The first quidditch match was approaching, and it was starting to get on FitzSimmons' nerves.

Despite only one year off for the TriWizard Tournament, everyone was acting like the Quidditch Cup hadn't been held in a century or two. Then again, that was pretty much how they had all acted since FitzSimmons had first arrived at the castle for every single quidditch match ever held, so perhaps it wasn't any different from normal at all, FitzSimmons had just really enjoyed the year break that they'd had from it. But all of the nonstop talk, and even worse, the nonstop trash talking and attempts to curse players of the opposing House's team in the hallways was making the Shield couple really wish that there could be some other event going on again that year to supplant the Quidditch Cup, all coming to a head one evening during the week leading up to the first match when they were studying in the library.

Alicia Spinnet, one of the three Gryffindor seekers, was studying a few tables away from them when the seventh year girl was suddenly hit in the back by a spell. FitzSimmons reacted on trained instinct and immediately spun in their chairs as they whipped out their wands, and by the time they were fully facing in the direction that the spell had come from, had hit the culprit with a Petrificus Totalus each, freezing him with his wand still pointed at Alicia's back and his malicious sneer still firmly planted on his lips. As Simmons jumped up and rushed over to Alicia to see what the spell had done and if she needed any immediate medical attention, and Fitz kept his wand trained on who he could now vaguely remember as being the Slytherin Keeper, Miles Bletchley, the other dozen people studying in the library around them all stared at the scene in shock.

"Fitz, we're going to Professor McGonagall," Simmons' voice came a few seconds later.

For the spell had made Alicia's eyebrows start growing so thick and fast that they were starting to obscure her vision in just the few seconds since the spell had hit her. So Fitz walked over to Miles, grabbed the wand frozen in the Slytherin boy's hand with his own hand, and gave the countercurse, wrenching the evidence out of the keeper's hand as soon as the spell worked.

Then poking his own wand into Miles' back, he growled, "You're coming with us — I wouldn't suggest trying to run if you want to have any chance of playing on Saturday."

FitzSimmons marched Miles, with Alicia walking alongside them, down the hall and through a few secret corridors until they popped out at Professor McGonagall's office, where they knocked. The door was answered a few seconds later by the deputy headmistress, who let them in with a confused look on her face that such an odd assortment of students would be knocking on her door so late at night.

But as soon as they were inside and she got a look at Alicia's eyebrows, she exclaimed, "Spinnet! You need to go to the hospital wing! What happened?! Why did you come here?! Madam Pomfrey needs to fix that!"

Simmons took over before Miles or Alicia could mess anything up by speaking. "Harry and I, and a dozen other people whom I am sure would be willing to testify, saw this boy curse Alicia in the back while she was sitting at a table studying in the library. Here is his wand, no more spells cast with it since then, and I've read that there's a spell to determine the last spell a wand cast, so this, along with Alicia, is our proof. Along with the fact that we have never lied, and you know it. But we brought Alicia here first before the hospital wing so that you would have to see with your own two eyes that it happened, and couldn't claim that you can't give out a punishment because you never saw for yourself that any spell was cast, because Alicia had already gone to the hospital wing to get it fixed before reporting it to you — we know how this goes down, we've been in this school long enough. And it's not life threatening, she'll survive until you admit that you've seen it, and checked this boy's wand. Oh — and I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you he did it, though a confession is less than completely reliable in this case because I'm sure he's more than a bit afraid of us. But like I said, there are at least a dozen witnesses in the library as well who saw it all and can testify against this boy."

Still in shock at FitzSimmons' thoroughness of covering every possible excuse that she had not to offend Severus, Professor McGonagall slowly took the wand that Fitz was holding out to her, and touching the tip of Miles' wand with the tip of her own, cast Prior Incantato. A shadowy hologram of hair growing really quickly erupted from where the tips touched.

"Very well," McGonagall snapped shortly, really having hoped not to have to give one of Severus's quidditch players a punishment, and shortly enough explain to Severus why she had. "Spinnet, run along to the hospital wing now for Madam Pomfrey to fix your hair." Once Alicia was gone, McGonagall turned to Miles and said, "Bletchley, ten points for cursing another student. You're all dismissed."

