?" Harry asked dryly.

"Funnily enough, it does." Nearly Headless Nick said in a bored tone of voice, "Subtlety has never been Peeves' strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron… he might be able to put a stop to it… see you, Harry… Ronald… Neville."

"See ya later, Nick!" Neville said, waving animatedly as Harry and Ron watched him with exasperated looks, "What?"

Harry and his two cohorts, instead of turning right, turned left, taking a longer but safer route up to the Owlery.

"Such a beautiful day…" Harry muttered, feeling his spirits lift as they walked past window after window showing brilliantly blue sky.

"We've got training later," Ron said, slugging Harry in the arm.

"That we do." Harry admitted as they kept moving.

"Ahh!" Neville yelled, feeling something brush his ankles as he jumped a foot into the air. Harry and Ron, quickly turning on heel as they preferred for a threat, looked down and saw the caretaker's skeletal grey cat, Mrs. Norris, slinking past them from another passage. She turned lamp-like yellow eyes on Neville for a moment, hissing with indignity, before disappearing behind a statue of Wilfred the Wistful.

"Damn mangy thing…" Neville grumbled, "We're not even doing anything wrong!"

Harry did have to say that the cat had the unmistakable air of one that was off to report to her boss, yet Harry could not see why.

"Are we no longer entitled to walk the corridors while under Umbridge's watch?" Harry questioned himself, being overheard by Ron and Neville.

"No, that ain't it." Ron said, "I'm guessing that Filch is expecting someone up here."

"But who?" Neville queried as neither Ron nor Harry had an answer for him.

The sun was getting high in the sky now and when Harry entered the Owlery the glassless windows dazzled his eyes; thick silvery beams of sunlight crisscrossed the circular room in which hundreds of owls nestled on rafters, a little restless in the early-morning light, some clearly just returned from hunting. The straw-covered floor crunched a little as he stepped across tiny animal bones, craning his neck for a sight of Hedwig.

"Damn that's bright," Ron commented, shielding his eyes, "It must be close to eight or nine, maybe even ten."

"There you are…" Harry said, spotting Hedwig somewhere near the very top of the vaulted ceiling, "Get down here, I've got a letter for you."

With a low hoot she stretched her great white wings and soared down onto his shoulder.

"I thought I'd find you up here." a soft voice called out from the corner as Harry narrowed his eyes, watching as Hermione stepped out from behind a wooden pillar, "I hope you know what you're doing. This is a bad idea, and if the letter gets intercepted-"

"Then the second function of this little test will have been served." Ron said as Harry didn't bother responding to Hermione, turning away from them all as he allowed Ron to deal with her.

"So you'll use Hedwig, your loyal owl, simply to be sure that someone is going to intercept your mail?" Hermione demanded as Harry glanced back at her, turning back to them. Neville looked between them, seemingly confused as to what they were talking about.

"They would not harm Hedwig." Harry said quietly, unsurely, his head bowed as he stroked Hedwig affectionately, "However, we need to do this. If not now, then when?"

Hermione didn't seem to have an answer for that while Neville seemed to be catching on to what they were talking about. It was only a trial run, of sorts. If anything happened to Hedwig, then Harry would be sure to hunt down the person and strike them down with-

"Fine, do your test." Hermione said finally, crossing her arms, "But let the record show that I don't approve of this."

"Noted." Harry said with a nod of his head before he looked Hedwig in the eye.

"Right then, I know this says Snuffles on the outside, but its really for Padfoot, okay?" he told her softly, giving her the letter to clasp in her beak and, without knowing exactly why, whispering, "Remember, Padfoot is Sirius, alright?"

Hedwig ruffled her feathers as if he had insulted her intelligence. She blinked her amber eyes once as a sign that she understood before she flapped her wings impatiently.

"Well, aren't you prideful." Harry commented as he smiled at Hedwig, "Safe flight, then." Harry carried her to one of the windows, watching as she took off into the blindingly bright sky. He watched her until she became a tiny speck in the distance, vanishing altogether a few moments later before he lowered his gaze down at Hagrid's Hut, which was clearly visible from the window. It was so strangely uninhabited, the chimney smokeless and the curtains drawn.

The treetops of the Forbidden Forest swayed in a light breeze. Harry watched them, savoring the fresh air on his face, thinking about alll the things he had planned for the day and Quidditch later.

Then he saw it… again.

Thestrals, as the beasts were called. A great, reptilian winged horse, just like the ones pulling the Hogwarts carriages, with leathery black wings spread wide like a pterodactyl. The beast rose up out of the trees like a grotesque, giant bird. Like an undead, flight-able Chocobo…

"Hey, look! Another thestral you guys can't see!" Neville exclaimed as Hermione and Ron sighed at his antics. Harry thought it was a little childish of the boy, taking pride in proof that he had seen someone die before his very eyes. Harry wished he could be in their position; never having seen death before them in their new lifetime…

Harry turned slowly away from the window, his mood damped a bit by his recent thoughts.

"Someone's coming," Ron snapped, his eyes cutting to the entrance of the Owlery as Neville looked up in surprise. Harry, too, heard rather than saw the Owlery door open behind him. He glanced back, a bit surprised to see Cho Chang standing there; a letter and a parcel held in her hands.

"Another tense encounter, huh?" Neville said on side of Harry, gently elbowing him as Harry took a quick second to scowl at the boy.

"Hi, Harry," Cho said breathlessly, her eyes wide as though she had not known anyone would be up there when she arrived, "Hermione, Ron, Neville."

"Hello, Cho." Hermione greeted as Ron gave a nod.

"Cho." Ron said, crossing his arms as something on Cho's person caught his eye. Harry didn't know what though.

"Hey, Cho! What's up?" Neville greeted enthusiastically as Cho smiled a bit at him.

"Umm… I didn't think anyone would be up here this early… I only remembered five minutes ago, it's my mom's birthday today." She held up the parcel, as if to prove that she wasn't stalking them or something.

"Then tell your mother we wish her a happy birthday." Harry said quietly, turning away from Cho as the girl bit her lip nervously.

"R-Right, I will." Cho said, "It's a nice day, huh?"

"Yes, it truly is…" Harry said, glancing at the window Cho was gesturing to.

"Yeah, it's good Quidditch conditions." Cho said, looking around for a suitable owl, "I haven't been out all week, have you?"

"No, I've had detention with Umbridge this first week back." Harry said absently as Cho didn't seem to think anything wrong with the statement.

"I've heard she's horrid, and that she's not practicing magic in her class." Cho said, selecting one of the school barn owls. She coaxed it down on to her arm where it held out an obliging leg so that she could attach the parcel.

"Hey, has Gryffindor got a new Keeper yet?" Cho asked suddenly as Ron chuckled nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, that's me." Ron said, breaking into the conversation as Hermione and Neville hung back, "So…" Ron said, glancing down at something on the front of Cho's robes. Harry finally saw what it was. It was a badge. A Professional Quidditch team badge.

"If it's about my supporting the Tornados, then I'll have you know that I've supported them since I was six." Cho said as Ron shook his head.

"No. It's more about that." Ron said, pointing below her badge to something Cho was trying to obscure with her robes. It was a hip pouch on her skirt, and there was a symbol on it Harry had never seen before.

"Oh, that." Cho said, still obscuring the item and hiding it further, "It's nothing. Just an idea I have for a Quidditch team of my own."

"A team of your own?" Harry echoed, something about those words not sounding true.

"Yeah, one of my own." Cho said, waving a dismissive hand, "Just think; a team named Avalanche. How cool would that be?"

"Pretty cool, I guess…" Ron said, not sounding convinced.

"So, Ron, are you any good? At Quidditch, I mean." Cho said, changing the subject rather coolly.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Ron said, crossing his arms again and appearing just as casual as Cho. Harry himself took to leaning against a large post as he chuckled.

Cho looked up, the parcel only half-attached to the owl's legs.

"That Umbridge woman is foul," she said in a low voice, trying not to be overheard by Neville and Hermione, who could still hear her, "They told me, you know. Fred and George. They told me how she put you in detention just because you told the truth about how… how… how C-Cedric died. Everyone heard about it, with Fred and George passing the message along; it was all over the school. You were really brave standing up to her like that."

Harry's only response was to casually raise a brow as Cho blushed somewhat from what she had said. Ron chuckled in that annoying way of saying this was something he was going to tease Harry with. Neville had done the same, but at least Harry knew he could scare the pup. Hermione only smiled at them, her expression saying that she was happy for them.

Just as Cho was about to open her mouth, most likely to correct what she had said, the Owlery door opened again.

Filch the caretaker came wheezing into the room. There were purple patches on his sunken, veined cheeks, his jowls were aquiver and his thin grey hair disheveled; he had obviously run up to the Owlery. Mrs. Norris came trotting at his heels, gazing up at the owls overhead and mewing hungrily.

There was a restless shifting of wings from above and a large brown owl snapped his beak in a menacing fashion.

"Aha!" Filch said, taking a flat-footed step towards where Harry was leaning against a large wooden beam, his pouchy cheeks trembling with anger. "I've had a tip-off that you are intending to place a massive order for Dungbombs!"

Harry quirked a brow at him, crossing his arms while his friends appeared shocked and deeply bewildered.

"What? Why would you think that?" Ron asked; okay so Fred and George did that plenty of times, but Harry won't have. Especially with his dry sense of humor as both Harry and Sephiroth.

"I did not." Harry said, his expression impassive and teetering on boredom, "Now be gone." Filch looked bemusedly at him.

Ron folded his arms once again and stared at the caretaker, blocking the man's path to Harry, "Hold on a minute; who told you that Harry was ordering Dungbombs?"

Cho and Hermione were looking from Harry to Filch, both frowning with suspicion.

"I have my sources," Filch said in a self-satisfied hiss, holding out his palm to Harry but his eyes continued to glance at Ron, who stood in the way like a muscle-bound bodyguard, "Now hand over whatever it is you're sending."

Harry gave the man another near dispassionate look, "I can't, it's gone."

"Gone?" Filch said, his face contorting with rage at being too late to the scene.

"Yes, gone, as in: I sent it already." Harry said calmly, "Though I can assure you that I have no interest in Dungbombs or any other matter of foolishness today. Now be gone."

Filch opened his mouth furiously, mouthed for a few seconds, then raked Harry's robes with his eyes.

"How do I know you haven't got it in your pocket?" Filch said as Harry narrowed his eyes at the man.

"Because, you useless dullard, they saw me send it." Harry said, gesturing to his posse.

"Th-That's right!" Cho said suddenly, "We saw him!"

Filch rounded on her, their angry looks challenging the other to start something.

"You saw him?" Filch asked as Cho seemed to debate with herself on whether or not to continue lying. She glanced at Harry, and made her decision.

"That's right, I saw him. We all did," Cho said fiercely.

There was another moment's pause in which Filch glared at Cho and Cho glared right back to show that she was not backing down nor backing out. Then the caretaker turned on his heel and shuffled back towards the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle and looked back at Harry.

"If I get so much as a whiff of a Dungbomb…" Filch said before stumped off down the stairs. Mrs. Norris cast a last longing look at the owls and followed after him.

Cho sighed before she looked up to Harry, their eyes meeting.

"Thank you," Harry said as Cho shrugged.

"No problem," Cho said, finally fixing the parcel to the barn owl's other leg, her face slightly pink and blushing, "You weren't really ordering Dungbombs, were you?"

"No." Harry answered.

"I wonder why he thought you were…" Ron said in thought, his hand to his chin as Cho carried the owl to the window, "Do you think Umbridge might have-?"

"I wouldn't put it past her." Harry said darkly as he thought on it for a moment, "For a second there, I thought it might have been Genesis' feeble attempt at a prank, but…"

"That's not Genesis' style." Ron finished as Harry nodded.

"Yeah," Neville said, "That guy likes big and flashy. Not small time stuff like that."

"So Professor Umbridge is interfering even more so than we thought," Hermione muttered as she made her way closer to the trio of males while Cho sent off her owl, "This could be bad. Umbridge is trying very hard to keep you in check, Harry."

"I can see that." Harry said, "However, her methods of doing so could use with some improvement."

"No need to give the woman any tips." Cho said, clapping her hands as she walked back over to them, "Well, I'm all done here. Breakfast anyone?"

"Food sounds so good right now." Neville moaned, rubbing his nearly flat tone stomach as Cho giggled at his antics.

"Oh Za-" Cho stopped herself, going stiff as her eyes darted at Harry, who had begun to walk toward the door when he felt eyes on his back. Harry turned to her, seeing fear in her eyes for reasons he didn't understand.

"I thought we were going to breakfast." Harry said as Ron glanced between him and Cho.

"Yeah, we are." Ron said, then gave Cho's shoulder a gentle pat, "Right, Tornado fan-girl?"

"Umm, yeah. Right. Breakfast." Cho said, then relaxed as they all left the Owlery together. At the entrance of a corridor which led toward the west wing of the castle, Cho suddenly said, "Oh, dang! I'm sorry, you guys. I just remembered that I had this thing… with these people… Anyways, I'm going this way."

"Umm… okay…" Neville said, having walked down with her while Harry led the way with Ron and Hermione right behind him.

"Right. So… Well, I'll… I'll see you guys around. Right, Harry?"

Harry looked back up at her, "Hmm? Oh, right. See you around, Cho."

"Yeah, see ya." Ron said, looking unconvinced with something as Cho smiled at them and departed.

"There's something wrong with that girl." Ron said quietly as they walked on, "Maybe she's been reborn as well."

"No kidding." Neville said, looking oddly serious, "She nearly called me Zack."

"But as to who she may be we won't know until she tells us." Hermione said, looking peacefully as she walked with them.

"How can you be so calm?" Ron asked, "She might have been an enemy. Did you see the looks she was giving Harry? Almost like he killed her family, or something."

Harry froze at the mention of killing, remembering the many he had slaughtered in the Nibelheim incident, "Maybe I did…" Harry said quietly, walking off as the others stared after him until they regained their composure and caught up.

"Come on, Harry, you can't believe that." Ron said, trying to cheer the brooding Potter up, "She could be anyone from just about anytime. Before you were born, after we died. Maybe she feared your legacy?"

"Or maybe she was in your fan club." Neville supplied as Harry stopped dead, remembering the foolishness of Shin-Ra's sponsoring him a fan club called the Silver Elite.

"Now that, I truly hope is not the case…" Harry said quietly, a small smirk on his face as the others laughed.

"Good morning all," Ron greeted brightly as they joined the others at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

"What's up?" Neville greeted, taking the seat next to Ron.

"What's got you all so pleased this morning?" Seamus asked as he eyed them with suspicion.

"Harry made a joke!" Neville said as though it were a miracle while the others shared looks that suggested it was.

"Then a toast is in order." Lavender declared as Harry scowled, raising his empty palm.

"Yes," Harry said, a fireball in his hand as the others jumped back in surprise, "Who shall be first?"

"Hey! That's my thing!" a voice shouted from across the hall as everything quieted, students looking over to the Slytherin table but all of them appearing as though they hadn't heard a thing.

"Was that Malfoy who shouted?" Parvati asked as Neville shrugged.

"Probably." Ron said casually, pulling a large platter of bacon and eggs towards him, "Anyways, I'm going out a bit early to get some practice in before training. Mind coming with me, Har?"

"Say no more." Harry said loftily with a small smirk over the rim of his goblet. He put down the goblet in favor of a piece of toast before he went back for a large swig of pumpkin juice. "Though I do hope your flying is better than your handle at vehicles."

"I'll have you know that flying a helicopter is a difficult pursuit for anyone." Ron said grumpily, "They're highly advanced machines, you know."

"Quite." Harry said, "Especially when you've had years of training at simulations and passed those with flying colors."

"What are they talking about?" Seamus asked Hermione as she shook her head.

"Don't ask me," Hermione said with a small smirk as she took a mug of coffee, "I don't speak mechanistic ego."

"Nor do I." Ginny said as she hopped in the seat on the other side of Hermione, "Good morning."

"Good morning." Hermione said, "How was the detention with Professor Snape."

"The usual. Same old, same old." Ginny muttered dismissively, "He has me helping him every weekend now."

"Us too, yo." Fred said, dropping himself unceremoniously next to Lavender, who loudly proclaimed his rudeness while George politely took a seat next to Parvati, steeping his hands in front of him with his elbows on the table like a professional businessman. His only response was a single nod of agreement to Fred's statement.

"What does he have you guys doing?" Neville asked curiously as Ginny waved him off.

"You wouldn't be interested. It's really boring." Ginny said as Hermione quirked a brow.

"Try us." she said as the others seemed to focus on Ginny, Fred, and George.

"It's just moving a bunch of boxes and stuff for him. Either from the seventh floor to the dungeons, or from his office to the seventh floor. It's all really tedious."

Ron and Harry shared a look, both now convinced that Snape, Ginny, Fred, and George were all now working on something top-secret. And with them knowing that Ginny was a Turk, and Harry's suspecting Fred and George to be two well-known Turks as well, but now it all came down to one question.

Just which Turk was Snape?

"Anyways, you two going out earlier, huh?" Fred asked, propping his feet up on the table as Lavender and Parvati gave him disgusted look.

"Yes," Harry said, eyeing the three Weasley Turks.

"Well, I don't think you should." Hermione said seriously, "You're both still not finished with the homework, and today we need to-"

But she broke off; the morning post was arriving and, as usual, the Daily Prophet was soaring towards her in the beak of a screech owl, which landed perilously close to the sugar bowl and held out a leg. Hermione pushed a Knut into its leather pouch, took the newspaper, and scanned the front page critically as the owl took off.

"Anything interesting?" Neville asked as Harry and Ron grinned, knowing the pup was keen to keep their brainy friend off the subject of homework.

"No," Hermione sighed, leaning back and massaging her temples, "just some guff about the bass player in the Weird Sisters getting married."

Ginny and Hermione opened the paper, both disappearing behind it as they muttered to one another while Neville devoted himself to another helping of eggs and bacon. Ron was staring up at the high windows, looking slightly preoccupied.

"Wait a moment," said Hermione suddenly, "Oh my…"

"What's happened?" Harry asked as she gained the large group's attention.

"It's about… Padfoot." Hermione said as Harry's eyes narrowed while Ron urged her to go on, "The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer-"

"Blah blah blah!" Ginny said, "It says he's currently hiding in London!"

"Lucius Malfoy I'll bet," Fred said in a low, furious voice, "Caught him eyeing our dog Padfoot on the platform, yo."

"Wh-What?" Ron said, looking alarmed, "Why didn't you say-?"

"Cause it woulda been suspicious to just rush you two and scream, 'Look at Lucius Malfoy checking out our dog!' … Got it?" Fred said, casting Ron a look, "Don't you have a brain in all that new muscle, yo?"

"If you had a brain, then you'd know that the brain is a muscle." Ron shot back as Fred grinned, seeming to have expected the comeback.

"It's also obviously not one you've been flexing lately, yo." Fred said, then reached across the table where George gave him a high-five while making sizzling noises.

"Back to the matter at hand, people." Hermione said professional, "The paper doesn't say anything other than the usual rubbish."

"That Sirius Black is a dodgy fellow," Seamus said, breaking into the conversation as the others had nearly forgotten about their normal friends with them.

