A few weeks after Easter the twins surprised the castle with one of their creative inventions, as a sort of advertisement for what would be available in their joke shop as soon as they opened it upon graduating in a few months.
When everyone walked into the entrance hall that morning, they found a small, but genuine swamp taking up the corner of the entrance hall that didn't have any doors or hallways near it. It slightly reduced the amount of space for people to loiter in like before events such as the Yule Ball the year before (of which there were none told to the students yet between then and the end of the school year), but was completely out of the way of all normal foot traffic, not impeding anyone's regular path through the entrance hall in the least, just sitting there contentedly with a small sign advertising that it was the twins ingenious doing. The sign also informed anyone interested that portable swamps like this one would be available from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes just as soon as they graduated and opened their shop in Diagon Alley.
And for the most part, it was extremely well received. Percy Weasley could be seen glaring at it every time that he walked past it on his way to the Great Hall, but like their mother he had never approved of his younger brothers' pranks, jokes, or fun period, and didn't approve of this 'disruption to the school' either. The rest of the castle, on the other hand, thought it was the coolest thing ever, and could be frequently heard talking about it, and students dreaming up how they would use a portable swamp of their if they could buy one. However, the fun of having a swamp in the corner of the entrance hall didn't last too long and far before anyone wanted it to be, was superseded by worry and stress about the upcoming end of year exams, especially OWLs and NEWTs for fifth and seventh years, respectively.
For some stupid reason, as the exams got closer the professors stopped giving them homework, instead of increasing the amount of homework in order to force everyone to study the material that they needed to know for the upcoming exams. It was true of course that none of the homework then or all year meant anything for fifth years when it came to grades, as those were entirely the OWL exams, but homework was still the only way that half of the students studied outside of class during the bulk of the year, and removing that gave those students an opportunity to completely slack off and not do any studying at all right before the most important tests of their lives up until that point should they so want to. Something that students like Ronald Weasley were noticeably taking advantage of, the redhead spending all of his free time that FitzSimmons saw playing wizards chess with anyone who would play with him and talking the ear off of anyone who would listen about quidditch, and especially the final match of the year between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw that had just taken place.
Of course, the slacking students were much less of an annoyance than a few of the extremely studious ones, who wanted to brag and make sure that everyone knew exactly how much they were studying, like the grades were given out based on how many hours you studied in the last week of school before the exams, not how well you knew the information and were able to answer questions and perform spells.
Worst of these was probably Ernie Macmillan, who cornered FitzSimmons outside of the greenhouse Thursday morning, and demanded with a manic gleam in his eyes, "How many hours d'you think you're doing a day?"
As Fitz debated retorting something like 'hours of what?', Simmons jumped ahead and answered slightly pompously, "We studied throughout the entire year, so that we don't have to cram now. So we aren't doing any more than we have any other day through the year, and since the professors have stopped giving us homework for some stupid reason, we're actually probably doing less than normal."
"All to get better grades than anyone else here," Fitz interjected helpfully. "Better grades than anyone's ever got here before, in fact."
Simmons, who was on a roll though, was already continuing on with her own grievance against the professors. "I mean, homework is how you learn! Whose monumentally stupid idea was it to stop making students study right before the exams, when you need to study the most?! I mean, sure, the homework could shift from new material to review material, like classes have, covering everything that we've studied this year and last, and even third year if the OWLs go back that far, but to stop giving homework at all?! That's completely moronic!"
Fortunately for Macmillan's ego, Professor Sprout ushered them all inside the greenhouse at that moment, so he didn't have to hear anything more about how his eight plus hours a day were going to get their bum kicked by two students who were studying even less than normal, and wished that the professors were still giving them homework.
But students who bragging about their study habits weren't the only ones causing panic amongst the other students about the upcoming exams. Malfoy was expounding as far and wide as possible that OWL grades had absolutely nothing to do with the actual tests that you took and how well you did on those tests, but rather who you knew in the Wizarding Examinations Authority. And to exactly no one's surprise, his father just so happened to be the greatest friend in all the world with the head of the WEA, and had her around for supper all the time, and yada, yada, yada, he was going to get the best scores of anyone without even having to try.
FitzSimmons, who had read everything that the library had on OWL exams as soon as they had learned about them years before, knew that this was a complete load of bullshite — well, the scores being based on who you knew part, anyway, the Malfoys really could be good friends with Madam Marchbanks for all they knew or cared, it mattered not — as the exam graders had special spells cast on them when they graded the exams, spells similar to what the Goblet of Fire had cast on it for picking the most worthy entrants for the TriWizard Cup, so that they couldn't unfairly grade the exams, most commonly for the sake of increasing the purebloods' scores and decreasing the muggleborns' scores in order to continue the pureblood bigotry that was still so rampant in the wizarding world. A fact that FitzSimmons tried sharing with everyone they saw who seemed to be worried by what Malfoy was saying, since as usual the teachers hadn't said a bloody thing about it to reassure all of their students that the exams were fairly graded no matter what the color of your blood was. That students couldn't use any special quills or other magical devices to cheat, sure, but not that the exams themselves were actually fair to begin with.