FitzSimmons stared at McGonagall in shock. Sure, they hadn't expected her to actually ban him from playing in the match on Saturday, but they had expected a little more than removing ten completely meaningless points from Slytherin (even if Bletchley did think that the points had any real value) for cursing a player on the opposing team right before the match between the two teams, possibly even in a failed attempt to prevent Alicia from being able to compete. Miles, meanwhile, seemed to know exactly how easy he had got off, as he turned and leered at FitzSimmons. But before he could open his mouth to actually say anything snide about it, Fitz's fist met his nose and jaw with a sickening crack, and Miles dropped to the ground like a sack of rocks with his nose bleeding profusely and definitely broken.

"There — something closer to justice has been served for the crime you committed," he said, staring down coldly at Miles. "And never, ever curse a player of another team ever again, or a bloody nose will feel like a light pat on the cheek in comparison to what we will do to you now that we have undeniable proof that there is no purpose in reporting you to a teacher, since they won't do a damn thing about it. And make sure you pass the word on to the rest of your teammates and House — unlike the adults here, we don't fuck around when it comes to bullying and cold-blooded aggravated assault."

Then Fitz turned to the door to walk out, when McGonagall shrieked at his back, "Potter! Detention!"

Fitz turned back around to face her, and answered coldly but politely, "No. Since we can't stop him from playing this weekend for assaulting a player on the other team, and you refuse to do your job as teacher and adult, I gave him the most appropriate punishment I could for the situation since you refuse to. And you know that you can't make us serve an unlawful detention, and that we don't give a rat's arse about your stupid, completely meaningless points." Looking over at his wife, he continued on, "Come along, wifey — I think we've done what we needed to do here."

Simmons immediately looped her arm in his and the two of them walked out of McGonagall's office together, unstoppable and not even tried by Professor McGonagall, as she really knew that there was absolutely nothing that she could do, especially not wanting Umbridge to hear about it and stick her nose where it didn't belong.

~FS~

When FitzSimmons made it back up to the library to resume studying, they found Madam Pince waiting at the door for them, glaring.

Looking at their watches they realized that it was already past closing time, and that they hadn't realized how late it had been when Miles had assaulted Alicia, or how long it had actually taken them to take Miles to McGonagall and then still have to give out their own punishment to bring some semblance of justice to the castle for the victim. But as they were her two best readers, Madam Pince hadn't shut their materials in the library until the next day or made someone else carry their stuff back up to Gryffindor Tower for them, which FitzSimmons thanked her profusely for as they hurried in to get their backpacks and hurried back out before she changed her opinion of them. Books in hand again, they walked up to Gryffindor Tower where upon entering the common room they were approached by Lee Jordan, who had been one of the dozen witnesses in the library at the time of the aggravated assault.

"What happened?" he asked them eagerly. "Miles get detention? Kicked off the team? Was that it?! Is Slytherin going to have to find a new keeper by Saturday?! That would be awesome!"

Fitz opened his mouth to say unfortunately not, but that he had decked the Snake one good one and he wouldn't be trying anything felonious again soon, when Simmons spoke before he could.

"Nothing. Well, she took ten points away, but — like I said, nothing."

Lee stared at her in shock, as Fitz cut her an odd look wondering what she was doing.

As soon as he found his voice again, Lee burst out angrily, "You're kidding me! That's it?!"

Simmons merely shrugged her shoulders, like 'what can I say?'. Lee looked at Fitz for confirmation, who simply replied, "That's all she did. And we had full proof and everything with Alicia there with us with her eyebrows still growing and Miles's wand. And it wasn't like she tried to deny it, she just didn't give any real punishment for trying to take out another team's player so that they couldn't play."

Just shaking his head in stunned disbelief, Lee slowly moved back over to whence he'd come, leaving FitzSimmons free to head down to their personal flat.

Once they were through the stone wall and guaranteed their privacy, Fitz looked at his wife and asked, "Why didn't you tell Lee that I decked him and got Alicia some sense of justice?"

"Because I want students to be rightfully angry with McGonagall for not doing her job," Simmons answered. "More public pressure on her to do her job fairly, more people complaining that she isn't looking out for the students in this castle, more people demanding answers for why all she did was take ten points away for a crime that clearly deserved more, and in the real world might even land you a short stint in jail for assaulting someone for the express purpose of keeping them from competing in a sport as opposed to assault for some kind of offense committed against them that simply didn't warrant the response that they are being charged with, and possibly even encouraging more people taking justice into their own hands because they now know better than to expect it from the justice system of this school, ie the professors…maybe with all that, she'll actually do her job next time instead of tapping their wrist and letting them walk away like she did. It also sets her up for accusations of intentional hypocrisy if anyone from Gryffindor or any other House curses a Slytherin and she undoubtedly does more than take away ten meaningless points from them."