"Yes, but he's not all bad." Harry said with a shrug, "At least when he tried to kill me he said hello first."

"And nearly ripped my leg off…" Ron grumbled, recalling when Sirius had dragged him into the Shrieking Shack.

"So you're okay with him?" Seamus asked Harry, "Because people try to have a deadly-go at you every year, mate."

"I suppose so." Harry said with another causal shrug to mask the truth, "Though we won't be swapping phone numbers or recipes anytime soon."

"And I should hope not," Hermione whispered lowly as Seamus and Dean exchanged looks, getting into their own conversation while Lavender and Parvati traded seats with Fred and George to strike up more gossip, "He won't be able to leave the house again anytime soon."

"Well, Dumbledore did warn him not to." Ginny said as Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

"Though I don't disagree that it wasn't the best thought-out plan, you will all remember that we were a guard short, and that not many people could or would recognize him as he was." Harry whispered coldly, "Thankfully, he has something that should keep him busy for quite some time, and keep him from anything foolish."

"Yeah," Ron said, "Plus, if he was made to just sit in that house all by his lonesome with his hate for it, he'd be driven mad, feeling worse about himself and more useless than ever."

"Well, it's a good thing you two gave him something to do, huh." Ginny said with a scoff as Harry scowled at her. Ginny, even though she saw the scowl, acted as though she hadn't as she went back behind the paper and said in a smug tone, "Oh look, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions is having a sale; three sets of robes for the price of one."

"Now that's business, yo!" Fred said, "That'll be the perfect test for our transport-"

"Shh!" Ginny said, casting Fred a hard look as she came from behind the newspaper.

"They're up to something." Ron muttered across the table to Harry, who nodded in agreement.

Just what were the Turks up to?

Seamus and Dean left to practice Vanishing Spells while Lavender and Parvati went off with Susan Bones and Tracey Davis to gossip about boys. All was peacefully while they ate their breakfast and conversed.

"Hey! Look at this!" Hermione said, flattening the newspaper down so the others could see it.

"I've got all the potion ingredients I need or want," Ron deadpanned, his face set in a grimace, "There's only so much "eye of newt" a man can stomach looking at."

"No," Harry said, pointing out what he believed was the cause of Hermione's suddenness, "Look at this little piece here…"

Ron, Neville, and Fred leaned over the table while Ginny, Hermione, and George bent closer to read the article. The item was barely an inch long and placed right at the bottom of a column. It was headlined:

TRESPASSOR AT MINISTRY

Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on August 31st. Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watch-wizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o'clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

"Sturgis Podmore?" Fred said slowly, "Wasn't he the one who looked like his head'd been thatched, yo?"

"Six months in Azkaban…" Harry whispered with a brow cocked, "Just for trying to get through a door… Makes me wonder what was behind this top-security door they so casually mentioned."

"Perhaps it's where whatever the weapon Snuffles mention is," Ron said as Hermione gave him a curious look, "Snuffles… Padfoot…"

"Oh," Hermione breathed with a nod, catching on, "Well, that would make sense,"

"Yeah, and it seems the Ministry has this weapon, not the Order or the Death Eaters." Goerge said quietly as he cast a dark glance at Neville, who was frowning innocently at the paper while they were talking. Ron caught the look.

"He's fine. He's with us," Ron said, "or rather, more with me than anyone."

"You got that right, Angeal!" Neville said, glomping Ron as Ron tried furiously to get him off, "I lost you once! I'm never letting go again, buddy!"

"Get off, you brat!" Ron said as Neville grinned.

"Never!" Neville exclaimed as the others shook their heads.

"Well, aside from their antics, what in the name of the Planet would he have been doing at the Ministry of Magic at one o'clock in the morning?" Harry asked as he stepped his hands in front of him.

"Do you think he could have been doing something for the Order?" Ginny asked as Hermione shook her head.

"No, that couldn't be it." Hermione said, "He wouldn't have to really sneak about since he worked for the Ministry; like just about every other witch and wizard around these parts."

"Plus he was the one missing in our guard to the train station." Harry said, "Remember? He was supposed to come and see us off, but didn't show up; hence the reason Sirius came with us and got spotted by Lucius Malfoy."

The others looked at him, none of them having thought things on such a thorough level in so little time.

"Yeah, so he couldn't be on a job for them then." Ron said, leaning back with his arms crossed, "But what?"

"It could be a frame-up," Ginny suggested, "The Ministry might have suspected him and lured him there. Maybe they've just made something up to get him, or at least, someone connected to Dumbledore."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't put it past our dear old Minister, but I don't think he has the brains to pull that one off." Harry said as Hermione, on the other hand, looked interested in the theory.

"He might have been under Death Eater control." George suggested quietly as all eyes narrowed.

"That is a very likely possibility…" Hermione admitted, folding up the newspaper thoughtfully. As Harry laid down his knife and fork, she seemed to come out of a reverie.

"Right then, I think we should tackle that essay for Sprout on self-fertilizing shrubs first and if we're lucky we'll be able to start McGonagall's Inanimatus Conjurus Spell before lunch…"

"I've already done the essay." Neville said as Harry and Ron nodded, showing that they too had done it.

"I'm having problems with the spell for McGonagall, though." Neville admitted with an embarrassed chuckle, "Materia was never one of my strong subjects…"

"Besides!" Neville said, standing up suddenly, "We can always do the rest of the homework together tonight. I wanna see Angeal on a broom. It's a sight I just can't miss!"

"Well, I suppose that we should show our support…" Hermione said airily, as though Ron weren't sitting directly across from her.

"Glad to see I'm so beloved…" Ron muttered with a small smirk playing on his lips.

Harry felt a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he looked out the windows they passed on their way to the Quidditch Pitch. The sky was a clear, exhilarating blue, and he had not been on his Firebolt for a week… He wondered briefly if he could still fly around without the use of a broom.

"-and then we'll end with our dream journals, comparing things we can make up for it." Ron was saying to Neville as they walked down the sloping lawns towards the Quidditch pitch, him and Ron with their broomsticks over their shoulders.

"And plus we've got tomorrow." Neville said, nodding along, "Hermione gets too worked up about work, ya know?" There was a pause as Neville he added, in a slightly more anxious tone, "Do ya think she meant it when she said we weren't copying from her?"

"She's never let us copy." Harry said, "She just checked our work after we'd finished."

"Besides, we shouldn't need to copy from her anyway." Ron added, giving Neville a stern look, "A man with honor gets his grades by doing his own work and helping others."

"Yeah, I hear ya, Angeal… I hear ya…" Neville said, catching up to them after they had breezed past him.

As they approached the Quidditch pitch, Harry allowed his gaze to sweep over the area. To his right was the Forbidden Forest where the trees of which were swaying darkly. The sky was empty except for a few distant owls fluttering around the Owlery tower. Perhaps he would get to test if he could fly without the aid of a broom.

They collected balls from the cupboard in the changing room and set to work, Ron guarding the three tall goalposts, Harry allowing Neville to play Chaser and try to get the Quaffle past Ron. Harry thought Ron was pretty good as he looked up from trying to remember how he had first learned to glide; Ron had blocked three-quarters of the goals Neville attempted to put past him and played better the longer the two practiced. Harry also thought that Neville was a really creative flyer, moving in ways that most would not have, like turning himself upside in midair to try and get the Quaffle under Ron's backside.

After a couple of hours they all returned to the castle for lunch just as Harry had finally recalled the Materia he had needed for flight. During their lunch, which Hermione told them how she had managed to finish all her own homework and left references for them on the harder bits they would need to research on. Then after lunch, Hermione and Ginny came with them as they made their return to the Quidditch pitch for the real training session. All their teammates but Angelina were already in the changing room when they entered.

"Alright there, yo?" Fred asked with a wink as Ron chuckled nervously.

"Umm… yeah." was all Ron said in reply.

"Ready to show us all up, Ickle Prefect?" Fred said, emerging tousle-haired from the neck of his Quidditch robes, a slightly malicious grin on his face.

"Shut up," Ron said, a smirk on his face as he pulled on his own team robes for the first time. They fitted him well considering they had once belonged to Oliver Wood, who much like Ron was now, was rather broader in the shoulders.

"Okay, everyone," Angelina barked, entering from the Captain's office, already changed. "Let's get to it; Alicia and Fred, you bring out the ball crate for us. Oh, and there are a couple of people out there watching, but I want you to just ignore them, all right? Get in the zone, yeah?"

Something in her would-be casual voice made Harry think he might know who the uninvited spectators were, and sure enough, when they left the changing room for the bright sunlight of the pitch it was to a storm of catcalls and jeers from the Slytherin Quidditch team and assorted toadies, who were grouped halfway up the empty stands and whose voices echoed loudly around the stadium. Hermione and Ginny had gotten themselves front row seats to the practice while Neville wasn't even sitting, cheering Ron on with absolutely no shame at all.

"My friend, do you fly now?" Draco called out, "Because we all know how good you were at the helicopter."

"Shut it!" Neville yelled from above in the stands, "Go Ron! Whip the floor with the jerk!"

"Neville, this is a practice for the Gryffindor team." Ginny called out, trying to pull the stocky boy back into the seats, "This isn't a match."

"Who cares." Neville said before cupping his hands around his mouth, "Go Angeal!"

Ron face-palmed himself as Draco and Harry returned their gaze to him.

"Such a lovely student you have there." Draco drawled, "Tell me, does he roll over and play dead, too?"

"I wish he did do the last one…" Ron muttered, his cheeks flush with embarrassment caused by his overly-enthusiastic former apprentice.

"And just what is that atrocity you think you'll be riding?" Draco asked, now staring down at Ron's broom, "Why would anyone put a flying charm on that moldy old log?"

"Well we all can't be rich twice over." Ron said, rolling his eyes as Draco scoffed.

"Obviously, because a person of my class would never be caught dead on such a disgrace. And neither should you." Draco said, brushing imaginary dirt from his press-clean robes.

Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson guffawed and shrieked with laughter. Ron mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground while Harry followed him, watching as Ron's ears turn red from behind.

"I knew Genesis was a jerk, but sometimes he's just so damn-"

"Ignore him and his little posse." Harry said, accelerating to catch up with Ron, "Your broom doesn't matter. You have skill on your side."

"Yeah, you're right." Ron said, a grin on his face as he turned to Harry, "Then we'll see who's laughing after we play them…"

"Exactly the attitude I want, Potter, Weasley!" Angelina said in approval, soaring around them with the Quaffle under her arm and slowing to hover on the spot in front of her airborne team, "Okay, everyone, we're going to start with some passes just to warm up, the whole team-"

"Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle, anyway?" Pansy Parkinson shrieked from below, "Why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?"

"Why you little-!"

"Angelina!" Katie called out as Angelina stopped glaring down at the smug Parkinson before taking a deep breath.

"Right then," Angelina said, sweeping back her long braided hair out of her face before continuing calmly, "Spread out, then, and let's see what we can do…"

"I don't understand why they are allowed to be here in the first place." Ron griped as Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Seems that Umbridge is giving them a bit more room to be extra annoying." Harry said as Ron frowned.

"Foul old toad…" Ron muttered under his breath, most likely thinking Harry wouldn't hear but Harry did before he turned, reversing away from the others to the far side of the pitch with a smirk. Ron fell back towards the opposite goal. Angelina raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Fred, who passed to George, who passed to Harry, who passed to Ron, who passed it to Katie, and so on.

"This is getting ridiculous. Genesis is being ridiculous!" Ron hissed as his face was clashing horribly with his ginger hair. Ron had been playing well, even with the Slytherins, led by Draco, roaring and screaming with laughter.

"It's not so much the other ones, but Genesis is really digging deep with some of his taunts." Ron said, shooting Harry a look. In that time, he caught the Quaffle, but dropped it as he was about to pass it back to Angelina.

Ron pelted towards the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, pulling out of the dive and returning to playing height with a blush across his freckled face. Harry saw Fred and George exchange looks, but uncharacteristically neither of them said anything, for which Ron was grateful.

"Pass it on, Ron," Angelina called, as though nothing had happened.

Ron threw the Quaffle to Angelina, who passed it back to Harry, who passed to George…

"My friend, do you fly away now?" Draco taunted, "To a world that abhors you and I? All that awaits you is a somber morrow."

"Now he's just trying to annoy me." Harry muttered, his eyebrow twitching as Neville called out cheers for Ron, finally breaking free of whatever Hermione and Ginny used to keep him quiet.

George passed to Angelina; she reverse-passed to Harry, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to Ron, who lunged for it and barely managed to catch the ball with a barrel-roll of his broom.

"Stop passing me the ball, Harry." Ron muttered, almost smiling as Draco scoffed below them.

"Come on, Ron! Get in the zone!" Angelina said crossly, as Ron readied himself right on his broom.

It would have been hard to say whether Ron's face or the Quaffle was a deeper scarlet when Draco and the rest of the Slytherin team were howling with laughter.

On his third attempt, Ron caught the Quaffle perfectly.

"Great job!" Draco yelled, "Now all you need to do is not fall out of the sky like you did the first time with your white wing!"

"Shut up, dude!" Neville yelled down before giving Ron a thumbs-up, "You got this, Ron!"

Ron, who had been about to toss the ball, went red as his arm jerked, firing the Quaffle so hard that it hit Katie Bell right smack-dab in the middle of her face… hard.

"Oh, Goddess Minerva… Sorry!" Ron groaned, zooming forward to see whether he had done any damage.

"Get back in position, she's fine! It's nothing a little hard work and sweat won't fix!" Angelina barked, "But as you're passing the Quaffle to a teammate, do try not to knock her off her broom! That's what we've got Bludgers for!"

Katie's nose was bleeding as down below, the Slytherins were stamping their feet and jeering.

"Yeah, that's the way to go, Angeal! Right! Show them the strong arm!" Neville cheered, grabbing his own arm and rotating it a few times before Ginny and Hermione grabbed him again while Fred and George converged on Katie.

"Here, take this, yo." Fred told her, handing her something small and purple from out of his pocket, "It'll clear it up in no time flat."

"All right," Angelina called, "Fred, George! You two go and get your bats and a Bludger. Ron! You go get up to the goalposts. Potter! You release the Snitch when I say so. We're going to aim for Ron's goal, obviously."

Harry bit back a snide remark as he zoomed off after the twins to fetch the Snitch.

"Ron's making doing alright, isn't he?" Fred muttered as the three of them landed at the crate containing the balls.

"Though we could have gone without that last debacle." George muttered he opened the crate to extract one of the Bludgers while Harry swiped the Snitch.

"I would think we would all be the same if two of our friends embarrassed us as such." Harry said in Ron's defense.

"Maybe, but they're only getting away with it because he's all for honor, manners, and politeness, yo." Fred said, scoffing as he cast a look directly at Harry, "Now, see, if it were you they were doing this to; you'd probably have killed one of them by now."

Harry could not deny the point Fred made as they returned to the air.

When Angelina blew her whistle, Harry released the Snitch and Fred and George let fly the Bludger. From that moment on, Harry was barely aware of what the others were doing. It was his job to recapture the tiny fluttering golden ball that was worth a hundred and fifty points to the Seeker's team and doing so required enormous speed and skill. He accelerated, rolling and swerving in and out of the Chasers, the warm autumn air whipping his face, and the distant yells of the Slytherins so much meaningless roaring in his ears… but too soon, the whistle brought him to a halt again.

"Stop - stop - STOP!" screamed Angelina, "Ron - you're not covering your left post!"

Harry looked round at Ron, who was hovering in front of the middle hoop and leaned to the right-side post, leaving the other one completely unprotected.

"Oh right… Sorry…" Ron said lamely as Harry narrowed his eyes, recalling that Angeal had been right-handed and had rarely ever protected his left side from attack because he had been built like a truck. For sports such as these, that mindset was a weakness that would allow the other team to score often.

"You keep shifting around between middle and right while you're watching the Chasers!" Angelina said, "Either stay in center position until you have to move to defend either of the side hoops, or else circle all three, but don't just drift vaguely off to your right-hand side, that's how you let in the last three goals into the left hoop!"

"Right… Noted… Sorry…" Ron repeated, his red face shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky.

"And Katie, do something about that damn nosebleed!" Angelina yelled.

"It's just getting worse!" Katie said thickly, attempting to stem the flow of blood with her sleeve.

Harry glanced round at Fred, who was looking anxious and checking his pockets. He saw Fred pull out something purple, examine it for a second and then look round at Katie, evidently horror-struck.

"Oh crap, yo!" Fred yelled as George quietly shook his head, his arms crossed while he hovered on his broom.

"Well, let's try again, people!" Angelina said, ignoring the Slytherins, who had now set up a chant of how the Gryffindor team were losers, but there was a certain rigidity about her seat on the broom nevertheless.

This time they had been flying for barely three minutes when Angelina's whistle sounded. Harry, who had just sighted the Snitch circling the opposite goalpost, pulled up feeling distinctly aggrieved.

"What is it now?" Harry snapped impatiently to Alicia, who was nearest.

"Katie," Alicia said shortly, pointing.

Harry followed her index finger, turning himself around to see where Angelina, Fred and George were all flying around Katie, who was now chalk white and covered in blood. Harry and Alicia sped towards her, hearing the tale end of a quick chat between Angelina and Fred. It was plain that Angelina had stopped training just in time; Katie looked ready to drop any second.

"She needs to get to the hospital wing, stat." Angelina said as they all lowered while Ron was already at the ground and Draco was keeping his posse back. Neville kept Hermione and Ginny in the stands.

"We'll take her." Fred said without his now usual verbal tick, "She… err… might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake…"

"You-!" Ron said, looking as if he was debating on which of his twin brothers to deck first.

"Well, there's no point continuing with no Beaters and a Chaser gone," Angelina said glumly as Fred and George zoomed off towards the castle supporting Katie between them, "Well, we're through. Go get changed and what not."

Angelina sped off toward the changing rooms on her broom while Ron, no longer looking angry, looked just plain miserable.

"This was a mistake…" Ron muttered, staring at his broom before tossing it roughly to the side, "I should have known I couldn't pull this off. And worst yet, I nearly killed one of my teammates at the first practice."

"Actually," Harry said, "It was Fred and George that nearly killed her. You only gave her the nose bleed, they are the ones that nearly made her faint of blood loss."

"But if I hadn't given her the nose bleed, then it wouldn't have happened at all." Ron grumbled, "I'm a monster…"

Harry was about to refute the claim when Draco came over to do what he did best in these situations; kick 'em when they were down.

"I have to say, you flew better than I thought you would." Draco said suavely with his group of Slytherins behind him, "Though I suppose anything is better than the disasters you caused when you were behind the wheel of helicopter. Remember Costa De Sol?"

"Genesis, shut up." Ron muttered half-heartedly as he turned away.

"Now wait just one minute!" Neville's voice sounded from high up in the stands. Harry looked up, shielding his eyes slightly from the sun before they widened like saucers. Neville was standing squarely on the railing edge of the stands with both his feet firmly planted on the small metal bar that normally kept people from falling. Then Neville did what Harry would forever label an idiotic act of foolish stupidity never to be equaled.

"I'll be down in a sec!" and with that, Neville jumped.

Everyone around them gasped as they saw the teen free-fall from the stands with Draco making a strangled noise that sounded like a forced-down girlish cry of surprise. Ron turned around at the gasps, and he cried out in terror as he saw Neville already fallen halfway.

As Neville neared the ground, Harry was mounting his broom, hoping that he calculated the angle and speed correctly to keep the boy from breaking his neck when he caught him by his robes. Though as he raced toward Neville, the boy did something that made Harry recall why people had forever looked up to SOLDIER agents as things akin to demigods.

Neville, ten feet from the ground, flipped himself twice through the air and landed in a squatting crouch on the ground while Harry stopped his broom just short of the boy moments before. Everything was quiet as Neville stood from his crouch, his glowing eyes trained on Ron before they narrowed at Draco. And with his feet firmly planted on the ground now, Neville stepped out of the small crater he had created and marched his way up to Draco as though he had not just survived a fifty to sixty-foot drop on sheer memory recall and whatever mako-energy enhancements were flowing through them. However, Harry noticed, as Neville moved past him, that the boy's legs were trembling and Neville's left leg had a slight limp to it.

"Angeal doesn't have to take crap from you or anyone else, you bastard!" Neville said as Draco finally picked his jaw up from the ground and gave the finger Neville had pointed in his face a cool look, "He's twice the man you are, and is the greatest person I ever knew! So you say one more word against him, and I'll make what I did the last time we met up look like a playground fight."

Draco said nothing for a few moments, his posse looking to him for his reaction while Ron was still staring to where Neville had landed as though trying to wrap his head around the fact that Neville was both still alive and now shouting in Draco's face like nothing happened. Then, Draco tossed his head back arrogantly, staring down his nose at the slightly shorter Neville.

"If Angeal is the greatest person you know, then we must not have been introduced." Draco said drawled narcissistically, "And I've known Angeal for much longer than you have, boy. I would tell you to tread lightly in the affairs of your betters, but it seems that for the moment we are equals." then Draco pinned Neville with a haughty look that was the cross between a vicious sneer and a fiercely cocky smirk, "However, don't get too full of yourself, brat. Your feeble skills compared to my knowledge is like an ant facing down a mountain. At least Angeal knows when something is beyond his capabilities, but I can see that is one lesson he did not have either the time to pass on to you, or he simply forgot. Now remove your digit from my face, or I'll remove it for you… permanently…"

"Argh! I'm warning you!" Neville shouted in frustration, catching the insults to Angeal while the jeers to his own person went unanswered.

Draco settled on a smirk, seeing as Neville most likely couldn't take him on in a hundred years. Though even Harry was debating with himself on who exactly would win should their little tiff come to blows While Draco was a scrawny git this time around, he probably already had a list of moves he could use against Neville from their days as highly-advanced super soldiers. Then again, Neville had just proved that he could put at least a fraction of the Shin-Ra training into action and had the muscles to back it up.

"Angeal, you may wish to get your puppy a leash." Draco said over his shoulder as Ron blinked, only now coming back from wherever he had been in his mind, "There are now laws for these kinds of things. Or has your sense of respect for the law gone the way of your precious Buster Sword; lost."

"That does it!" Neville shouted, pulling back the sleeves of his robes, "You've gone too far now! The Buster Sword is never lost so long as we have our honor!"

"Then I suppose you've lost that for yourself as well, boy." Draco sneered as Neville lunged at him, but the blond stepped out of the way. As soon as Neville was past him, Draco grabbed the bulkier boy's arm behind his back and forced him into a painful position in one swift and fluent motion.

If one had blinked, then they missed the entire exchange as Hermione and Ginny came rushing over. The way that both Draco and Neville blinked with looks of surprise on their faces, neither had suspected the maneuver to work. Though Harry always knew Genesis to be slim, fast, and agile for a warrior. Never bulky with strength from honed muscles, but always slim for speed, flexible for agility, and quick-witted for any situation.

Neville got over his shock quickly as he swept Draco's legs from under him, but Draco countered by pushing his legs off of Neville and flipping into a handspring while Neville went tumbling forward yet managing to keep on his feet.

"That's enough!" Ron barked out as Harry too stepped forward. He himself had never had a set of moves to use in any given situation, but that didn't stop him from thinking of a few he could to incapacitate both fighters should they attempt to continue. He had seen all that he needed to, and if Ron was going to stand between them, then Harry was going to be there to back him up.

Draco, seeming to remember himself and the situation, stood up straight and dusted his robes before tossing his head back arrogantly. He walked right past Neville, whose fists clenched at his sides but didn't dare to disobey Ron's direct order to not further the cause of a scene. Draco stopped short at Harry and Ron, standing with their shoulder lined up as Harry and Ron stood facing the others while Draco was facing the castle.

"Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return." Draco quoted as Harry was about to snap at him, but he quickly pressed on, "Umbridge sent us out to spy on you. You still haven't read my note about your half-giant friend. I've slipped it into the puppy's robe pocket when I held his arm back. We must talk more openly in a secure area. Later today, if we can."

"Roger that." Ron muttered as he crossed his arms while Harry merely scowled with a single nod of his head.

"Good then, I'm off. I'll report everything but the last five minutes, and none of my group will dare add anything more." Draco said as he walked off toward the castle with his crowd of Slytherins following after him like moths to a flame.

"Come on, let's go and get changed." Harry suggested as Ron sighed before following.

"Poor Katie, everything seems to happen to her." Hermione whispered as they stalked their way up to the castle.

"Angeal, I'm sorry, man-" Neville started, but Ron held up a hand.

"Save it." Ron said, "If my honor needs defending, then it'll be by my own two hands. As I've said before, a man without his own dreams and honor to protect isn't worth being called a man at all. It's why I've told you time and again to protect your dreams and your honor; because I can protect my own."

"I was just… I'm sorry, Angeal…" Neville muttered, his gaze dropped down to his feet.

Ron sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck, "It's okay, pup. Just learn some control once in a while."

"So, is that how your practices normally go?" Hermione asked rather coolly half an hour later, as Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room.

"Not really." Harry said, "Far less blood and snappish remarks. Though the fighting is debatable."

"Glad to know." Hermione deadpanned as Harry shrugged, not caring if Quidditch was particularly violent when people wanted to win.

"Well," Ginny said, making her presence known to all as Neville came in after her, "You guys better hit the books. Especially you two barbell-brained idiots." she said, jerking her thumb at Neville and Ron, who gave nearly identical cries of indignity.

"You know," Harry said after an hour of making decent headway through their homework. He had finished everything he needed, aside from Trelawney's joke of a journal while Ron and Neville were helping each other through theirs, "I've only just realized how annoyingly catchy Genesis can be when he speaks."

"Why do you say that?" Ron asked, nibbling at the feathered end of his quill, "Is it because he's always quoting Loveless?"

"Not just that." Harry said, "Because now I cannot get that "Gryffindor are Losers" chant out of my head. It's rather irritating and yet so catchy."

"Yes, because truly the Slytherins are masters of psychological warfare." Ron quipped in unusual dry humor.

"I think they are." Neville said, blinking in surprise of his own words. "I mean, just think about it. They never throw the first punch, 'cause most are too scrawny to start a fight. That's why they get inside our heads, yeah. They make us mad, and when we knock their teeth in, then we're the bad guys to our teachers! Holy Shin-Ra! It all makes sense now!"

Ron and Harry only stared at Neville, both occasionally exchanging glances at each other's gob-stopped expressions.

"I've always figured they were weasels snd snakes, but do you think they actually do that?" Ron asked, "Making us fight them to get us in trouble for throwing the first punch? It seems so… deceitful."

"Then it's Slytherin." Harry said dryly, "I'm sure it's all planned for them; more than half the time in advance."

"Well, that's just dishonorable." Ron said, crossing his arms, "We had no control over Shin-Ra when they used us to discredit and deceive the Wutai, but for mere school children to be using such tactics here… It's just disgraceful."

"Perhaps," Harry said, not really caring anymore as he started on his dream journal. He wrote about dreaming of a giant chicken, basically describing a Chocobo while Neville started on his own.

"Can we stop talking about them?" Neville asked, raking at his hair, "Ugh, it gives me the willies! It's like we're praising them or something."

With that thought in mind, it was silent the rest of the Saturday evening as night rolled around.

"You're late." a voice snapped in the darkness as two sets of footsteps stopped in unison.

"Well forgive us if it takes a little longer than we thought to get down here from the tower." Ron shot back as Draco stepped out from the shadows of a serpent statue.

"There is no hate, only joy; for we are beloved by the Goddess." Draco said poetically as Harry scowled at him.

"What do you know?" Harry asked as Draco's arrogant gaze sharpened like a fine blade.

"He's up at caves high, searching out his other half. He'll be-"

"Not about that! We read the message you slipped the Puppy." Harry hissed, "What about the Toad?"

"She's watching you like a mother Chocobo, but with none of the affection." Draco said, shaking his head as he leaned back, his body half obscured by the shadows with only his top-half showing, "She knew about your being up at the Owlery and I caught her speaking with the paintings. Some of them are loyal to the Ministry, but all report first to the Headmaster."

"So Dumbledore allowed her to know?" Ron asked in shock while Harry's fist clenched at his side.

"Continue." Harry breathed tersely as Draco nodded sharply.

"She also realized that she has no legitimate reason to spy on you for Quidditch."

"So she sent you; a known rival and his team to ensue enough of an incident that Harry would blow his temper and end up right back with her." Ron surmised as Draco shrugged.

"She's good, but only so for a beginner." Draco commented, "She needs a lot of work to be at Slytherin level of cunning."

"I'm sure she does. However, please refrain from handing out pointers any time soon." Harry quipped dryly, turning on heel to go back the way he came.

"Now there's just one thing we must discuss whilst we're all gathered like this." Draco said, his eyes staring at Harry's back with a strange intensity, "Training."

"Must we discuss something so useless?" Harry asked as Ron and Draco both frowned at him, "Must we be so cliché that we can't come up with new ways of dealing with our situations. Ways that don't involve breaking jaws, slicing bodies, or tossing out fireballs?"

"I wasn't aware such primitive methods existed." Draco quipped bitingly as Harry rounded on him sharply.

"I'm serious. Why is it that you simply have to become SOLDIER again?" Harry snapped as Draco nor Ron batted an eyelash at him, "The SOLDIER program was a hellish torment we were forced to endure. It was filled with nightmarish experimentations, horrific bastards that cared nothing about us outside their own agendas, and a being that tried to use me as an avatar of destruction thrice over. I'll be damned if I go back to those days!"

"But the program also made us who we are; even today." Ron said, sighing as he rubbed his chin, "I know how you feel, I hated what we did almost everyday. But the thing that got me through most of it before the degradation was the fact that if I hadn't been an experiment, I never would have met the two of you; my best friends."

"SOLIDER gave each of us something." Draco said, "However, for you, Sephiroth, SOLIDER is basically synonymous with horror."

"More like Jenova." Ron quipped in an uncharacteristically biting manner that made even Harry flinch back as Ron stared hard at him.

"Right…" Draco said, not quite sure what to say anymore.

"The thing is, Sephiroth, you once told me that you never had a dream in mind." Ron said as Harry rolled his eyes, foreseeing the speech a mile away, "But that was because you thought dreams were the equal of money, power, and status. I dreamed of helping my comrades to become heroes. Genesis here dreamed of becoming the hero. But you, Sephiroth, you dreamed of something different. You dreamed of having someone to understand you. You dreamed of friends and family. Even still, that is your dream. I remember from First Year; how you looked into the mirror and told me that you saw your family."

Harry said nothing, silently surprised that Angeal's dream speech was getting to him emotionally for the first time.

"Your dream this time around hasn't changed, Seph. You still dream of friends and family; of people that would understand you and like you for you. And you have that. You had that; me and Genesis."

"And all Genesis ever cared about was taking my supposed mantle as the hero in his little fantasy." Harry snapped as he rounded back on Draco, who shrugged rather nonchalantly.

"In my own defense, I had been rather obvious about it for years before that day in the hologram room. I also despised myself for years after you two were gone because of the terrible events I unintentionally helped create in my own selfishness." Draco said as though he been casually conversing about weather. But after many years with both Draco and Genesis, they could tell when it was all hot air, and when it was a real confession. That subtle quiet under text told them just how sincere Draco was being.

And it was a lot…

"The point is, our reason for returning to SOLDIER is because while the program comes with a lot of emtional and horrific baggage, it doesn't have to. SOLDIER is no more in this world. Hell, it might have never existed here! We may take what was good about the program and turn the bad into more good." Ron said gently yet firmly as he clenched his fist in front of him, "And we can fight to make our dreams a reality. We'll stop You-Know-Who, and show him our honor- our pride- as SOLDIER."

Harry smiled a little before turning away from his two friends. While it all sounded nice at the moment, he was not one to easily forget the past because of one emotionally-charged speech. No, by tomorrow he would still look at SOLDIER as the accursed program that made him believe his mother was a Calamity named Jenova and that Hojo was his father.

Because neither were true! They just weren't, dammit! They couldn't be!

"I'll think about it…" Harry said quietly, "But I make no promises."

"And we'll hold you to none." Draco said, flashing a brilliant smile before he too turned away to face the opposite direction, "For even if the marrow is barren of promises…"

"Nothing shall forestall my return…" Harry finished quietly as he and Ron walked out of the dungeons and up to Gryffindor tower. Harry suddenly scowled, knowing that Genesis had a double meaning to his little quote.

But what?

"Twenty more, Pup." Ron barked out as he lounged on his comfy armchair near the fire that Sunday in the common room.

"Ugh!" Neville groaned, doing push-ups he wanted the energy to complete while his body protested, "Angeal! This is too much!"

"You're right." Angeal said, tapping his chin before he took a sip of his tea, glancing at Harry who was having an animated argument with Ginny while Hermione sat off to the side writing things on a clipboard and muttering to herself, "Make it fifty more. Gotta kick you back into shape quickly, and taking it lightly on you ain't gonna help."

"Angeal! You slave-driver!" Neville whined, but still set himself to the task given as his face flushed and sweat dripped down from the hair which clung to his forehead.

The gang decided that they would spend most of their Sunday in the common room, enjoying each other's company as the others came and went in a steady stream of marching feet and swishing cloaks. The common room had filled, then emptied, and filled again before most left to enjoy the fact that it was another fine, clear day; spending their time out on the grounds as they enjoyed what might well be some of the last sunshine that year. By the evening, Harry and the others found themselves lounging around a tree trunk as they watched the sun begin to set.

"And did you remember to finish Professor Sinistra's essay about Jupiter's many moons?"

"Yeah," Ron said, smirking as he saw Neville rubbing his sore arms and legs with whatever it was that Ginny was giving him, "Though I must admit it was very informative to research. I never knew too much about Jupiter's moons, or anything off planet. But now…"

"Now what?" Hermione asked, sitting with Crookshanks on her lap as a pair of knitting needles flashed in midair in front of her, now knitting a pair of shapeless elf socks.

"Now it's so fascinating, ya know?" Ron said, gesturing to where the first twinkles of light in the sky were breaking free, "The stars, I mean. The universe around us."

"You're interested in space?" Harry asked, a brow quirking upward into a perfect arch.

"No more than another man with a healthy curiosity for the world around him." Ron shot back with a smirk as Harry shook his head.

"If you say so." Harry said, shrugging as they continued lounging in the twilight of day.

"I've been meaning to ask," Ginny said, tapping her chin before her expression deadpanned, "What the hell are you boys wearing?"

"Causal attire?" Harry guessed, looking down at his grey t-shirt and black trousers.

"Umm… normal clothes?" Neville echoed as he glanced at Ron's dull dark blue shirt and baggy dark pants before looking down at his own.

"No, wrong answer. Both of you." Ginny said, "The correct answer is: You're standing out."

"No more so than yourself." Harry quipped, glancing over her dark red blouse and black skirt.

"Yes, but I'm a girl, and wizarding robes just aren't flattering." Ginny defended as Harry arched his brow again.

"Again; if you say so…" Harry muttered as he leaned back against the tree they were under.

"AH!" Neville yelled, jerking upward from his spot on the grass.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, looking slightly alarmed.

"I just remembered!" Neville said, gripping at the roots of his hair, "Jupiter's biggest moon is Ganymede! Not Callisto! Ahh! Stupid, stupid!" Neville chastised himself, banging his fist against the side of his head.

"Yeah, we should get back up to the castle so you can change that." Ron said, though didn't move an inch from his spot.

"Are you gonna get up?" Ginny asked, dusting off her skirt and legs as she rose gracefully.

"Hmm… nope." Ron said, settling further into his spot as Harry too hadn't moved.

"And why not?" Neville whined, "Come on, man! I need help! You're the space nut."

"Three things, Pup." Ron said, holding up three fingers. "One; I am not a space nut. Two; you don't need my help with every little thing around here."

"And the third thing?" Hermione as they waited for Ron to continue.

"Look to the sky." Ron said, pointing the last finger to where he wanted them to look. Squinting their eyes to the waning sunlight, they saw a dark spot moving toward them at a fast rate of speed. In a matter of moments, the dark spot grew big enough to be distinguished as an owl.

"That's a screech owl." Hermione said as Ron nodded and Ginny narrowed her eyes.

"That's Percy's screech owl." Ginny observed as the owl got even closer to show it's handsome form.

"He named it Hermes, didn't he?" Hermione asked, looking amazed by the creature while Ron nodded peacefully, still in his comfortable spot lounging under the shade of the tree with Harry near him.

Before anymore words could be exchanged, the handsome screech owl was swooping down upon them, landing gracefully on the tree branch just above Ron as he gazed down at the red-head boy.

"I wonder what Percy's written you." Harry mused as Ron reluctantly got up to his feet and stared up at the screech owl.

"I don't know, but it's probably something to do with my being Prefect." Ron said as Hermes swooped down and landed on Ron's outstretched arm. He held out a leg to which a letter was attached. Ron took the letter off it and the owl flapped it's wings once before taking to the skies, departing at once while leaving claw impressions on Ron's arm.

"Hmm… For some reason I'm reminded that I haven't been reading my book lately…" Ron muttered as he stared down at the claw marks before shrugging as he opened the letter and glanced over it.

"Yup, this is definitely Percy's handwriting…" Ron said sinking back into his spot up against the tree as the others crowded him.

"Well, open it some more!" Hermione said eagerly, "Maybe it's an apology or some kind of olive branch."

Harry, however, did not look so optimistic as he nodded for Ron to read it.

Ron unrolled the scroll further and began to read to himself. The further down the parchment his eyes traveled, the deeper his scowl became. When he had finished reading, he looked vaguely saddened and disgusted, but reread the letter with an arched brow as though something had caught his eye.

"Well?" Ginny asked, looking impatient as Ron read the letter over again for a third time.

Dear Ron,

I have only just heard (from no less a person than the Minister for Magic himself, who has it from your new teacher, Professor Umbridge) that you have become a Hogwarts prefect. I was most pleasantly surprised when I heard this news and must firstly offer my congratulations.

I must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the 'Fred and George' route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility.