"Oh — okay, that makes a lot of sense," Fitz replied. "I guess that's why you're the smart one."

"Are you admitting that I'm smarter than you?!" Simmons gasped in playful shock. "I never thought I'd live to see the day!"

"I've said it to other people about you," Fitz groused, making Simmons laugh out loud.

But they weren't going to be laughing Friday night when they saw Lee Jordan walk into the Gryffindor common room at what was technically Saturday morning. The common room was empty except for them, as with the first quidditch match coming up in the morning, everyone had gone to bed at a more reasonable hour that night — ie, before midnight, like it was just a little past now. But as FitzSimmons had no interest in going to the match, and weren't going to the match, they were staying up late for the fun of it, enjoying for once a completely empty common room that wasn't early in the morning before anyone else had arisen yet. But upon hearing the portrait door open, they looked over.

Ever the doctor, Simmons immediately noticed Lee's bandaged hand and asked, "Hey, Lee — you're up late for a quidditch match night. And what happened to your hand?"

Lee collapsed into the armchair near where FitzSimmons were cuddled on the couch in front of the fireplace.

"Umbridge," he muttered darkly. "I got a detention from her yesterday that I'm pretty sure she made me serve tonight in order to keep me from getting a decent night's sleep before tomorrow's match that kept me out so late, and then she has this quill she made me do lines with that cuts the back of the writer's hand and uses their blood as its ink."

Simmons gasped in horror as Fitz looked disgusted and then righteously furious. Simmons also leapt up and crossed the few feet to Lee's armchair and began unwrapping his bandage to see exactly how horrific of a torture they were dealing with.

Fitz meanwhile leaned forward and asked Lee, "What did you get detention for, that even a sadist psychopath could think that was an appropriate punishment for?"

"It was stupid, but after supper yesterday I saw Miles coming towards me from the far end of the hallway I'd just turned onto, and after him not getting any punishment for attacking one of ours, I whipped out my wand and cursed him. Which was great and all, as he won't be up to normal tomorrow — not that he's that great even when he's at his best — but unfortunately, it happened to be on the hallway that Umbridge's office is, and she was stepping out right as I hit the scumbag. So she immediately drug me into her office, where she wrote me up a very official detention slip, making me come back to her office at 1700 tonight, where she's had me cutting up the back of my hand ever since writing 'I will not curse other students'. Noticeably didn't drag Miles in there with me to cut up his hand for cursing Alicia."

Midway through his explanation Simmons had finished unwrapping his hand, and could see just how horrible it really was — words couldn't do it justice.

"Well, I can't condone cursing even Miles as punishment for hurting Alicia, or cursing a different Miles we met once for screwing over and screwing our best friend, but absolutely no one deserves this," she said when he had finished. "And we are going to tell Professor McGonagall tomorrow after the match, and it would really help if you came with us to show her. Also, we sincerely apologize for our part of this — when I told you that McGonagall didn't punish Miles, I left something out because I didn't realize you would take it into your own hands, or that this would be the punishment for it. You see, as soon as she said that it would only be ten points, Harry decked him one in the nose and jaw that gave him a broken nose at the least, and likely jaw as well."

"Oh, don't blame yourself!" Lee said hurriedly. "He deserved both and more. I don't regret cursing him, just not paying more attention to where I was at the time. And yeah, I'll come show McGonagall my hand — not sure what she can do about it though, I already did the detention."

"Hopefully make sure that no one else ever has to go through what you just did, and as it sounds highly illegal, maybe she can get Dumbledore to take this to the courts and get that bitch out of here," Simmons answered. "That's unlikely, but more realistically maybe Dumbledore can use it as a little bit of leverage against the Ministry in exchange for keeping it hidden from the public. Also, let me go grab some murtlap solution from our room to soak your hand in, it'll help."

And with that she leapt up and hurried down to their flat, where they kept their collection of potions and potion ingredients that they had collected over the years in order to brew anything that they needed to, and have any ready-made potions that they might need to use handy. She soon returned with a bowl of yellow liquid and handed it to him, which he took gratefully, giving an audible sigh of relief as soon as the back of his hand was beneath the surface.

"You're lifesavers," Lee said. "Thanks."