But I want to give you more than congratulations, Ron, I want to give you some advice, which is why I am sending this at night rather than by the usual morning post. Hopefully, you will be able to read this away from prying eyes and avoid awkward questions.

From something the Minister let slip when telling me you are now a prefect, I gather that you are still seeing a lot of Harry Potter. I must tell you, Ron, that nothing could put you in danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternization with that boy.

"I can't believe he wrote that," Hermione gasped, placing a hand over her budding breasts.

"There is nothing wrong with Harry, you jerk!" Neville shouted at the letter while Harry quirked a brow at him.

"You do realize that he can't hear you. This is only a letter." Harry said as Neville had the decency to look embarrassed, "None the less, thank you for that outburst on my behalf."

"Anytime, dude!" Neville said, giving a thumbs-up.

"I don't think your brother understands the value of true friendship." Hermione said, re-reading the first part of the letter, "If he did, then he wouldn't say some of these things."

"Our dear brother always did care more for his own ambitions." Ginny sighed, "He should have been a Slytherin, but I guess it truly is our choice in the end…"

"If we're all through with the interruptions," Harry said dryly, "There is still much more of the letter to be read."

Yes, I am sure you are surprised to hear this - no doubt you will say that Potter has always been Dumbledore's favorite — but I feel bound to tell you that Dumbledore may not be in charge at Hogwarts much longer and the people who count have a very different - and probably more accurate - view of Potter's behavior. I shall say no more here, but if you look at the Daily Prophet tomorrow you will get a good idea of the way the wind is blowing — and see if you can spot yours truly!

Seriously, Ron, you do not want to be tarred with the same brush as Potter, it could be very damaging to your future prospects, and I am talking here about life after school, too. As you must be aware, given that our father escorted him to court, Potter had a disciplinary hearing this summer in front of the whole Wizengamot and he did not come out of it looking too good in the eyes of the our government. He got off on mere technicalities, and many of the people I've spoken to remain convinced of his guilt.

"Yeah, the technicality of him being innocent!" Neville shouted as they all looked at him. "Sorry…"

"Your brother is smart… very smart…" Harry purred, "He hasn't stated his own opinion of me, but is passing on this information about how others view my person. Even if he had his own opinion, he's still giving us the heads-up about the government's view on me and what happened at my trial. They must not have released too much information about that, then."

"Yeah, that's what I thought after reading it the second time." Ron said, "The first time I thought he was just blindly following them."

"Well, he does come off that way," Ginny said with a shrug, "They have the power and that's what he wants."

"Or appears to by those that don't read between the lines." Harry corrected.

It may be that you are afraid to sever ties with Potter - I know that he can be... unbalanced as of late and, for all I know, violent -but if you have any worries about this, or have spotted anything else in Potter's behavior that is troubling you, I urge you to speak to Dolores Umbridge, a truly delightful woman who I know will be only too happy to advise you.

"That's something like we did with our letter to Snuffles." Neville observed as Ron nodded, "We used words that we didn't mean to tip off the other party about something going wrong."

"Yes, that's right…" Harry mumbled, "Your brother is truly intelligent."

"So he wanted to warn us about Umbridge and how she'd take any chance to get info on Harry's personal life?" Hermione said, tapping her chin in thought. "And he's shown that he believes Harry is unstable."

"Or that it is what others most likely believe and he doesn't want to be ousted as one of my supporters." Harry said as Hermione thought for a moment before nodding.

This leads me to my other bit of advice. As I have hinted above, Dumbledore's regime at Hogwarts may soon be over. Your loyalty, Ron, should be not to him, but to the school and the Ministry. I am very sorry to hear that, so far, Professor Umbridge is encountering very little cooperation from staff as she strives to make those necessary changes within Hogwarts that the Ministry so ardently desires (although she should find this easier from next week — again, see the Daily Prophet tomorrow!). I shall say only this - a student who shows himself willing to help Professor Umbridge now may be very well-placed for Head Boyship in a couple of years!

"So Umbridge will have even more power within the school by next week." Harry said, leaning back.

"The Educational Decrees!" Hermione exclaimed, "Remember our talk with Moody?"

"So they're already starting on those?" Ron said before swearing, "Dammit, they move fast. We need to step up our plans."

"Already way ahead of you, boys." Ginny proudly announced, "Just leave the real work to us in our department. You blockheads just stand there and look pretty."

"Damn Turks…" Ron muttered.

I am sorry that I was unable to see more of you over the summer. It pains me to criticize our parents, but I am afraid I can no longer live under their roof while they remain mixed up with the dangerous crowd around Dumbledore. (If you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledore's, has recently been sent to Azkaban for trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders.)

I count myself very lucky to have escaped the stigma of association with such people - the Minister really could not be more gracious to me — and I do hope, Ron, that you will not allow family ties to blind you to the misguided nature of our parents' beliefs and actions, either. I sincerely hope that, in time, they will realize how mistaken they were and I shall, of course, be ready to accept a full apology when that day comes.

Please think over what I have said mostcarefully, particularly the bit about Harry Potter and Madam Umbridge.

And congratulations again on becoming prefect.

Your brother,

Percy

"Your brother is still a bit of a prat, Ron." Harry said dryly as he handed the letter back to Ron, "Though at least he gave us some critical information."

"Yeah." Ron said, "It was nice of him to prepare us for the half-literal storm that is about to hit Hogwarts in the form of that… woman." Ron sneered out, looking decidedly disgusted with Umbridge.

"So, yeah." Harry said, "If you want to… what did he say; "severe ties" with me, then I promise not to get violent."

"Ha, funny." Ron said, chuckling weakly.

"Even so, I don't think now is the time for that dry wit of yours, Harry." Hermione said as she brushed off the grass from her black skirt.

"Then what, prey tell, do you want me to do?" Harry asked as Hermione shrugged.

"Perhaps we can go to dinner." Hermione said calmly, gazing up at the castle, "All this critical analysis has left me with an appetite."

"Same here." Ginny said, folding her arms lightly under her budding breasts.

"Then dinner it is, my fair ladies." Harry said, rising from his spot and bowing the two young women toward the castle, "After you."

"You're just too kind." Hermione quipped dryly as she swept past him.

"Indeed I am." Harry said, following with Ron and Neville, "Though I've been meaning to ask about your own attire, Hermione. What is with the white lab coat today?"

"I just felt like wearing it." Hermione said, shrugging casually, "My parents gave it to me before I was taken to spend the summer with you all. They hope I'll follow in their footsteps as a dentist."

"They hope you'll leave magic behind once you're of age?" Ron asked, looking slightly put off.

"Maybe, maybe not." was all Hermione said. After that, they traveled in silence up to the castle.

"Exactly how many of us are there?" Harry asked over dinner as he glanced down the table, seeing Fred and George muttering to each other and Ginny shaking her head at them, "I'd like an estimate if we can get one."

"Well, let's go with the ones we know for sure right now." Ron said, leaning forward as he drank from his goblet, "You, me, Neville, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Fred and George, and Draco. That makes nine so far."

"Then there is Snape." Harry said, "He hinted at being one."

"And so did Cho with her sudden reactions to you." Ron responded.

"So that makes eleven." Neville summed.

"Colin Creevey has been rather odd as of late." Hermione said quietly, her gaze on Ron, "He's taken to long walks by his lonesome, and now every time he sees Harry in the common room, he takes to silently gazing at him instead of snapping pictures off every three seconds…" Hermione's expression dropped to a deadpan, "…though he still does after a few minutes of staring…"

"Well, that's… something…" Harry said, now slightly unnerved by his stalker-fanboy's antics, "Anything else?"

"No one else I've noticed." Ron said, "Hermione?"

"Just Colin." Hermione said with a sigh, rubbing her temples.

"We should all meet up at some point." Neville suggested, "It'd bring us closer together, and allow us to figure out why we've come back exactly."

"That is a good idea…" Ron muttered, "But we had wanted to wait and see just how many more there were. Though now that I think about it, the number could be a lot."

"Luna will probably know." Harry said, "Her or Snape."

"Maybe even Genesis knows." Ron pointed out, "He's close to Professor Snape, and he seems to have more information than we do."

"We'll discuss this more so in the common room later." Harry said, and with that, they went back to eating until dinner was called to an end.

Later in the common room, Ron, Neville, Ginny and Harry were organizing a place to meet all those reborn by the Goddess while Hermione helped Neville with his essay for the Professor Sinistra.

"I can't reveal if Professor Severus Snape is or is not, in fact, a Turk agent." Ginny said, folding her arms lightly under her budding breasts.

"Just by saying that, you actually have told us that he is." Harry said as Ginny glared at him.

"I have not. He could not be an agent. We've had outsiders do missions for us before in the past just so some things didn't get traced back to the company." Ginny said calmly after a deep breath.

"We could always just ask Fred…" Ron said before leaning in closer, "or should I say; Reno?"

"So what? That proves nothing and gets you no closer to the answers you want." Ginny said, crossing her legs womanishly, "Even that moron would never break the sealed-lips policy our agency has."

"She's right." Harry said, "But at least now it's been confirmed that he is, in fact, Reno." Ginny's eyes widened before she chuckled.

"Oh, you two are good, I'll give you that." Ginny said, her tone deeply amused.

"That means that George is actually Rude." Ron stated, "Those two were assigned to each other in order to balance one another out."

"And you're Cissinei." Harry said, pointing at Ginny, "Luna had revealed that to us already, but I had forgotten it in light of Hagrid's disappearance and Umbridge's arrival."

"So what? You still have nothing." Ginny sneered, this time folding her arms over her chest tightly.

"We know that Reno has been without smokes." Ron said causally as Ginny narrowed her eyes.

"So what?" she sneered out.

"That means that he's clean in his life." Harry said, leaning in like Ron had done before, "But wouldn't it be a shame if we gave him a pack of cigarettes."

"He'd be so grateful to us as well." Ron said, "You remember how much he enjoyed a puff every two hours back then. We'd have him spilling his guts to us in a matter of seconds after we give him a pack."

Ginny had paled slightly, remembering how easy it was for Tseng to get to Reno just by having a pack of smokes across the table from the chain-smoker. Reno had cracked like an egg on the sidewalk in under five minutes that one time. But suddenly, Ginny smirked.

"Then why don't you just do that?" Ginny asked, leaning back in her armchair with her smirk still present, "It seems much easier than coming to me and asking these questions."

"Because we just thought of the idea." Harry said, exchanging a glance with Ron, "We'd like to have our questions answered by the lucid, not someone coughing and choking while they try to huff as many wondrous smokes as they can."

"And where would you even buy cigarettes, huh?" Ginny demanded, "Wizards don't sell them, and the closest place that would is Dufftown."

"Which for the two of us trained SOLDIER operatives would be little more than a pleasant stroll in the middle of the night." Ron said easily enough as he leaned back in his armchair with a self-satisfied look while Ginny growled at him.

"You wouldn't dare." Ginny declared, "I say neither of you have the balls to actually reintroduce that manic to fire and flammables after some of the things he did back then."

Harry was about to reply with a witty remark about his own sanity compared to Reno's, but then he blinked as something in the fireplace behind Ginny caught his eye. He had just seen something in the fire that could not have been there. It had flashed into sight and vanished almost immediately. But no… it couldn't have been… he had imagined it because there was just no way…

"Good, Neville. Now, write that down," Hermione said to Neville, pushing his essay and a textbook back to him, "then add this conclusion I've written for you."

"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met… next to Angeal, of course." Neville said, smiling broadly.

"Thank you for the compliment, Neville." Hermione said, starting to understand just how much Ron's former-self meant to the boy, "Though helping others is simply what I do." she then turned to Harry, Ron and Ginny. "I've also taken a look at yours. Ron, you have a few misspellings in yours, but yours is good Har- …Ron? …Harry?"

"What are you guys looking at?" Neville asked, looking up from his essay as he finished it only to see Harry, Ron and Ginny now gazing into the flamed of the fireplace. Harry and Ron were on their knees, having slid off their chairs as they knelt on the singed and threadbare hearthrug while Ginny sat forward in her armchair.

"Er- guys? Why ya down there?" Neville asked as Harry glanced back at him and Hermione.

"Because I've just seen Padfoot's head in the fire." Harry said, quite calmly as Hermione gaped and Neville titled his head in confusion.

He spoke quite calmly; after all, he had seen Sirius's head in this very fire the previous year and talked to it, too; nevertheless, he could not be sure that he had really seen it this time… it had vanished so quickly…

"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated, forgetting about Neville's presence for a moment, "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too - Sirius!"

Hermione gasped, gazing at the fire; Neville dropped his quill. Because there, in the middle of the dancing flames, sat Sirius's head; long dark hair falling around his grinning face.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before those other kids cleared out," Sirius said, grinning widely, "I've been checking every hour."

"Are you telling us that your head has been popping into this fire every hour?" Harry asked, his tone dry and his brow arched.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear." Sirius defended.

"Hey, that's Sirius Black." Neville pointed out by actually pointing. He then turned to Harry, "The dude who's been trying to kill you." he then turned back to Sirius, "Nice to meet ya, guy."

"Hey there. Neville right?" Sirius said as Neville nodded, smiling at the supposed insane mass-murderer.

"This isn't funny. What if you'd been seen, Sir- Padfoot?" Hermione said anxiously.

"Well, I think a girl, first-year, by the looks of her, might've got a glimpse of me earlier." Sirius muttered before hastily pressing on, "But don't worry! I was gone the moment she looked back at me. I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly-shaped log or something."

"I wish I could smack you." Hermione said, taking a deep breath, "However, I cannot. Merely our prolonged conversation now is taking an incredibly awful risk -" Hermione began to lecture.

"You sound like Molly." Sirius said before scoffing, "This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code - and codes are breakable."

At the mention of Harry's letter, they all turned to stare at him.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you mail that letter. Now Siri- Padfoot does this and Umbridge is suspicious of your mail!" Hermione said, her even tone broken with a snarl.

"It was a gamble, true, but at least it was a gamble that paid off." Harry said, though he was scowling lightly to himself, "You said you had answers, Padfoot. Let's hear them."

"Are you sure he's okay?" Sirius asked, glancing up at Neville, who waved cheerfully as Harry nodded.

"He maybe it a bit of an oddball-"

"Hey!"

"-but he's fine with us." Harry finished, completely unfazed by Neville's glare.

"The letter you wrote was a good one." Sirius complimented, "I had to reread it a couple of times just to figure out what you were really talking about at some points. That comment about my mother compared to Umbridge told a story of it's own."

"I'm glad it did." Harry said, smiling a bit.

"Well then, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed." Sirius said, smiling, "You wanted to know what I found on the things you asked me to look up. I found only a little."

"Like?" Harry encouraged.

"Let's start with the easiest; wizards are from another land. Or in other words; another planet entirely." Sirius said, his face set.

"Really?" Hermione asked.

"Yes." Sirius said, nodding, "Wizards are from another planet named Gaia, or just The Planet if you will. They were descendants of an ancient race called the-"

"Cetra…" Hermione said, her eyes shining with a light of their own. A purity which radiated from deep within her soul.

"Yes, though that was all I found on that front. It just stops there. It doesn't explain how wizards got here, or why, or if here is really just across the ocean or something." Sirius said, sighing wearily, "The Lifestream is another thing I found barely anything on. All that was said was that the Lifestream is a long dead myth and belief in it has been around since wizards came to their "New Gaia"… it's all really frustrating."

"You're tellin' us…" Ron muttered with a scowl.

"Now then, Materia is something I found a bit more on." Sirius said, "Apparently it was how ancient wizards used magic instead of wands and such. The ancient wizards used them to do battle and cultivate the lands around them, making things bloom and blossom for many peaceful years. The Ministry of Magic still hold Materia, but it doesn't say where. It also doesn't say why wizards stopped using them in favor of wands or what caused them to so suddenly make the change."

"I see…" Harry purred, rubbing his chin.

"Now then, your scar." Sirius said as Harry quirked a brow.

"I didn't ask about my scar." Harry said as Sirius' blinked.

"But in your letter you said that the stomach flop happened around Umbridge in a detention, and-"

"That has nothing to do with my scar, though." Harry pointed out.

"Wait, what about your han-?" Ron began, but Harry quieted him with a look.

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?" Sirius said as Harry narrowed his eyes.

"We?" Harry hissed, "And who, exactly, is this "we" when I believe I directed my letter only to you?"

"Harry, I had to share it with Dumbledore." Sirius said, "He asked to be alerted to these sort of things, and-"

"And once again I say: my scar is the only bit of me that Dumbledore cares for." Harry sneered, his eyes icy as Sirius sighed.

"Look, Dumbledore told you it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion, right?" Sirius said, grinning when none of them winced, "Then maybe he was just really angry or something the night you had that detention. Now that he's back, it's bound to hurt more often."

"Well, that's a cheery thought to wake up to each morning." Harry quipped dryly as Sirius gave a wry smile.

"Yes, but we determined it had nothing to do with Umbridge." Sirius said as Harry once again raised an eyebrow.

"I never said that it did, merely that it happened around her." Harry said, not wanting to admit that for a fleeting second he had thought such a thing.

"Listen, I know she's a nasty piece of work; you should just hear Remus talk about her."

"I should think he doesn't like her." Hermione said, looking displeased, "She did draft that bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for werewolves to get jobs."

"He has been looking shabbier these days…" Harry mused with a frown.

"Oh, that woman is going down hard!" Neville declared as Ginny shushed him.

"What's her problem with half-breeds anyway?" Ron asked as Sirius shrugged, his shoulder visible in the fire for a spilt second.

"Scared of them, I'd suspect." Sirius said, smiling at Hermione's near palpable indignation, "The woman, if you can stomach calling her that, loathes part humans. Last year she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged, too."

"Why? Isn't she part toad, or something?" Harry asked dryly as Sirius laughed.

"Maybe," Sirius said, grinning widely, "But the point is that she's a piece of disgusting work. Speaking of which, how are Umbridge's lessons? Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?"

"No. Not unless doing them in with paper cuts is our next lesson." Harry said, looking decidedly bored.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"She's not letting us use magic at all, dude!" Neville whined, "All we do is read the stupid textbook! This is crap, man!"

"Crap is right, Neville boy!" Sirius said, looking personally affronted that kids weren't doing magic in school, "But it figures. Our information from inside the Ministry says that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"You have an informant in the Ministry?" Harry asked, exchanging a mischievous look with Ron.

"What a coincidence! So do we." Ron said excitedly, thinking of how he was going to reply to Percy's letter. He'd need a Turk's help to encrypt it, though.

"Wait," Ginny said, holding up her hands as the others paused around her, "Does that dufus Fudge honestly think that Dumbledore is forming some kind of army?" she asked, looking incredulous beyond all belief.

"That's just insane!" Hermione exclaimed, exchanging a look with Ginny, "And it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway, now would it?"

"What do ya mean?" Neville asked as Harry arched a brow.

"If Dumbledore were going to train an army, he would have been doing it for years now." Harry said, "In fact, he would have done it years ago, long before now."

"Exactly!" Sirius said, "That's exactly what he thinks you're doing!"

"Me?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes, you!" Sirius said, "Or, rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore and you are doing; forming your own private army with you as the commanding general while Dumbledore is the mastermind behind the scenes, with both of you as the figure heads to recruiting. He believes this army is born for one purpose; to take on the Ministry of Magic… and win."

There was a pause at this, then Ron said, in the most deadpan tone ever, "You've got to be shitting me. That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard in my entire existence, and that includes all that nonsense about that fatass bastard, President Shinra, having a secret bastard son no one knew about."

"Ha, ha… yeah, imagine that…" Ginny said nervously, looking away as the others continued talking.

"So that's it! We're being prevented from learning Defense Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use our lessons against the Ministry." Hermione said, looking pleased with herself for having found the final piece of the puzzle, yet furious with Fudge.

"Yep," Sirius said, nodding. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore and you, Harry, by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge."

"That reminds me…" Harry said, leaning back from the fire, "D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow? Ron's brother, Percy, reasons that there will be-"

"I don't know," Sirius said quickly, "I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been me… and Kreacher here." and Harry knew it was not his imagination when he heard the distinctive note of bitterness to Sirius's tone of voice.

"Now that explains why you'd contact Harry like this." Ginny said, folding her arms under her budding breasts.

"Clever little witch." Sirius complimented with a wink as Ginny giggled. Harry frowned, quickly leaning forward to the flames.

"Do you have any news about Hagrid?" Harry asked, just to move things along.

"Ah… no…" Sirius said, tapping his chin, "He was supposed to be back by now. No one's sure what's happened to him, but Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you three get yourselves in a state; I'm sure Hagrid's fine."

"But if he was supposed to be back by now…" Hermione said, her voice a bit small and anxious.

"Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home- but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt or… well, nothing to suggest he's not perfectly okay."

Harry, hearing about a journey home, gave a sigh of relief for his friend, yet he was still decidedly unconvinced to Hagrid's overall safety and health as he and the others exchanged worried looks.

"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid," Sirius said hastily, taking their looks for something else, "It'll just draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back yet, and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be okay." And when they did not appear changed by that, Sirius added, "When's your next Hogsmeade weekend, anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could —"

"You have got to be kidding me." Harry said at the same time Hermione and Ginny, very loudly, shouted out; "NO!"

"Padfoot, didn't you see the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked, her calm tone now even more anxious.

"Oh, that?" Sirius asked, grinning, "They're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue -"

"Still, it's too reckless, even for you." Harry said, "I don't want you getting caught, Padfoot."

"Yeah that's right." Ginny agreed vocally as the others nodded, even Neville, who got the impression that Sirius was a pretty okay person, "The twins saw Lucius Malfoy checking you out, and believe that he was the one that reported having seen you on the platform."

"Oh…" Sirius said, "Well… oops…"

"No, oops, Padfoot." Ron said sternly, crossing his arms firmly, "Don't leave that house no matter whatever you do. If Lucius Malfoy recognized you, then who's to say others won't as well."

"All right, all right! I've got the point…" Sirius said, looking most displeased, "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together."

"We would, and if you weren't a wanted criminal, then it'd be a grand idea." Harry said, "It's just that, we'd rather not see you thrown back into Azkaban simply because we took our dog into the sweet shop and fed him chocolate without any problems."

"Would he have problems?" Ron asked as Harry shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but I felt it was witty." Harry replied as the others chuckled at the two's antics.

Then there was a pause, in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes.

"You're less like your father than I thought," Sirius said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. "The risk would've been what made it fun for James."

"Yes well," Harry said, his own cool tone turning clipped and icy, "that reckless streak is probably what did him in."

Sirius said nothing for a long while his jaw set and his eyes hard as he and Harry locked gazes, "Well then, I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? That is, if you can stand to risk it?"

"If you need something to do, then keep looking for more information on the stuff we asked." Ron said quickly as Sirius gave a curt nod.

There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius's head had been was flickering flame once more.

It was silent in the common room after that. Harry stared hard into the fire for a while, as if willing Sirius to come back so he could give the man a piece of his mind, but eventually Harry rose in a single swift motion and ascended the stairs to the boys' dormitories like a silent predator on the prowl. The others, seeing Harry's mood, quickly packed up their things and went to bed as well.

Harry's mood had not improved much that next morning. He was still sore about the comment Sirius had made, and about his own comment toward his parents death. He understood why Sirius was so restless, but that didn't make Harry any less angry with the man than he was. It also didn't make him any less angry with himself…

Why had he said that? He didn't hate his father. He wasn't indifferent to his father's death as he was to Cedric's own. He wished his father was around, to guide him through these times so he wouldn't have to become the very thing he didn't want to just to survive. He wished his father, James Potter, was around to remind him that he was his father and no one else was. Especially not that complication of complexities named Hojo!

They had all expected to have to comb Hermione's Daily Prophet carefully that next morning to find the article Percy had mentioned in his letter. However, the departing delivery owl had barely cleared the top of the milk jug when Ginny pointed at a part of the paper and Hermione let out a huge gasp before Harry helped her flatten the newspaper on the table to reveal a large photograph of Dolores Umbridge, smiling widely and blinking slowly at them from beneath the headline.

MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM

DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED

FIRST EVER HIGH INQUISITOR

"Umbridge? Inquisitor?" Harry said darkly, his half-eaten piece of toast placed onto his plate as his gazed stayed glued to the photo. "What in the name of the Goddess does that mean?"

Hermione, in response, began to read aloud:

"In a surprise move last night the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Don't the people think that it's bad to give the Ministry too much control?" Hermione asked, looking severely upset.

"Maybe, but most now think Dumbledore might be straight up nuts." Fred said, his head resting in his hand as his elbow sat on the table, "This is their way of protecting their dumbass kids."

"Public opinion matters a great deal." George said quietly, a pair of sunglasses resting on the breast pocket of his robes.

"'The Minister has been growing uneasy about goings-on at Hogwarts for some time,' said junior Assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley. 'He is now responding to concerns voiced by many anxious parents, who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve.'

"This is not the first time in recent weeks that the Minister, Cornelius Fudge, has used new laws to effect improvements at the wizarding school. As recently as August 30th, Educational Decree Number Twenty-two was passed, to ensure that, in the event of the current Headmaster being unable to provide a candidate for a teaching post, the Ministry should select an appropriate person.

"Which would be how the bitch got in." Fred said, stifling a yawn while George nodded.

'That's how Dolores Umbridge came to be appointed to the teaching staff at Hogwarts,' said Weasley last night. 'Dumboldore couldn't find anyone so the Minister put in Umbridge, and of course, she's been an immediate success —'"

"Ah yes, don't we all just love her?" Neville asked as the others looked disgusted while Neville laughed at his own joke.

"There's more…" Hermione said grimly.

"'—an immediate success, totally revolutionizing the teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts and providing the Minister with on-the-ground feedback about what's really happening at Hogwarts.'

"It is this last function that the Ministry has now formalized with the passing of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, which creates the new position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor.

"'This is an exciting new phase in the Minister's plan to get to grips with what some are calling the falling standards at Hogwarts,' said Weasley. 'The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect their fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her own teaching post and we are delighted to say that she has accepted.'

"The Ministry's new moves have received enthusiastic support from parents children attend Hogwarts.

"And just who did they ask about this?" Dean demanded, coming over with Seamus, Lavender and the Patil twins, "It certainly wasn't my parents."

"Or my grandma!" Neville said as Harry opened his mouth to make a quip, but closed it as he decided against it. His wit was at it's end while in his mood.

'I feel much easier in my mind now that I know Dumbledore is being subjected to fair and objective evaluation,' said Mr. Lucius Malfoy, age 41, speaking from his Wiltshire mansion last night.

"Well, now we know where Genesis lives." Ron said with a grin, "We should do something special for him."

"Yeah!" Neville exclaimed, "Let's egg his house!"

"Just what I was thinkin', Pup." Ron said as he chuckled deeply while Harry smirked.

'Many of us with our children's best interests at heart have been concerned about some of Dumbledore's eccentric decisions in the last few years and are glad to know that the Ministry is keeping an eye on the situation.'

"Among those eccentric decisions are undoubtedly the controversial staff appointments previously described in this newspaper, which have included the employment of werewolf Remus Lupin, half-giant Rubeus Hagrid and delusional ex-Auror, 'Mad - Eye' Moody.

"Remus and Hagrid have been controversial, I'll give that, but not bad appointments at all." Harry said as the others nodded.

"Though that Moody one- Hey wait a second!" Padma said, "Wasn't that Moody guy actually a Death Eater in disguise?!"

"Yes, but when people around here start believing that I'm a liar and that Dumbledore is getting too old, they tend to forget about those little facts." Harry said, his tone biting as Padma looked apologetic.

"But we all saw Fudge's Aurors drag the guy out the next morning after breakfast when the Triwizard Tournament was done." Seamus said, "There is no way they could all have just forgotten that!"

"Maybe they never told their parents." Ron suggested, shrugging as Seamus, Lavender, the Patil twins, and Dean all flinched, "Umm… none of have told your parents about that… did you?"

"Well…" they all fidgeted around, murmuring and mumbling as they avoided Harry and Ron's gaze.

"That figures…" Ron muttered, shaking his head as he leaned back and crossed his arms.

"Rumors abound, of course, that Albus Dumbledore, once Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, is no longer up to the task of managing the prestigious school of Hogwarts "'I think the appointment of the Inquisitor is a first step towards ensuring that Hogwarts has a headmaster in whom we can all repose our confidence,' said a Ministry insider last night.

"Wizengamot elders Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Ogden have resigned in protest at the introduction of the post of Inquisitor to Hogwarts.

"They shouldn't do that, they only make the Wizengamot weaker." Hermione said softly as Ginny scowled.

"I don't think it really matters at this point." Ginny said bitterly.

"'Hogwarts is a school, not an outpost of Cornelius Fudge's office,' said Madam Marchbanks. 'This is a further disgusting attempt to discredit Albus Dumbledore.'

"(For a full account of Madam Marchbanks's alleged links to subversive goblin groups, turn to page seventeen.)"

Hermione finished reading, looking across the table at Ron and Neville.

"Wait, that's it?" Ron said, leaning forward over the table to see the paper, "That's all they wrote for the opposition to this? And they're trying to discredit her as well for voicing her opinion?"

"We don't live in a democracy any longer." George said quietly, shaking his head as Fred scoffed.

"When did we ever?" Fred asked, laughing as Seamus and Dean looked at him like he was crazy while Lavender and the Patil twins weren't far from doing so as well. "Ever since Fudge took office, this has been a slow mounting process. It's only now that anyone with half a brain and eyes could see it now that it's gotten to the point of incredibly radical. The fucker is bat-shit crazy!"

"Ahh, yes. End on a strong note." Harry said dryly, resting lazily on the table.

"So now everything comes full circle," Hermione said calmly, leaning back with her hands steeped in front of her, "Fudge passed his Decree, forced Umbridge onto us, and now he's given her the power to inspect the other teachers." Hermione, despite her calm tone was breathing fast and her eyes were very bright.

"Umm… Hermione are you ok-?"

"I can't believe this! This is completely outrageous!" Hermione bellowed, silencing both Ron and the rest of the hall as they all turned to her. Slowly, everyone turned away as Hermione threw harsh glares all around.

But when she turned back to the table, a grin was unfurling on Ron's face as Neville started getting the same look.

"What's so funny?" Hermione muttered, crossing her arms like a child as she narrowed her eyes at the pair. Harry and the others, too, were wondering what was so amusing.

"Don't you see it?" Neville asked.

"Oh, I just can't wait to see Professor McGonagall get inspected." Ron said happily… a bit too happily. "Umbridge won't know what hit her."

Harry found his previous mood lifted a bit as he pictured the many ways Professor McGonagall could handle Umbridge.

"Well, come on." Ron said as he got up, "We'd better get going, because if Umbridge is inspecting Binns' class, then we don't want to be late."

"What would be the point?" Harry said, looking bored as he stirred a finger around his goblet's rim, "I don't think Binns' would even notice anyway."

"Aww, what's wrong, Harry?" Hermione said, moving back to Harry's side as the others looked worried for him.

"It's nothing…" Harry mumbled, rising slowly to his own feet, "We have other things to worry about. Ron is right, let's get to class."

"Wow, he's gotta be out of it. And it must be serious." Neville whispered over to Ginny, "He actually wants to get to Binns now."

"That is serious." Ginny said, staring at Harry's back as the dark-haired boy swept out of the Great Hall.

Even though they arrived on time, Professor Umbridge was not inspecting their History of Magic lesson, which was just as dull as the previous Monday, nor was she in Snape's dungeon when they arrived for double Potions, where Harry's moonstone essay was handed back to him with a large, calligraphic 'E' scrawled in an upper corner.

"I have awarded you the grades you would have received if you presented this work in your OWL," Snape said with a smirk as he swept among them, passing back their homework. "This should give you a realistic idea of what to expect in the examination."

Snape reached the front of the class and turned on his heel to face them.

"The general standard of this homework was… less than I would like. Most of you would have failed had this been your examination, though thankfully all of you knew the material on some level. I gave you a topic we had not worked on in the past years to see just how well you would handle it, and I can say that you've all put some effort into it." the Snape's face settled into a stone cold expression, "However, I expect to see a great deal more effort for this week's essay on the various varieties of venom antidotes, or I shall have to start handing out detentions to those who receive failing marks."

Snape turned away and stalked back to his desk as Draco settled back in his chair with a smug look on his face. He was sniggering, and said in a carrying whisper, "Who in the name of the Goddess could receive a failing grade on a pure research paper? Ha! It's pathetic, and they should be ashamed."

"Shut it, Malfoy!" Neville yelled behind Harry and Hermione with Ron next to him.

"Well, I guess we all know who got the failing grade now." Draco smirked, laying his head on his arms behind his back.

"I did not!" Neville shouted back as Draco only seemed to grow more of an ego.

Harry realized that Hermione was looking sideways to see what grade he had received; he allowed her a peak, smirking as he saw she had an 'O' on her own paper before he slid his moonstone essay back into his bag.

"Longbottom, do not yell across my classroom." Snape said, his tone never rising above a cool volume, "Especially when the person is barely less than twelve feet from you."

"Ugh… Sorry, sir…" Neville gritted out as Ron put a hand on his shoulder.

"Good, now then, let us get back to work. Today we will be brewing a Strengthening Solution, which also commonly appears on the OWLs."

Harry saw that Neville must have been truly determined not to give Snape an excuse to fail him this lesson, as he saw the Longbottom boy read and reread every line of instructions on the blackboard at least three times before acting on them. His own Strengthening Solution was not precisely the clear turquoise shade of Hermione or Draco's but it was at least blue rather than the sickly green color Neville was feverishly trying to fix in a panic while Ron looked torn between amusement and shame. Harry delivered a flask of his to Snape's desk at the end of the lesson with Ron right behind him and Draco smirking up a storm in front of them.

"The puppy definitely isn't a chemist, is he?" Draco asked in amusement as he glanced back to see Neville's brew bubbling.

"Chemistry, I'm sure he could handle… if only a tiny bit better." Ron said with a sigh, "But magical chemistry. That's a whole new Materia to master."

"I suppose I could help him." Draco said as both Harry and Ron quickly turned to the self-absorbed blond, who arrogantly tossed his head back, "After all, it is the duty of we superior beings to help the inferior along."

"How arrogant." Harry said as Draco looked back at him while handing Snape his flask.

"Perhaps…" Draco said, "But then again, I'm arrogant within reason."

"Perhaps…" Harry said, just to mock the blond as he too gave his flask to Snape.

"Maybe potions is just one of those subjects you have to have a talent in." Ron said as he gave Snape his own flask, "You know, like being selected for special operations during the Wutai War."

"I severely doubt that you can compare the two, Angeal." Draco said, leveling Ron with a flat look.

"But he is correct in a sense, Mr. Malfoy." Snape said, steeping his hands in front of him while taking another student's work, "Some are good at potions, others are not. The ingredients work with your confidence and magic. If both are not up to par, then you are doomed to failure from the start."

"So which is Neville lacking?" Ron asked, turning completely to Snape, giving the man his undivided attention.

"The magical control, that which he should be learning in both Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, though mainly the former." Snape said with a light shrug.

"And just about every year before this, Neville has never had the confidence, the encouragement, the talent, the drive, nor the determination to succeed at anything this school has to offer; especially Defense classes." Ron admitted glumly as Harry and Draco turned away, neither having helped the situation with their opinions of Neville in some of the previous years.

"True, but we're not here to give students that, they have to create that on their own." Snape said, "We cannot make determination grow if the individual only displays such a trait within the most dire of situations and only for when others have need of it. We work in a boarding school, not a help center. There is only so much we can do."

"I understand, but…" Ron said, then bowed his head with a sigh, "But the problem is now my responsibility. I will help him on his path, so that he may prosper and accomplish whatever dreams he may have in this life."

"Always so noble, Angeal…" Snape mumbled, "I thought that honor of yours would have died along with you when you passed…"

"Not on your life… Tseng…" Ron said as Snape's eyes sharpened with a dim glow to them, like the deadly gleam from a sharp sword.

"Always so perceptive, Commander Hewley." Snape said, rising from his chair, "Tell me, what gave my identity away?"

"You once told me that you hoped my honor would die with me, because the company didn't need such things bring it down whilst you Turks prowled the shadows." Ron said, "Though I do remember a number of times where you'd so openly remark on my philosophy as you just did."

"Well then, it seems that I, too, have gotten rusty in my skills." Snape said with another little shrug before calling out to the class, "Alright then, that's enough. Hand in a sample of your work, and then you may leave. That is all."

"Tseng, I should have known." Harry said, shaking his head as they moved out of the classroom, "Though I will admit that I suspected Snape was either a Turk or Director Lazard."

"You thought he was Lazard?" Ron asked, staring at Harry.

"Well, Tseng was never so direct about his attitude. He was mostly quiet and observant." Harry defended, "Lazard, however, was very subtle and yet direct about his authority."

"Who is Lazard?" Hermione asked.

"I suck at Potions!" Neville groaned, burying his face behind his hands.

"Well, that wasn't as bad as last week, was it?" Hermione said soothingly, being the first to climb the steps out of the dungeon as they made their way across the Entrance Hall towards lunch. "And the homework didn't go too badly, either, did it?"

When Neville only seemed to sulk lower, she pressed on, "I mean, alright, I didn't expect the top grade, not if he's marking to OWL standard, but a pass is quite encouraging at this stage, wouldn't you say?"

"Well, it's only natural that the girl who could brew a proper Polyjuice Potion in her second year should get an O."

Hermione blushed lightly, but went on, "Of course, a lot can happen between now and the exam. It gives us plenty of time to improve, but the grades we're getting now are a sort of baseline, aren't they? Something we can build on…"

They sat down together at the Gryffindor table, Harry steeping his hands in front of him as Ron and Neville sat directly across from him and Hermione.

"Hermione," Harry said sharply, an amused smirk on his face, "if you want to know what grades we got, you could always just ask."

"I don't- I didn't mean- well, if you want to tell me…"

"I got an E," Ron said, ladling soup into his bowl while Neville morosely took up some crackers.

"I got a P…" Neville admitted dejectedly.

"Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of, yo." Fred said, grinning as he arrived at the table with George and Lee Jordan, sitting down on Harry's right while Hermione remained on his left, "Nothing wrong with a good healthy P."

"But, P stands for Poor." Ron said as he cast a look at Neville, who was ducking his head under Ron's stern gaze.

"Yeah, but still better than D, isn't it?" Lee Jordan said as Harry raised an eyebrow.

"D?" Harry asked.

"It's a grade of Dreadful?" Neville explained as he tossed his cracker aside and let his head fall to the table.

"So the top grade is an O for Outstanding?" Harry asked, turning his gaze to Hermione just as everyone else did.

"Then an E for Exceeds Expectations, yo." Fred said, rubbing his chin in thought, "I've always thought George and me should've got E's in everything, because we "exceeded expectations" just by turning up for the exams, yo."

They all laughed except for Hermione, who ploughed on about the grades, "So, after E it's A for Acceptable, and that's the last passing grade, isn't it?"

"Yep!" Fred chirped happily, dunking an entire roll in his soup before transferring it to his mouth and swallowing it whole.

"Then you get P for Poor-" Neville said, raising both his arms in mock celebration, "and then D for Dreadful."

"And then T," George reminded them in a throaty rumble.

"T?" Hermione asked, looking appalled. "Even lower than a D? What on earth does that stand for?"

"Troll." George said promptly as Harry chuckled once more.

"I'm not joking." George said as Harry stopped.

"Then I'd hate to see what one of us would look like after trying to conceal such horrific grades from Hermione here." Harry quipped as he jabbed a thumb toward Hermione, who looked angry with just the thought. Neville gulped when Hermione's eyes landed on him, and Harry could practically see the boy's resolve to work harder.

"So… Any of you had an inspected lesson yet?" Fred asked them, seamlessly changing the subject while they shook their heads.

"No, have you?" Hermione asked at once.

"Just now, before lunch in Charms class." George said quietly.

"Well then, there are no worries there." Harry said, "Professor Flitwick is an excellent teacher."

"Yeah, but who knows what that toady woman might do?" Ron said darkly, pausing over his soup.

"Plenty I'm sure, but Umbridge will fine it harder to bully the teachers that have been around for a long time and have done an excellent job thus far." Harry said, gesturing off-handedly, "I, for one, know a few people outside of Hogwarts that might raise an eyebrow if professors such as Flitwick or McGonagall were suddenly deemed unsuitable."

"Hmm… That's a good point, yo." Fred said with a sneaky grin, "And might make McGonagall's inspection even better. Flitwick's inspection wasn't even that bad."

"What was it like then?" Hermione asked as she leaned over while Fred shrugged.

"The toad just lurked in the corner making notes on a clipboard. You know what Flitwick is like. He treated her like a guest, and her being there didn't seem to bother him at all." Fred said as Harry hummed in thought while Ron leaned forward.

"What did she say?" Ron asked, "No nasty remarks, I hope."

"Nah." Fred assured, "She didn't even say much. Though she did ask Alicia a couple of questions about what the classes are normally like. Alicia told her they were really good, and they are."

"I can't see old man Flitwick getting marked down." Lee Jordan said as George nodded, "He usually gets everyone through their exams all right."

"Who've you got this afternoon?" Fred asked Harry.

"Neville, Ron, and myself are to attend Trelawney-"

"Well, there's a Troll-grade if ever I saw one, yo…" Fred deadpanned

"- and Umbridge herself." Harry finished as though Fred had said nothing, "And if Umbridge were made to inspect herself, she would fine that she is the most unsuitable of all here; and that includes of Trelawney and Binns."

"Here, here!" Neville cheered as he raised his goblet while the others laughed.

"Well Har, you better be a good boy and keep the subtle work to us while with Umbridge today." Fred said with a large cat-like grin, "Angelina'll flip her bean if you miss any more Quidditch practices."

"I'll try my best not to steal your work." Harry said dryly, rolling his eyes as they all went back to their lunch and conversations.

But Harry found that he did not have to wait for Defense Against the Dark Arts to meet Umbridge.

He was pulling out his dream diary in a seat at the very back of the shadowy Divination room when Ron elbowed him in the ribs and, looking round, he saw the chubby Umbridge emerging through the trapdoor in the floor. The class, which had been talking cheerily, fell silent at once.

The abrupt fall in the noise level made Professor Trelawney, who had been wafting about handing out copies of The Dream Oracle, look around for what could have possibly silenced her students.

"Good afternoon, Professor Trelawney," Umbridge said with her wide smile, "You received my note, I trust? Giving the time and date of your inspection?"

Professor Trelawney nodded curtly and, looking very disgruntled, turned her back on Umbridge before continuing to give out books. Still smiling, Umbridge grasped the back of the nearest armchair and pulled it to the front of the class so that it was a few inches behind Professor Trelawney's own seat. She then sat down, took her clipboard from her flowery bag and looked up expectantly, waiting for the class to begin.

Professor Trelawney pulled her shawls tight about her with slightly trembling hands and surveyed the class through her hugely magnifying lenses.

"We shall be continuing our study of prophetic dreams today." Trelawney said in a brave attempt at her usual mystic tones, though her voice shook slightly, "Divide into pairs, please, and interpret each other's latest night-time visions with the aid of the Oracle."

She made as though to sweep back to her seat, saw Professor Umbridge sitting right beside it, and immediately veered left towards Parvati and Lavender, who were already deep in discussion about Parvati's most recent dream.

Harry opened his copy of The Dream Oracle, watching Umbridge covertly. She was already making notes on her clipboard. After a few minutes she got to her feet and began to pace the room in Trelawney's wake, listening to her conversations with students and posing questions here and there. Harry bent his head hurriedly over his book.

He could honestly say that he valued any other professor, even Trelawney, more so than Umbridge as he blatantly refused to address the chunky woman as an accredited teacher with the title of professor. He may not have liked Trelawney, but at least she allowed them to practice what they read.

"What did you write this time?" Harry asked as Ron got out his own book.

"I wrote about my obtaining the Buster Sword from my father." Ron said as Harry chuckled, "What did you put?"

"My entry was on battling a giant snake whilst saving a princess." Harry said as Ron cracked up, trying to keep from laughing out loud.

"Di-Didn't you already do something like that in this life?" Ron asked through his fit of laughter.

"Yes, but your sister isn't exactly a princess." Harry pointed out as Ron gave him a hard look, but then shrugged.

"She's more of royalty than you are…" Ron muttered as Harry looked amused.

"Really? Because last I checked, I was the last of a noble line of Potters." Harry said, leaning back in his armchair while Ron grumbled.

"Cheeky bastard…" Ron muttered as Harry smirked.

"So, which dream do we go with?" Harry asked, keeping back on track while Ron shrugged.

"Does it really matter? Both are sappy enough for these people." Ron said as he opened his Dream Oracle, "Okay, we've got to add your age to the date you had the dream, the number of letters in the subject… would that be 'rescuing' or 'snake' or 'princess'?"

"It would be princess." Harry said, glancing around as he locked onto where Umbridge was now standing at Professor Trelawney's shoulder making notes while the Divination teacher questioned Neville about his dream diary.

"What night did you dream this again?" Ron said, immersed in calculations.

"Two nights ago." Harry told him, trying to listen to what Umbridge was saying to Professor Trelawney. They were only a table away from him and Ron now. Umbridge was making another note on her clipboard and Professor Trelawney was looking extremely put out.

"Now then," Umbridge said, looking up at the much taller Trelawney, "you've been in this post… how long, exactly?"

Professor Trelawney scowled at her, arms crossed and shoulders hunched as though wishing to protect herself as much as possible from the indignity of the inspection. After a slight pause in which she seemed to decide that the question was not so offensive that she could reasonably ignore it, she said in a deeply resentful tone, "Nearly sixteen years, thank you."

"Quite a long time, my dear." Umbridge commented sweetly, making a note on her clipboard, "So then… it was Professor Dumbledore who appointed you?"

"That is correct." Trelawney said shortly.

Umbridge made another note.

"And you are a great-great-granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney?" Umbridge asked as Trelawney's lips threw into a thin McGonagall-like line.

"Celebrated Seer?" Harry mouthed to Ron.

"Really famous Seer of all time." Ron mouthed back as Harry rolled his eyes and flopped back in his seat.

"Yes," Trelawney said after a pause, holding her head a little higher.

Another note on the clipboard.

"But, I think- and correct me if I am mistaken- that you are the first in your family since Cassandra to be possessed of Second Sight?"

"These things often skip generations at random." Trelawney seethed while Umbridge's toady smile widened.

"Of course, my dear." Umbridge said sweetly, making yet another note. "Well, if you could just predict something for me, then?" and she looked up enquiringly, still smiling.

Professor Trelawney stiffened as though unable to believe her ears. "I don't understand you," she said, clutching convulsively at the shawl around her scrawny neck.

"I'd like you to make a prediction for me," Umbridge said, very clearly to leave no room for further error. Harry and Ron were not the only people now watching and listening. Most of the class were staring transfixed at Professor Trelawney as she drew herself up to her full height, her beads and bangles clinking.

"The Inner Eye does not See upon command!" she said in scandalized tones.

"Oh… I see," Umbridge said softly, looking taken back by Trelawney's exclamation. The squat woman hurriedly made yet another note on her clipboard.

"I- but- but… wait!" Professor Trelawney said suddenly, in an attempt at her usual ethereal voice, though the mystical effect was ruined somewhat by the way it was still shaking with anger.

"I… I think I do see something… something that concerns you, my dear… why, I sense it… something dark and primal… some grave peril that haunts you… It stalks your steps this year, numbering your days within these hallowed halls before the beast of two halves-"

Professor Trelawney cut herself off, pointing a shaking finger at Umbridge who continued to smile blandly at her, eyebrows raised.

"I am afraid… I am afraid that you, my dear Umbridge are in grave danger!" Professor Trelawney finished dramatically.

There was a pause as Umbridge surveyed Professor Trelawney, still smiling.

"Right then," she said softly, scribbling on her clipboard once more. Harry noticed how Umbridge scribbled harder, putting pressure on her quill as she scratching sounded next to them, "Well, if that's really the best you can do…"

She turned away, leaving Professor Trelawney standing rooted to the spot, her chest heaving.

Harry caught Ron's eye and knew that Ron was thinking exactly the same as he was: they both knew that Professor Trelawney was mostly just an old fraud, but on the other hand, they loathed Umbridge so much that they felt very much on Trelawney's side.

"Don't worry, Professor." Neville said, "We've got your back!"

Trelawney looked to him, then turned to Harry and Ron's table, to which both nodded to the sentiment.

"She really can't make you See anything on command, and you shouldn't have tried." Harry said, steeping his hands in front of him.

"Pick at us." Ron said suddenly to Trelawney as Harry gave him a stupid look, "What? It would get her at least a few points with that woman."

"It's also incredibly moronic." Harry breathed as Ron further encouraged the moth-like woman.

"I'm sorry, boys." Trelawney said quietly, swooping down on them. She took a deep breath, and then, snapping her long fingers under Harry's nose she became uncharacteristically brisk.

"Well?" she snapped, "Let me see the start you've made on your dream diary, please."

"I regret ever feeling pity for that despicable woman," Harry seethed as he shot a dark look toward the innocent expression on Ron's face, "And you and I will have a discussion about this later, Angel-face."

"Hey! That's just uncalled for!" Ron said, not liking the nickname his fan club had once given him.

"Angel-face?" Neville asked as Ron's eye twitched, "I don't get it."

The three were walking through the corridors toward their next lesson: Defense Against the Dark Arts. By the time Trelawney had finished interpreting Harry's dreams at the top of her voice (all of which, even the one that involved him saving a temple maiden while in his underwear, apparently foretold a gruesome and early death… as well as his eternal damnation…), Harry was feeling much less sympathetic towards the woman and her plight. All the while, Professor Umbridge had stood a few feet away, making notes on that clipboard of hers. When the bell rang she descended the silver ladder first and was gone from sight when they arrived at the foot of the silver ladder.

"And you never will, Pup." Ron said, "Not so long as I live…"

"What's this about living?" Hermione asked, arriving behind them as she came from Arithmancy.

Harry allowed Neville and Ron to explain the situation to Hermione about exactly what had happened in Divination while they all walked toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where Umbridge was humming and smiling to herself when they entered the room, waiting for them all when they reached their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson ten minutes later.

They entered the classroom in silence, taking out their copies of Defensive Magical Theory, but before Hermione could ask any questions Professor Umbridge had called the class to order and silence from all the others fell.

"Wands away, please." the amphibic woman instructed them with a smile, and those people who had been hopeful enough to take them out, sadly returned their wands back to their bags.

"Most people would find it difficult to be a teacher and a High Inquisitor at the same time," Harry thought to himself as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, "but seeing as this useless toad doesn't actually teach anything at all, it really isn't that strenuous for her."

"As we finished Chapter One last lesson, I would like you all to turn to page nineteen today and commence 'Chapter Two: Common Defensive Theories and their Derivation'. There will be no need to talk." Umbridge said as she held her hands neatly in front of her.

Still smiling her wide, self-satisfied smile, Umbridge sat down behind her desk. The class gave an audible sigh as it turned, as one, to page nineteen. Harry wondered dully whether there were enough chapters in the book to keep them reading through all the year's lessons and was on the point of just outright not doing the assignment when he noticed that Hermione had her hand in the air again.

Professor Umbridge had noticed, too, and what more, she seemed to have worked out a strategy for just such an eventuality. Instead of trying to pretend she had not noticed Hermione, Umbridge got to her feet and walked around the rows of desks until she made it to the very back where they were sitting. Getting face-to-face with the younger witch, he toad woman then bent down and whispered, so that the rest of the class could not hear. Hermione seemed to shudder with disgust from having the fleshy stout woman so close within her personal space. Harry could practically see the discomfort wafting off Hermione as she squirmed in her desk when Umbridge opened her mouth and began speaking.

"What is it this time, Miss Granger?"

"I've already read Chapter Two," Hermione said calmly, relaxing her twitchy state to merely ringing her hands in her lap.

"Well then, proceed to Chapter Three." Umbridge said as Hermione fixed the woman with a sharp and piercing look, her nerves gone as she calmly but sternly stared the hefty woman down.

"I've already read that, too, ma'am." Hermione said politely while Harry raised an eyebrow, "I've read the entire book, as a matter of fact."

"Why?" Harry heard Ron mouth in front of him while Neville and Draco turned in their seats.

Harry had to ask himself that question, too, as well as when Hermione had gotten the time to actually sit down and read the book while they had all been practically glued at the hip ever since the last lesson.

The answer came to Harry almost too quickly as he cut his eyes at Draco's smug look, having come to the conclusion a fraction of a second quicker.

"So, Hermione's doing the sneaky work now, hmm? But why?" Harry pondered to himself, "The Turks said they would handle things on the Umbridge front. I can see why she'd want to, thought. I, myself, am curious as to what the dullard amphibian has planned."

Umbridge blinked, but recovered her poise almost instantly while Harry and the others narrowed their eyes.

"Well then, Miss Granger, please; you should be able to tell me what Slinkhard says about counter-jinxes in Chapter Fifteen."

"Of course, ma'am. He says that counter-jinxes are improperly named," Hermione said promptly, yet courteously as she gave Umbridge a graceful look, "He says that a counter- 'jinx' is just a name people give their jinxes when they want to make them sound more acceptable."

Umbridge raised her eyebrows and Harry knew instantly that she was impressed, against her will.

"But I disagree," Hermione continued, just as pleasantly as she was as she leaned back in her chair and gave Umbridge a cool look.

Umbridge's eyebrows rose a little higher and her gaze became distinctly colder.

"You disagree?" Umbridge echoed as Hermione nodded curtly but once.

"Yes, I do," Hermione said calmly, and it was when Harry saw heads turning that he noticed how Hermione, unlike Umbridge, was not whispering, but speaking in a clear, carrying voice. Hermione's tone and volume was like a professor giving a lecture to a class, how like her own fellow classmates whose attention she had garnered already. "Mr. Slinkhard doesn't like jinxes, does he? But, I think they can be very useful when they're used defensively."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Umbridge said, forgetting to whisper as she stood up straight. "Well, I'm afraid it is Mr. Slinkhard's opinion, and not yours, that matters within this classroom, Miss Granger."

"Perhaps a discussion on this matter is in order." Hermione said coolly as Umbridge raised her hand.

"That is enough," Umbridge said curtly as she walked back to the front of the class and stood before them all, all the jauntiness she had shown at the beginning of the lesson was now gone. "Miss Granger, I am going to take five points from Gryffindor house."

There was an outbreak of muttering at this.

"What for?!" Neville asked angrily.

"Oh, idiot don't get involved…" Draco said as Neville rounded on him.

"Don't you get involved!" Hermione and Ron whispered urgently to Neville, Ron making Neville duck his head.

"For disrupting my class with pointless interruptions," Umbridge said smoothly, as though Neville was now glaring at her with his head forced to the desk. "I am here to teach you using a Ministry-approved method that does not include inviting students to give their opinions-"

"So the Ministry doesn't want school students to… think?" Harry asked, a deliberate pause as Umbridge turned to him with a twitch, "Are we not sentient beings? Because with this Ministry-approved teaching, I'm starting to get the impression that we're supposed to be more of sheep."

"Ten points, Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom." Umbridge said with a tight smile. "Now then, as I was saying; the Ministry does not wish to overwhelm students on matters about which they understand so very little. Your previous teachers in this subject may have allowed you more license, but as none of them: with the possible exception of Professor Quirrell, who did at least appear to have restricted himself to age appropriate subjects, would have passed a Ministry inspection-"

"Quirrell was a horrid teacher," Hermione scoffed as she crossed her legs elegantly.

"Yes," Harry began conversationally to Hermione, though his voice carried, "and let us not forget the fact that he was controlled by-"

Before Harry could finish, a knock came to the door of Umbridge's classroom while Draco grinned and Ron sighed in relief that Harry was avoiding another detention.

"A moment, please." Umbridge said brightly as she went to the door. Opening the door, there stood Colin Creevey, the now Fourth-year boy who was Harry's biggest fan. He looked rather reluctant to be there as he shifted with something held behind his back. He had a feel about him as he sighed and then thrust the hand that was behind his back forward. In the hand was a bouquet of flowers, flowers which Harry had never seen before in his life.

"Yes, my dear?" Umbridge said, smiling as her eyes flickered from the flowers up to young Colin's face.

"Here, these are for you." Colin said as though he were in a boring class rather than giving flowers out. "Your secret admirer sends his best, and believes your doing the work that should have been done years ago."

"You're very sweet, dear." Umbridge said as she took the flowers. Colin looked stricken, his eyes wide like he was facing some beast.

"Oh no!" Colin said, shaking his head rapidly. "It definitely ain't me!"

"Oh?" Umbridge asked as she sniffed the flowers pleasantly.

"No, my dear lady." every head in the room turned back into the class where Draco was standing. Draco stood proudly, moving with the grace of a dancer toward Umbridge. "It was my father who sent for them, imported as a new breed from France. We of the Malfoys believe your exactly what this school was so desperately in need of."