"I'm surprised she didn't take your announcing job away for the match tomorrow," Fitz commented as Simmons settled back next to him again on the couch.

"So was I, but honestly I don't think she knows I do it," Lee answered. "This will be the first match, and I haven't announced in a year and a half since the Triwizard Tournament was last year — else she probably would have. And I certainly wasn't stupid enough to mention that I need to be alert tomorrow, cause I knew she would for sure take it away then."

~FS~

While FitzSimmons were sleeping in late the following morning and then having a late breakfast, everyone else was watching the first quidditch match of the year.

Since Ron had responded so poorly to being jeered at and otherwise verbally harassed by the Slytherins about the upcoming match during the week leading up to it, they had now invented a song to sing before and at the match ridiculing him even further, and throwing him off his already sketchy game even more. So when combined with Miles suffering from the aftereffects of being punched by Fitz earlier in the week and then cursed by Lee two evenings before, it was turning out to be a very high-scoring match that was fairly evenly matched goals-wise.

Gryffindor was holding a slim 50-40 lead a mere ten minutes into the match when both seekers spotted the snitch and dove for it. Malfoy had the faster broom thanks to his father's money, and was able to reach the little fluttery ball first, ending the match and winning it for Slytherin. Dejected, the Gryffindor team all landed around Ron who had dropped to the ground first over by his goal posts and was beginning to slowly walk towards the Gryffindor changing rooms. But no sooner had they all dismounted and started silently walking with him, than they heard a derisive laugh from behind them, and turned to find Malfoy having just landed close by, gloating.

Looking directly at Ron, he sneered, "I've never seen a worse keeper — but then, you were born in a bin. Did you like my lyrics, Weasley?"

As Ron turned to glare at the bully, Fred and George realized what Malfoy was talking to their younger brother about. They stiffened, bracing for a fight. Meanwhile, Madam Hooch landed next to them all and half-heartedly tried to shoo Malfoy away — as he wasn't actually doing anything against school rules after all, just being a complete cunt and arsehole — but she could see a possible dustup from a mile away, and that was against the school rules.

Angelina cast Malfoy a disgusted look and grabbed Fred's arm, as he was nearest to her, as she said to all three redheads, "Leave it. Leave it, guys, let him yell — he's just as bad a winner as he is a sore loser, the jumped-up, entitled little shit."

"Oh, yeah — you like the Weasleys, don't you, Angelina? You went with one or both of the Weasley twins to the Yule Ball last year, didn't you? Can't see how you stand the stink of the Weasley's pigsty, but to each her own, I guess," Malfoy retorted right back with another sneering laugh, before continuing on to the Weasleys, "We wanted to write another couple of verses, but we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly — we wanted to sing about your mother, see! And we couldn't fit in useless loser either — for your father, you know—!"

It didn't matter that all of the teachers were nearby and Madam Hooch was right there next to them. In that moment all the Weasleys wanted to do was cause Malfoy as much pain as possible. So before Malfoy had even finished speaking Ron and George were already sprinting towards him, Fred only not joining his brothers because Angelina managed to hold onto his arm long enough for the other girls on the team to grab him as well and hold him back. Too incensed to think of drawing their wands, as soon as they were within arm's reach of Malfoy, George and Ron just started flinging fists as hard as they could into every bit of him that they could reach.

"RON! GEORGE! NO!" one of the girls screamed.

George and Ron never stopped punching Malfoy until the blast of an Impedimanta charm knocked them both backwards away from the Slytherin.

"What do you think you're doing?" Madam Hooch screeched at them. "I've never seen behavior like it — back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"

George and Ron turned without a word and marched off towards the castle, leaving behind them Malfoy lying curled up on the ground whimpering and moaning with a bloody nose and innumerable bruises, and Fred still being forcibly restrained by the Gryffindor girls.

Professor McGonagall was absolutely livid when she caught up with them outside of her office door, and chewed them out like never before once she had angrily ushered them inside. A chewing out that was three-quarters ignorant at its best.

First off, she implied that they should have left it to Madam Hooch to 'sort out'— who had of course, lest anyone forget, been standing right there the entire time listening and had done absolutely zero 'sorting out' — completely ignoring the fact that there was absolutely nothing that Madam Hooch could have done, as Malfoy had every right to insult the Gryffindor players if he so wanted to, and anyway, since when did any adult in that castle do anything about bullying other than encourage it through inaction? Then she called the fight "an exhibition of muggle fighting", proving yet again that wizards knew absolutely nothing about the normal world. And finally, she implied that two against one was somehow a bad thing when you were in a fight, instead of being the best thing that you could possibly have short of three against one. In fact, the only part that she got right in her entire chewing out was dismissing their excuses of being provoked as a valid reason for assaulting Malfoy.