"Oh, Draco dear." Umbridge said as she stroked the side of his face. Harry's mood was turned pleasant as he saw his friend's eye twitch under Umbridge's ministrations, effectively squirming inwardly as the class watched on.

"Right then, I'm out of he-" Colin was saying, but then his impassive gaze landed on Harry, and the young boy's eyes lit up like someone had set fireworks ablaze within him. Harry found it fairly uncomfortable how the boy was star-gazing at him, like Harry was his God and would suddenly descend down unto him with the answer to all his dreams.

"Umm… I sh-should… g-go…" Colin said, that was, before he tripped over his robes while walking backward and then scurrying away like a frightened mouse in the presence of a cat.

After watching Colin hurry down the corridor, Umbridge closed the door to her classroom followed by one of the loudest silences Harry had ever heard as the entire class watched Umbridge act the part of a teenage girl with her flowers, sniffing them and cuddling them all the while waddling back to her desk.

"Now then, what were we discussing?" Umbridge asked, her sweet smile and gaze on Draco as he too went back to his desk and shuddered before she saw.

"Nothing." Draco said, "We were reading."

"Of course." Umbridge breathed as she inhaled the scent of her flowers once again. "Please, continue as you were."

"I'm disgusted with you." Harry said as he and the others exited Umbridge's classroom. "I mean, I've been disgusted before, but that was a whole new low for you."

"Oh, shut up." Draco seethed, "I, personally took one for the team. You should be on your knees kissing my feet. That woman, if one could truly classify her in the feminine gender, touched me! She touched me! Have you any idea how revolting I feel right now?"

"I have a feeling." Harry said, still remembering his brief brush with Umbridge.

"So do I…" Hermione mumbled, "I think I need a shower…"

"There is not enough sanitizing chemicals within all of existence that will make me feel clean again…" Draco muttered as Ron grinned.

"Didn't you say that same exact thing back when-"

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" Draco asked politely as Ron blinked, "Angel-Face Heaven-Way, right?"

"I'll be quiet then." Ron said, straightening up while Draco smirked.

"I thought you might."

"But back to the point," Harry cut in, "What was that idiocy was that?"

"A little something of the Turkish variety." Draco said smugly as Harry narrowed his eyes.

"I should have known you'd be working with the Turks to keep silent."

"Of course you should have."

"No one asked you, Neville." Harry said as Neville held up his hands in defense.

"Hey, hey! Don't bite my head off!" Neville said, "At least you don't have detention this week."

"A blessing, I'm sure." Harry said dryly as Neville grinned widely, giving a thumbs-up.

Harry glanced down at his hand, which was mostly obscured by the length of his sleeve. The scar was nearly completely healed over. Harry exchanged a glance with Ron, who frowned as he saw where Harry's gaze had been a moment ago.

"Mr. Potter, a word." Professor McGonagall said as she tapped his shoulder while they were down at breakfast Tuesday morning.

"Of course, Professor." Harry said as he put down his fork and followed the stern witch into the antechamber off to the side of the Great Hall.

"I've caught word that you nearly had another altercation with Professor Um-"

"Please, Professor," Harry said, snarling, "if I may speak frankly; do not address that mass of witless flesh with the title of one here to actually instruct young minds with useful knowledge. It is an insult to yourself and the other professors who can truly say that they are of intellect."

"Yes, well…" Professor McGonagall said, coughing lightly to cover her blush, "That distracts from the point. I had believed that we had an understanding last Monday. I know your temper is in check, but that tongue of yours is far too quick to let out a quip or barb. I'm going to have to take points; five points, to be exact."

"And why is that?" Harry asked, quirking a brow as McGonagall gave him a look. He supposed he was doing exactly what she disapproved of; making quips and barbs.

"For that; your flippant attitude and unflappable snide remarks."

"I can see how that would be-"

"Potter." McGonagall said warningly as Harry sighed.

"Forgive me. I suppose I can't help it." Harry said as McGonagall gave him a severe look.

"Well you had better learn, or you'll be in detention with me next time it happens." she turned on heel, "And please inform Miss Johnson that if she continues her shouting matches in the Great Hall, she may not be captain of the team for much longer."

"I'll be sure to pass that message along." Harry said, but then McGonagall cut her eyes toward him again, and he held his hands up in surrender.

Giving him one last cutting look, Professor McGonagall strode out of the antechamber while Harry went back to the Gryffindor table.

"Apparently I'm a bit of a smartass." Harry said conversationally as he flung himself on to the bench beside Ron while Hermione sat with Neville on the other side.

"I'd say more than just a bit…" Hermione muttered from behind her copy of the Daily Prophet as she rustled the pages.

"So glad that you agree with her," Harry said dryly as he held his head in his hand, glaring lightly at the picture of Cornelius Fudge which obscured Hermione's face.

"As much as I love you, Harry, you do need to be kept on a short leash when you're so moody." Hermione said, still behind her paper, "You may not show through emoting, but I've observed your actions. When you're in a mood, you snip at things more frequently than not. I think Professor McGonagall was right to warn you against losing your temper at Umbridge," and while this was said, Harry spent his time glaring at the photo-Fudge, who was gesticulating forcefully from the front page while clearly giving some kind of speech.

Harry decided to take the childish route as he did not speak directly to Hermione all throughout Charms simply to amuse himself and the others as they sat next to them passing along messages with the Inscription Charm they had been practicing. But when they entered the Transfiguration classroom, Harry forgot all about his silly games with Hermione and the others. Umbridge and her clipboard were sitting in a corner and the sight of her drove the memory of breakfast right out of his head.

"Excellent!" Neville whispered excitedly as they sat down in their now usual seats. "Its about time that Umbridge got what she deserved."

Professor McGonagall marched into the room without giving the slightest indication that she knew Professor Umbridge was there.

"That will do," the stern witch said and silence fell immediately. "Mr. Finnegan, kindly come here and hand back the homework. Miss Brown, please take this box of mice- don't be silly, girl, they won't hurt you… Good. Now please, Miss Brown, hand one to each student."

"Hem, hem," Umbridge said, employing the same silly little cough she had used to interrupt Dumbledore on the first night of term. Professor McGonagall ignored her. Seamus handed back Harry's essay; Harry took it with grace and saw that he had managed an O.

"Hmph," Ron huffed, getting back his own only to see an E as Hermione turned back to show them her own grade of Outstanding.

"Right then, everyone, listen closely- Dean Thomas, if you do that to the mouse again I shall put you in detention! Right then, now most of you have now successfully Vanished your snails and even those who were left with a certain amount of shell have got the gist of the spell. Today, we shall be-"

"Hem, hem," Umbridge coughed again as Professor McGonagall finally decided to take notice.

"Yes?" Professor McGonagall asked, turning round, her eyebrows so close together they seemed to form one long, severe line.

"I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspec—"

"Obviously I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my classroom." Professor McGonagall said dully before turning her back firmly on Umbridge.

Many of the students exchanged looks of glee while a few dared to chuckle. Harry was proud to say that he and Neville were two of those oh so brave few.

"Now then, as I was saying: Today, we shall be practicing the altogether more difficult Vanishment of mice. Now, the Vanishing Spell -"

"Hem, hem." came that annoying dullard's insipid cough again.

"I must wonder," Professor McGonagall said in cold fury, turning sharply to Umbridge, "how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking."

"Whoo!" Neville cheered, but was silenced by a look from McGonagall. He chuckled nervously as she turned back to Umbridge.

"She sure does keep her temper in check," Ron whispered to Harry, both laughing quietly.

Harry leaned forward to Hermione, whispering in her ear, "I wonder if McGonagall is capable of turning Umbridge into an actual toad like the witches in fairytales are." Harry said as Hermione giggled.

"I wasn't aware that she wasn't one already." Hermione whispered back as Ron and Neville joined in on the stifled chuckling.

Harry quirked his gaze up to the front of the class where Umbridge looked as though she had just been slapped in the face. She did not speak, but straightened the parchment on her clipboard and began scribbling furiously.

Looking supremely unconcerned, Professor McGonagall addressed the class once more.

"As I was saying: the Vanishing Spell becomes more difficult with the complexity of the animal to be Vanished. The snail, as an invertebrate, does not present much of a challenge; the mouse, as a mammal with a spine and even more bones to deal with, offers a much greater task to tackle. This is not, therefore, magic you can accomplish with your mind on your dinner. So then, you know the incantation, let me see what you can do…"

"Pot has met kettle…" Harry thought as he grinned lightly.

Umbridge did not follow Professor McGonagall around the class as she had followed Professor Trelawney; perhaps she realized Professor McGonagall would not permit such a thing. She did, however, take many more notes while sitting in her corner, and when Professor McGonagall finally told them all to pack away, she rose with a grim expression on her face.

"Well… it's a start…" Ron said as he held up Neville's mouse's long wriggling mouse-tail before dropping it back into the box Lavender was passing around.

As they filed out of the classroom, Harry saw Umbridge approach the teacher's desk; he nudged Ron, who nudged Hermione in turn, and the three of them deliberately fell back to eavesdrop while Neville walked out without having noticed.

"How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts, my dear Minerva?" Umbridge asked in a sickly sweet tone.

"Thirty-nine years this December," Professor McGonagall said brusquely, snapping her bag shut.

Umbridge made a note.

"Very well," Umbridge said, "you will receive the results of your inspection in ten days' time."

"I can hardly wait," Professor McGonagall said in a coldly indifferent voice as she strode off towards the door. "Hurry along, you three," she added, sweeping Harry, Ron and Hermione before her.

Harry could not help giving his favorite teacher a faint smile and could have sworn he received one in return.

"My friend, the fates are cruel," a voice behind them came as Harry turned to see Draco strutting forward from down the corridor with his usual group of Slytherins.

"Loveless: Act Three." Harry said as Draco shook his head.

"No, my friend. Act Four." Draco corrected as Harry blinked, but turned away. He vaguely remembered that his copy of Loveless had gone missing over the weekend.

"Why are you here? Don't you come from History of Magic?" Ron asked, raising a brow.

"Yes, but taunting you all with my amazing presence is simply an opportunity I can't afford to miss." Draco replied arrogantly without missing a beat as Ron scoffed.

"Someone's head is up their own ass…" Neville muttered as Draco shot him a glare, but said nothing while they all walked down the lawns towards the Forbidden Forest for their next class: Care of Magical Creatures. Pansy Parkinson had tried to make fun of Hermione's looks, but the only ones laughing at her lame barbs were Crabbe and Goyle all the while Draco muttered about needing new cronies.

When they made it to the class, it was there they found Umbridge and her clipboard waiting for them beside Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"I think she's stalking us, Harry," Neville whispered as Harry raised a brow.

"You might be right, Neville." Harry said absently as he was more focused on listening to what it was that Umbridge was asking Professor Grubbly-Plank. He was also vaguely wondering how the woman beat them to the class when they had left Transfiguration before her and headed straight down to the grounds.

"You do not usually take this class, is that correct?" Harry heard Umbridge ask as they arrived at the trestle table where the group of captive Bowtruckles were scrabbling around for woodlice like so many living twigs.

"Quite correct," Professor Grubbly-Plank said briskly, hands behind her back and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I am a substitute teacher standing in for Professor Hagrid."

Harry exchanged a look with Ron and Hermione, neither of whom looked too worried like him. Draco was whispering with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, leaving Pansy to hang by his side as she listened. Harry would have been angry and worried had it been the old Draco Malfoy doing that whispering, the arrogant boy would have surely loved this opportunity to tell tales on Hagrid to a member of the Ministry. However, if there was one thing he was glad for in their rebirth, it was the fact that he knew Genesis Rhaposodos so well, and knew just how loyal the man was to him and other friends. Genesis might have been an arrogant asshole all the time, but he was a loyal arrogant asshole that would never sell-out his friends.

"Hmm…" Umbridge hummed, dropping her voice, though Harry could still hear her quite clearly with his augmented hearing. "I wonder… the Headmaster seems strangely reluctant to give me any information on the matter… Tell me, have you any idea just what is it that has Professor Hagrid on such a very extended leave of absence?"

Harry saw Draco swiftly scowl at Umbridge's inquiring before turning his look into an impassive façade while going back to his shushed talks with the two other boys. Though Draco, much like Harry and Ron, was still watching Umbridge and Professor Grubbly-Plank closely.

"Afraid I can't, ma'am." Professor Grubbly-Plank said breezily. "Don't know anything more about it than you do. Got an owl from Dumbledore, said if I'd like a couple of weeks' teaching work. I accepted. That's as much as I know. Well… shall I get started then?"

"Yes, please do, my dear." Umbridge said absently, scribbling on her clipboard.

Umbridge took a different course of action in the Care class, wandering amongst the students while she questioned them on magical creatures. Most if not all of them were able to answer well and Harry's spirits lifted somewhat more. He was glad that the class was not letting Hagrid down, and was sure that Hagrid would be immensely proud of them. Harry could also see that Hermione was happy as well, smiling as she worked on her diagram for the Bowtruckle they were currently sketching.

"Overall," Umbridge said, returning to Professor Grubbly-Plank's side after a lengthy interrogation of Dean and Seamus, "how do you, as a temporary member of staff- an objective outsider, I suppose you might say; how do you find Hogwarts? Do you feel you receive enough support from the school management?"

"Oh, yes, Dumbledore's excellent," Professor Grubbly-Plank said heartily as Ron, Neville, and Harry grinned widely. "Yes, I'm very happy with the way things are run, very happy indeed."

Looking politely incredulous, Umbridge made a tiny note on her clipboard and went on, "And what exactly do you plan to cover with this class this year? Well, assuming of course that Professor Hagrid does not return?"

"Oh, I'll take them through the creatures that most often come up in the OWLs," Professor Grubbly-Plank said with a little shrug. "Not much left to do since they've all got down their studies of unicorns and Nifflers. I thought we'd cover Porlocks and Kneazles, make sure they can recognize Crups and Knarls, you know."

"Well, you seem to know what you're doing, at any rate." Umbridge said amiably, making a very obvious tick on her clipboard. Harry did not like the emphasis she put on 'you' and liked it even less when she put her next question to Goyle. "Now then, I hear there have been injuries in this class?"

Goyle gave a stupid grin, but Draco was not grinning.

"Nothing to major, Professor." Draco hastened to answer the question before Goyle did something stupid. "That was me. It was merely a flesh wound. A simple scratch from a Hippogriff."

"A Hippogriff?! Oh, you poor dear," Umbridge said, now scribbling frantically as Draco sighed in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, it was only because he was too stupid to listen to what Professor Hagrid told him!" Neville said as Harry shook his head.

"That is quite right. Professor Hagrid did warn us of the dangers, and Draco was too foolish to heed those warnings at the time. But with age comes self-preservation- I mean wisdom." Harry quipped dryly, then looked innocence when Draco cast a glare his way.

Both Ron and Hermione groaned when Umbridge turned her head slowly in their direction, her gaze on both Harry and Neville.

"It is not kind to mock the harm done to others after they have been tramtized by such an ordeal as a vicious attack by Hippogriff. One night's detention, I think. For both you and Mr. Longbottom, Mr. Potter." Umbridge said softly, as though she were truly concerned for Draco now before she turned to Professor Grubby-Plank. "Well, thank you very much, Professor Grubbly-Plank dear, I think that's all I needed here. You will be receiving the results of your inspection within ten days."

"Jolly good," Professor Grubbly-Plank said, though Harry and the others heard the dryness of her tone. Umbridge, however, either didn't hear the lack luster response or chose to ignore it as she set off back across the lawn to the castle with Harry and Neville's glares hot on her wide back.

"So what are these detentions like?" Neville asked as Harry glanced over to him, the both walking toward Umbridge's office.

"Horrid, but mostly just because she is there." Harry said as Neville shrugged.

"Well then, this shouldn't be too bad." Neville said, a happy-go-lucky grin on his face as Harry sighed.

"Prepare for pain, Puppy… Prepare for pain…" Harry mumbled as Neville ignored him to whistle a tune.

"That was horrid!" Neville hissed as he clutched at his left hand, the appendage now red and puff where the words "I must not tease" were slowly healing into a red scar.

Harry said nothing as he trudged down the corridors. It was nearly midnight when they had left Umbridge's office that night. Harry's own hand was now bleeding, staining the make-shift rag he had wrapped around it as he grit his teeth while it healed ever so slowly. He was sure that Umbridge was using something to slow his and Neville's impressive healing process, but he couldn't be sure. He had never had more than a few bad injuries in his life, and never repeatedly in the same spot.

When he and the grumbling Neville arrived in the common room, they had expected the common room to be empty when upon their return, but to their credit, the two former warriors were more than a little surprised when they walked through the portrait hole only to find the others up waiting for them. Ron and Hermione were seated by the fire while Ginny, Fred and George were crowded around a small bowl on the table near the two.

"You guys are still up?" Neville asked, not even bothering to hide his hand as he rubbed at it.

"Yeah, we heard everything." Ginny said as she and her twin brothers presented the small bowl to Neville. Peeking over Neville's shoulder, Harry saw that the bowl was filled with a sickly yellow liquid.

"It's a solution of strained and pickled Murtlap tentacles," George explained quietly, "It should help."

"Express from Tseng-Snape himself." Ginny added while Fred grinned widely.

"Thanks guys." Neville said and as he was about to dip his hand into it, he stopped himself and turned to Harry, "But I think Harry here'll need it more than me."

"Don't concern yourself with my wellbeing, Neville." Harry said quietly, shifting his bleeding hand behind himself, "I'll be fine by morning. You should-"

But Harry didn't get to finish as Hermione huffed and rose from her chair, stomping over to the group with Ron on her heels. She marched straight up to Harry, staring him hard in the face before she wretched his right hand from behind him, and unraveled the cloth he had tied around it. She and the others, even Neville who had seen it, all gasped and looked terrified of the still bleeding letters as they slowly healed at the edges.

However, despise her initial reaction to the wound, something inside Hermione twisted and stirred as she gasped upon the bleeding appendage. It was a wound. A calamity to her friend's health and the very life-blood she could clearly see flowing in the blood as it ran down to his fingertips and dripped onto the floor. Something within her; something that wasn't smart or artificial created in a lab; something that didn't spend time analyzing and observing; something which sat deep within her like a primal instinct… something that was natural welled up within her core-being. It came flowing and powerful, like a busted dam that gave way to a mighty river. It came as a low song until it's music filled her being. It came like a light, growing brighter and more blessed as it shone.

It came as a single word which she knew held the power to restore that which was lost to a world.

"Cure." Hermione said, and with that single word her eyes glew brightly as did Harry's bloody hand. Then, it a flash of light, Harry's hand was healed to the point of where the only damage to be seen was the now faint and pale scar of "I Must Not Tell Lies".

Harry stared down at his hand in shock, not because of the healing spell, but because of the sensation in which it had brought. It was like a bright beautiful song had wrapped itself around his bloody wound, and then kissed it with the healing warm of an angel. Harry had never felt something so… so… so pure before a day in his life. It was nothing like the medicinal feeling that Healing Materia from the Healing Corps gave. The feeling Hermione's spell gave was so much better… so much cleaner… so much more blessed… so much purer than anything he had ever felt while on the mortal plane. The only other thing he could describe it as, though not entirely the same, was the relief that swept over him when Zack and that blond boy had killed him and ended his insanity after the Nibelheim Incident.