But just as she was about to hand down their punishment, there was a sickeningly saccharine cough in the doorway and Umbridge said poisonously sweetly, "May I help, Professor McGonagall?"

"Help? — What do you mean, help?" Professor McGonagall snapped, her anger towards her students boiling over to the uninvited bitch.

"Why, I thought you might be grateful for a little extra authority," Umbridge smiled sickly as she trespassed into the room that she had never been given permission to enter.

"You thought wrong," Professor McGonagall replied coldly, before turning back to the George and Ron. "Now, you two had better listen closely. I do not care what provocation Malfoy offered you, I do not care if he insulted every family member you possess, your behavior was disgusting and I am giving each of you a week's worth of detentions! Do not look at me like that, you deserve it! And if either of you ever —"

But she was cut off by another fake cough from the Ministry cunt.

"I think they deserve rather more than detentions," she smiled widely.

"But unfortunately, it is what I think that counts, as they are in my House, Dolores," Professor McGonagall ground out in reply.

That was clearly not what Umbridge had wanted to hear, as her simpering smile vanished faster than a candle being blown out by a class five hurricane, her face flushed as red as the Weasleys' hair, and her eyes bulged out grotesquely. Her flabby face set in a hard fury that made it look downright sinister, she turned on her heels and stormed out of the room, leaving Professor McGonagall alone once more with her students.

Dreading what Umbridge could be up to in order to leave so quickly and in such a towering rage, Professor McGonagall said to George and Ron, "You two are dismissed. I will see you in my office Monday night at 1900 for your first detention."

~FS~

As Professor McGonagall left the Great Hall an hour and a half later after lunch, FitzSimmons stood up and waved Lee Jordan to join them.

They followed their head of house back to her office, calling out to her right as she went to shut her door so that they wouldn't have to knock and make her stand back up to let them in right after she had sat down.

Once they were all inside and the door was securely closed behind them, Simmons said, "We're here to report Umbridge for child abuse, assault, and torture."

Motioning to Lee to show Professor McGonagall the back of his hand, which despite the murtlap solution still had a clear enough line of scabbing to tell that something had happened and that it wasn't natural or accidental, Simmons continued on, "Lee here was caught two nights ago by Umbridge breaking a school rule, and was rightfully given detention for it. However, instead of having Lee write lines, or polish awards, or any other punishment reasonable for the crime committed — or any punishment reasonable for any crime that one can possibly commit, to be completely frank — the Ministry agent gave him a quill that as he wrote carved up the back of his hand, magically using the blood that it spilt from cutting open the back of his hand as the ink with which he had to write the lines she set him. Lee, please explain in full gory detail, including exactly what Umbridge's implement of torture looks like, without leaving out even the tiniest detail, for the thick-skulled in the room."

"Well, she had me sit at a small table in her office, where she lay down a blank sheet of parchment and a long, thin black quill with a point on the end that looked noticeably sharper than any quill point I'd ever seen before," Lee began before shivering slightly, and not from the fact that the castle was a little cooler now that it was November and the cold weather had settled in to stay. "And she specifically said I was going to be using a rather special quill of hers that didn't need ink as she set it down on the parchment, which I found odd when she said it, because how special could it really be? But then I started writing 'I will not curse other students', the lines she gave me, and I instantly knew why it was 'special'. The moment I started writing, the letters came out as a bright red ink on the parchment, and the back of my hand felt like it was being carved open with a knife. I looked down and saw the same words that I was writing on the paper cut into the back of my hand. It immediately healed up before my eyes, but got cut right back open every single line I had to write from supper to past midnight, so over seven hours. And by the end it wasn't healing at all, and I had to wrap my hand up with some scraps I luckily had in my book bag because with the twins you never know when you'll need something like that, just to walk back up to our common room without dripping blood all over the floor and getting another detention from Filch. It looked a lot worse last night, all still cut open, but Hermione here gave me some murtlap to soak it in, and that made it heal up a lot from what it was last night."

As he spoke Professor McGonagall looked shocked and horrified, but once he had finished his tale of abuse and torture, McGonagall quickly schooled her features and said in a low and anxious voice, like she was genuinely scared, "Granger, you need to be careful. Challenging Umbridge like you repeatedly have myself, other professors here, and even Dumbledore himself last year with the TriWizard Tournament, could cost you much more than house points and detentions. Use your common sense — you know where she comes from, you must know to whom she is reporting. And you cannot bluff your way against the Ministry, like you have here at Hogwarts so far."

And then with her normal crisp sternness back in her voice, she continued on to Lee, "As for you, Jordan, she is your teacher and has every right to give you detention. And teachers have always chosen their own punishments for detentions they give. If you do not break the school rules, you will not have to worry about what punishments she gives out for detention. And finally, all three of you — and pass this on to the Weasley twins, as well, Jordan, I know far too well how much trouble they can get themselves into — remember to tread carefully around Delores Umbridge."

"You're outrageous!" Fitz cried out, as shocked and horrified at McGonagall's reaction as McGonagall had been at hearing just what Umbridge was doing to the students of the castle. "You see flesh and blood, undeniable proof right in front of your eyes of child abuse going on, and you do abso-fucking-lutely nothing about it? You're no better than she is! You're complicit every time she carves open the back of another student's hand with her knife! You're condoning her actions by your inaction!"

Unlike normal, Simmons didn't try to calm her husband down — he had every reason to be righteously furious at the deputy headmistress of the school, and if this had been the real world, calling the police to arrest her for aiding and abetting a known child abuser. Or two child abusers, with Snape.

But McGonagall wasn't backing down from her cowardice, and angrily snapped back with flared nostrils, "For heaven's sake, Potter! Do you really think this is about what Umbridge is doing?! It's about keeping your head down! This is the Ministry we're talking about!"

FitzSimmons knew a lost battle when they saw one, and already thinking to the much larger war at hand said nothing in return, just glaring coldly at the deputy headmistress. They hadn't expected great results from this, but they had hoped that she would at least promise to talk to Dumbledore about it, and maybe just something useful would have come of it like making sure that no other student would ever be subjected to such abuse ever again. But alas, it was not to be so.

After a minute of glaring in righteous indignation by all three students at the adult, and McGonagall looking back at them unwaveringly in her support by inaction of what Umbridge was doing, McGonagall dismissed them with a curt, "Good day to you all, and keep your heads down."

As they walked down the hallway a minute later, Simmons looked over at Lee and apologized, "Sorry, Lee — we tried."

"Oh, no, you did everything you could, and far more than any of the rest of us would have done calling McGonagall out for completely ignoring what she's doing," Lee replied, shaking his head. "You two are the best. It's like Dumbledore trying to tell everyone that You-Know-Who is back, isn't it? — the Ministry's just too powerful."

FitzSimmons nodded noncommittally, and at the next turn they bid him goodbye as they headed outside to enjoy the sunny afternoon, while Lee headed up to Gryffindor Tower to find the twins. FitzSimmons walked in silence until they were outside and sure to be clear of earshot of any government agents or students who might go report them to said Ministry agent, at which point Simmons plopped down next to a tree on the edge of the Black Lake and looked up at her husband.

"I've never seen McGonagall more terrified in all the time we've known her. She hid it well, but I'd say she's more scared of Umbridge and the government than she is of Voldemort himself. She hated what was done to Lee, shocked and horrified that it was occurring in her school, but her first reaction was to stop us from standing up to Umbridge and the government like we've always done to everyone in this castle who was in the wrong, not to do anything to rectify the atrocities that the hag is committing."

"So what are we going to do?" Fitz asked. "We have a duty to shield people, especially innocent students, and that quill is simply unacceptable."

"We stand up to Umbridge and the Ministry — I just don't know exactly how yet," Simmons answered. "McGonagall isn't wrong, we are actually at risk here this time, though I still believe that Dumbledore will move heaven and earth to protect Harry Potter. But we do have to be careful. We can't just say no to any detentions she gives us, and we're better off not getting any detentions — any moves we make against her will be more effective coming from perfect students who have never even gone near the line of breaking a rule before we do whatever we do to right these wrongs that are being committed, by both Umbridge and the government, and by the adults of the castle by not standing up for the children they have a duty to protect. We've just got to make sure that when we play our cards, we're holding the full deck. And that means doing nothing physical for the moment, while we assess the situation and plan."