Then his blissful wonder was ended when Hermione suddenly slumped over and fell in a dead faint. Ron dropped to his knees in an instant while Ginny checked Hermione's vitals.

"She's okay," Ginny informed, and Harry let loose a breath of relief he didn't even know he had been holding in, "she's probably just exhausted. That was a Healing Spell, and by the sensation it gave us just from being near it's release, a Mastered one at that."

"But Hermione doesn't have any Materia." Neville said as George silently nodded in agreement, "How could she have cast that without one? If she was a Turk, we would have known by now, and there were no female SOLDIERs in the program."

"That's quite correct, Neville," Harry said as he dropped to his knee and examined Hermione. The feeling she gave him, he recalled another with such a presence. A smiling happy girl that gave the same feeling, but to a much less extent, "It is my belief that our dear Hermione Granger may, in fact, be a reborn Cetra."

Harry didn't bother with the others gasping or Ron's shell-shocked expression as he continued to survey his broken memories for answers.

"Ar-Are you sure, Seph-"

"My name is Harry James Potter, and yes I'm sure." Harry said firmly as Ron looked away, choosing instead to brush Hermione's hair from her eyes as the girl lay peacefully, as though any place she lay might as well be her final resting place. She slept as though the planet would protect and guide her, keeping her enemies at bay while she gave off waves of peace and kindness. Harry felt almost like he was looking at a hippie while Ron felt that Hermione might have been an Earth Mage like he had read in books during his free time as Angeal.

Even Crookshanks looked concerned for Hermione as he rubbed himself against her. But then, something in the cat suddenly changed as he stopped abruptly, purring peacefully, and then curled up next to the sleeping girl and settled down.

"Help me get her to her armchair." Ron said as Harry nodded, but when they went to reach for her, Crookshanks head shot up and he hissed venomously at them as though he would kill them if they did ham to his mistress.

"We aren't going to harm her, feline." Harry said as Ron nodded.

"Yeah, just bringing her to a chair." Ron said, "The floor is definitely not a place for her to sleep."

Crookshanks looked skeptical, and Harry wondered for a moment if he was simply imagining the look on the cat's face, but then Crookshanks got up and moved aside as he and Ron took Hermione over to the fire and gently placed her in the armchair she always sat in.

"I hope she'll be alright…" Ron muttered as he sat in his own chair, his eyes never leaving Hermione and the concerned look in them never ebbing a bit.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Harry said amiably, non-pulsed as he knew that Hermione wouldn't be outdone by a simple bout of exhaustion. Crookshanks and the others came over not a second later, with the cat staring up at Ron and then going back over to Hermione. Crookshanks curled around her legs, purring loudly before leaping into Hermione's lap and settling down.

"I still think we should tell someone about this," Ron said in a low voice as he gestured to Harry's scarred hand. "I reckon you should complain about this," said Ron in a low voice.

"No," Harry said flatly.

"Dude, do you not see this!" Neville said, raising his own scarred hand from the small bowl of sickly yellow liquid, "McGonagall would flip her bean if she knew—"

"Yes, she probably would," Harry said dully. "And how long do you believe it would take that dullard Umbridge to pass another of those educational decrees? One which would fancifully say how anyone complaining about her gets fired immediately."

"He has a point there," Ginny muttered, "Professor McGonagall is just a school teacher, and has no real power when it comes to these matters. She can barely restrain herself when Umbridge is inspecting her, so how do you think things'll turn out if Harry or you, Neville, drop something like this into her lap."

"And don't forget, yo, that Dumbledore allowed those stupid fucks to take away his powers in government." Fred added in as Harry scowled.

"And as woe as I am to admit it; right about now we could have used some of those esteemed powers to deal with the toad through proper channels." Harry said, "Because if I suddenly struck up a friendship with Susan Bones, Umbridge would be doing a lot more than simply stalking me in my classes."

Ron opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out and, after a moment, he closed it again, looking defeated as he reached over and stroked Hermione hand with his own. The others politely looked away, Harry staring into the fire to give his friend some private time while Neville dipped his hand back into the bowl and watched his pains fade away.

Moments later, Hermione groaned into the land of the conscious as she blinked her eyes against the brightness of the fire.

"Wh… What happened?" Hermione asked quietly as Ron explained it to her. "Oh, I'm sorry if I worried any of you."

"It's alright, so long as you're safe." Ron said quietly, still softly stroking her hand as she looked down at the two appendages. She smiled at him, taking her thumb and gently caressing the back of his hand while he grinned at her.

"She's an awful woman," Hermione said suddenly in a small voice. "Simply awful."

Then her gaze landed on Harry, and he suddenly felt guilty for being the cause of the weakened and weary look on her face as she held his gaze firmly. "You know, I was just saying to Ron when you came in… we've got to do something about her."

"I suggested poison," Ron said grimly, though didn't look as though he would take back the comment.

"But not that." Hermione said, seeming as though she had considered the idea, "No, I mean we must do something about what a dreadful teacher she is, and how we're not going to learn any Defense from her at all."

"Well, what can we do about that?" Neville asked, yawning as he took his hand from the bowl and thanked the Weasley children again. "It's too late, isn't it? She's got the job, meaning she's here to stay. Minister Fudge'll make sure of that."

"Well, she'll only stay as long as Fudge is in power and I doubt Voldemort will be able to keep a low profile for too long, yo." Fred said with a wide grin as Harry rolled his eyes, but did have to agree.

"Well," Hermione began tentatively, "you know, I was thinking today…" she shot a slightly nervous look at Harry and Ron before she then plunged on, "We were thinking- Ron and I- that maybe the time's come when we should just… just do it ourselves."

"Do what ourselves?" Harry asked suspiciously as he glanced between on and Hermione. He had a feeling he knew what they were getting at, and he didn't like it.

"Well… we were thinking that we should take upon ourselves to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts… ourselves," Hermione said calmly, exchanging glances with Ron, "And perhaps… more…"

"More, you say?" Harry said, leaning back in his chair like a lion about to pounce at the prey that was soon to be his meal.

"Wait a second, you want us to do extra work? But we're already up to our necks in homework already, and it's only the second week!" Neville exclaimed as Hermione stood abruptly.

"Neville, this is so much more important than homework!" Hermione said passionately, swiftly followed by a dead silence as all the others, including Harry and Ron, goggled at her.

"I didn't think there was anything in the universe more important than homework for you, yo!" Fred teased, but was only rewarded with an elbow to his torso courtesy of Ginny.

"Don't be silly, of course there is," Hermione said, and Harry saw, with an ominous feeling, that her face was suddenly alight with the kind of fervor that SPEW usually inspired in her. "It's about preparing ourselves, like Harry said in Umbridge's first lesson, for what's waiting for us out there; beyond these castle walls. It's about making sure we really can defend ourselves readily. If we don't learn anything for a whole year -"

"Wow," Harry breathed sarcastically as only he could, "you truly are a passionate, aren't you?"

"Harry, that woman stands for everything that is wrong with the wizarding world. She is corrupt, thinks herself better than anything else on the planet, and probably believes in blood purity." Hermione said heatedly as she leaned forward to match Harry's gaze. "We have to put a stop to her before she takes this school down with her in her inevitable end. We have to do something about our own education, our own defenses, our own lives. Lives are at stake now!"

"Lives are always at stake!" Harry snapped right back as he slammed a fist to the armchair, effectively crushing it. "Nothing ever changes in my life. Someone of power comes along and puppets the people into a war, and who is it that they wish to save them from their demise? Me, that's who! Whether it's the Wutai, the rogue agents, or the Planet going to hell in a hand basket; it's always myself made to play the messiah! Even now, in freakin' reincarnation, people want me to be their guiding hero to save their own wretched existence while they cower and do nothing to save themselves."

"But we are trying!"

Harry said nothing as Hermione shouted back at him. They just didn't get it, no one ever got it. Even Ron looked away when Harry switched his gaze to him. Angeal had always wanted to be the hero, he was ready and able back in those days. He took pride in his work, but no one looked up to him as they did to Harry… to Sephiroth…

"I understand how you feel," Hermione said softly, and Harry tensed as he felt arms enclose around him and the gentle feelings of ease and comfort creep over him, "I understand how tired and weary you are, my friend."

Whoever this person talking was, it was not Hermione. This person was far too gentle, far too consoling, far too… caring… This person was not Hermione, she was just too good at making Harry feel the things he had buried long ago in both lives…

"I can feel it, your innermost turmoil, Harry." Hermione breathed gently as she caressed his hair while he leaned into her maternal touch. "I can hear your weary soul and it's cry to end the torment, the sacrifice, but you must go on, Harry. You must. The world needs you. It will always need you."

"But why…?" Harry found himself asking as his eyes grew heavy, tears welling up inside of him.

"Because responsibility of this level is not given lightly by the Goddess," Hermione said in a misty voice that made Harry believe she would suddenly fade away as with his many dreams of his mother. He latched onto her, not willing to give up whatever this was in the face of suddenly waking up for it to be over. Not after all the dreams he had in both lives…

"The Goddess has chosen you to be her champion, but you do not stand alone, Sephiroth." Hermione informed softly, and even though he hated that name more so than he was willing to admit… when she spoke his former name, he felt almost proud of it… almost beloved to have it…

Hermione took Harry's head in her hands and brought him eye-to-eye with her. Harry stared into her eyes, seeing a peace and tranquility in their depths that made him want to give into their soft glow and sleep for eternity. She smiled at him, with the gentle affection that one would smile at their son, brother, or even their lover, but still it was different… it was more like she accepted him as family without ties of blood, as if they were both children of something far greater than either could fully comprehend.

"Harry, your journey is not a lonely one. We are here to shoulder some of the burden as well. All of us are the Goddess' chosen. We are all her champions." Hermione said, gesturing to the others who merely smiled when Harry let his gaze wander over to them. It was a small assurance, one that only softened the blow by what Harry knew was to come.

"Understand this," Hermione said, her voice taking on a hint of firmness, "Whether you be Harry Potter or Sephiroth, you are still you. Do not look to the past to confirm who are, but rather to the friends that surround you in the present."

"Yeah man, we need you." Neville said readily, giving a goofy grin as Harry glanced over to him when Hermione let him go, still smiling her oh so gentle smile at him.

"You were a great commander and general before your fall." Ginny said, blushing as Harry's gaze fell upon her. "It's just a shame that we couldn't have been closer, because maybe then you would have stayed…"

"You were the best, yo! Especially when you got pissed off and made things go BOOM!" Fred exclaimed with a wide grin while George nodded mutely in agreement.

"Yeah, man! And just think about all the cool stuff you've done it this life!" Neville said excitedly, knocking over the bowl of Murtlap essence, which feel to the floor and smashed. "Umm… oops…"

"Yeah, yo, you saved that rock from Voldie in your first year here." Fred said as George nodded.

"And in your second year you saved the school by killing the Basilisk." Ginny said as she quietly added, "And saved me by destroying Riddle…"

"You fought off about a hundred Dementors at once in your third year." Neville said as he smiled.

"You faced Voldemort last year." George said in a quiet rumble as the others nodded.

"It's like I said before," Ron said, now standing in front of the armchair Hermione and Harry were seated in. Ron outstretched his hand to Harry, "Just follow your dreams, and your honor will remain. You are my brother whether you're Harry or Sephiroth. And this time; nothing is gonna separate us."

Harry stared around the room, then back at Hermione who was still smiling as she nodded her own agreement.

"Don't you see now, Harry?" Hermione asked tenderly, "This is you; a savoir, a hero for the masses to look to in their darkest hour. This is exactly why we need you; why those who cower in fear need you. We and they need to know what it's like… to face great evil and survive, and prevail! To face a darkness such as the likes of Voldemort and escape."

Harry didn't even bother with the fact that it was only the third time in the last five years that Hermione could utter the Dark Lord's name, never mind the fact that it was the first time she ever did so without hesitation of any kind. No, he didn't bother with it, because it was that, more than anything else at the moment, that calmed Harry's fears. It was the mere fact that it was she, in that oh so melodious voice, who said it.

Harry smirked as he took Ron's still outstretched hand and stood himself. He stood tall and proud, surrounded by friends as he firmly clasped Ron's hand in his own. He understood what it signified. He knew what he was silently promising. And even though he knew what he was getting into, it did not completely quell his fears of the future.

"Don't answer us just yet, Harry." Hermione said, the glow in her eyes dimming to a soft gleaming twinkle. "No. Please, we wish for you to truly think about this decision. For it is only when you come to it yourself that you will find your own salvation."

Hermione rose from Harry's armchair, and Harry hadn't even become aware of the fact that he was now slightly hyperventilating, breathing laboredly as he stared into the flames that still burned in the fireplace.

Harry, as a first to him in a long time, could not think of anything to say. He was feeling ashamed of his earlier outburst now after his friends had spoken so movingly on his behalf. He nodded to Hermione and the others, all too aware of what he was agreeing to. Hermione smiled as she gazed upon Harry, but then she turned to Ron, and when their gaze met, it was like the two were far away in their own world.

"I'm off to bed. I believe everyone should do the same. Goodnight, everyone." Hermione said, and with one last exchange with Ron, she swept from the room like a gentle breeze.

"Erm… night." Ron called after her awkwardly before turning to the giggling and chortling of his siblings and Neville.

"Night." Ginny said with one last look at Harry, who did not catch the emotional glance as he stared into the depths of the slow burning log flames.

"Umm… is he coming?" Neville asked as he was pushed toward the stairway by Ron, who was followed by the twins.

"In… in a minute…" Harry said in a far away tone, "I'll just… clear up here…"

Harry indicated the smashed bowl on the floor as Neville blushed in embarrassment. However, that seemed to be all the answer that Ron needed as he nodded and continued to push Neville up the stairs until they were all gone off to bed.

Harry took out his wand, truly gazing upon it for what must have been the first time in months. When he was in class, he simply whipped it out and got to work, doing whatever tasked they were assigned with painfully boring ease. Now that he was truly looking at it, truly feeling it's power in his hand, he could felt something to it. Something that was both like Materia, and yet, at the same time, not…

Choosing to ponder the thought another day due to his sudden weariness, Harry pointed his wand at the broken pieces of china.

"Reparo," Harry muttered, as the broken bowl pieces flew back together and melded withone another, looking as though it were never broken and as good as new. However, Harry frowned as with another wave of his wand and muttered incantation, the Murtlap essence was returned to the bowl from the floor.

"When are you going to come out of hiding… Genesis…?" Harry asked, feeling so tired that he was tempted to sink back into his armchair and sleep there while Draco came out of the shadows of the room with a slightly less arrogant grin than he now normally wore. "I had thought you would have come out and joined the festivities when they began spouting on about how I was the hero the world needed."

"Oh no," Draco said, leaning on Harry's chair, "I was, but then they quickly pressed on about how we were all the heroes in this little tale. And I suppose I could allow my own greatness to be shunned a bit instead of dying another pointless death."

"You? Dying a pointless death? I don't believe you." Harry responded with a light scoff as Draco chuckled.

"Oh, but I did. It was pointless because it seems that we are no longer on the planet I once died for." Draco explained as Harry scoffed again. He should have known that Genesis would have been listening to his conversation with Sirius as well. He only wondered who else was able to hear the call, because his first suspects were the Turks around the school.

"I'm also a little miffed with you, my old friend." Draco said, leaning down Harry's ear, "Mostly because you, oh great general of ours, are a hypocrite."

"And how so?" Harry asked dully as Draco scowled.

"You talk about how none of us need to repeat ourselves like a cliché, but why is it that the Ministry has discovered an item missing from the Department of Artifacts? A particularly recognizable nodachi of massive length which is as long as you are tall?"

Harry froze as he recalled his unusual, at the time, craving to have his sword back. He supposed that now his rather hasty actions were coming back to bite him.

"I have not wielded that sword if that is what you're getting at. It is merely where I know it is safe." Harry said quietly as Draco's grip on the armchair splintered the top.

"And so is Angeal's own blundering broadsword, that damn Buster Sword. However, my elegant rapier, Rapier, is nowhere to be found!" Draco hissed as Harry sighed, feeling much to tired to deal with Genesis's bitchy nature.

"I don't have time to deal with this." Harry said, forcing his emotional drained body to its feet as he headed for the stairs. "I don't care what you do about your sword. Find it, if you must. Just keep it discreet and keep it from the throats of others."

"Of course, Commander." Draco chirped happily, and as tired as he was, Harry understood the horror he was allowing to be unleashed on the world. It was only too bad for the world that he was too tired to care at that point.

As Harry went upstairs, Draco sank back into the shadows to go wherever it was that he would be. Harry's restless night was punctuated once more by dreams of long corridors, locked doors, and the endless flames of his own past sins.

When he awoke the next day, Harry found his scar prickling again, though this time it was as if Voldemort had found something most interesting.

A/N (IMPORTANT!): The original idea for this chapter was to have Harry so angry in Umbridge's class that he nearly attacked her with the Masamune and had to be forcefully restrained from doing so by Neville, Ron, and Draco all at once while the point of the blade was in Harry's face. This was supposed to be done after Umbridge makes a harsh comment about his parents and Cedric deaths being more accidents and Harry's fury coming from how his relatives had once told him that his parents' deaths were accidents. Umbridge was going to give Harry detention, and Draco was going to chew him out about being a hypocrite. After some time to calm down, Harry would have fallen into a depression about how he was beginning to lash out like the person- the Sephiroth- he used to be and how he feared he was started once again down the path of insanity.

The reason I cut this out is because it didn't seem to fit Harry's personality for him to so suddenly lash out from a simple jive toward those he cares for. The Harry I picture when writing this is calm, cool, collected, and sarcastic. When he's angry he becomes cold, harsh, and rather callous with his words. The only thing I think that would set him into explosive bouts of anger would be people bringing up the past too excessively.

The thing that was in this chapter (which replaced the scene) was actually quite hard to do. You see, the thing that happened was that the Turks (mainly Snape) are keeping an eye on Harry and the others from the background. Tseng Snape, as I like to call him, has (if you caught the references in the last chapter) been recruiting people to join the Turks as "sleeper agents" basically, and the ones around Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville are always on the watch for them. Even Genesis/Draco helps out when it serves his wants and needs.

Now, the scene is quite ingenious if I do say so myself. You see, when the shouting match is about to commence, Draco signals the Turks, who already suspected trouble. They have Colin (and if you can figure out who he is in all of this, you're a genius) go in to distract Umbridge with the one thing people like her love the most; air for to inflate their ego. Yes, Colin comes in with flowers from the Turks, to which Draco takes credit for and comes up with a believable lie that no one would dispute (because let's face it, Genesis and Draco are both arrogant enough to stroke the ego of anyone that could be "good fro business" as the term is) and Umbridge forgets all about Harry and Neville for the moment.

The scene comes into further play when at the Care for Magical Creatures lesson, she learns that Draco had been attacked. When Harry and Neville speak up in Hagrid's defense, she gets angry at them and concerned for Draco (the only student so far to openly declare his approval for her reign as High Inquisitor/Ministry Spy). She awards the two (Harry and Neville) detention merely because Draco "could have been traumatized".