But finally the first of the two weeks of OWLs arrived, and the panic settled down into actually having to take the exams instead of being in a right state of worry about them — the anxiousness about something really often was worse than the actual thing itself. First up was the Charms written exam, give the incantation and then the wand movement for a long list of charms. A piece of cake for FitzSimmons and they were finished halfway through the allotted time, earning them glares from everyone else in the Great Hall as they turned their exam parchments in to the rather shocked examiners (though a slightly less shocked Professor McGonagall who was there with them, though she did give the genius pair a wary look, as if giving them a warning that they had better've aced their exams if they were turning them in after only an hour), and walked out of the Great Hall to go practice for the practical that afternoon.
The practical was at least slightly more entertaining for them, because they could shock their respective examiners by performing all of the charms requested of them nonverbally, something that neither of their examiners had ever seen from OWL students before, as they both commented to their respective FitzSimmon. And after breezing though all of the charms on the test so much quicker, easier, more perfect, and of course more silent, than anyone else, their examiners asked if they would like to try a few additional spells as well, just for the fun of it since they had plenty of time.
This same pattern of written and practical exams continued on each day, FitzSimmons finishing their written in half the time available while many students didn't even completely finish in time, and their nonverbal and perfect spellcasting impressing the examiners so much that they let them do additional, even more advanced pieces of magic just because they could.
In fact, the only exam that FitzSimmons noticed anything noteworthy in was the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical, where it looked like everyone else whom they saw taking their practicals while each of them were in there, were struggling greatly with all of the jinxes and curses and spells that FitzSimmons had seen in the dozen fifth year books that they had read through in class for the first three months of class back in the fall instead of the propaganda that they had been assigned, as if perhaps just reading about spells really didn't make you capable of actually performing them, as Umbridge had lied her fat arse off about during their second class when Simmons had informed her that the two of them had already read through the propaganda and had it all memorized, and she told them to just read it again.
Surprise, effing surprise.
FitzSimmons seriously doubted that Dumbledore or the Ministry would allow only two students to pass on to NEWTs out of an entire class, though, and so fully expected to see most, if not all of their classmates again the next year despite utterly failing fifth year. It also was a good reminder to all of the Hogwarts adults that without practice you can't perform any spells, and so they'd better get their arses into gear and fix the problem before the next year, government be damned. FitzSimmons' only concern was that Fudge would use the horrendous grades as an excuse to say that Dumbledore should be fired from the position of headmaster, despite it being the class that Fudge had appointed both teachers for that had been the one to do so terribly — spin it the right way to the Board of Governors and the Ministry sheeple reading the story in the Daily Prophet, and the truth couldn't be less relevant.
But that wasn't something that they could control or even influence, and the adults had better get their act together and start standing up for the students and what they personally believed in if anything like that started occurring, or there were much bigger problems than who was the headmaster of the school. The real war was already lost if no one was willing to stand up and put their necks and lives on the line.
As far as the rest of the OWL exams that year went, everyone was noticeably much more comfortable and competent in the Potions practical since Snape wasn't allowed to be breathing down their necks berating them and treating them as less than human, though five years of abuse and no teaching was certainly still bound to have its negative effects on how well everyone did compared to how well they could have done had they had an actual teacher for all of their time at Hogwarts, or even just for a year or two. But nothing else of note occurred besides that, FitzSimmons having expected that almost no one besides themselves would look as if they were doing even halfway reasonably on the History of Magic exam given the fact that Binns made it the most boring, dull subject in the history of wizardkind, and soon enough the two weeks of exams were over, and there was a free week before the end of school for the year and everyone went home. But the excitement that the OWLs lacked, the twins more than made up for that evening after all of the exams were over and done with for the year, and forever for them personally.
As everyone was happily eating supper, celebrating the end of another year of studying and the start of a summer of mindless drivel, the twins burst into the Great Hall and shouted out, "Everyone out in the courtyard in five minutes if you want to see something really cool! Don't want to miss it! Pip pip!"
Knowing that whatever the twins had was bound to be exciting, everyone leapt up and hurried out to the courtyard to see the surprise. Once everyone was gathered more like ten minutes later, Fred used his wand to light an enormous crate of enchanted fireworks of their own creation. Magical fireworks of every possible kind exploded out of it — dragons made of green and gold sparkles soared through the air letting out loud, fiery blasts and bangs; neon pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter wizzed through the air like ufos; rockets joined their space-worthy compatriots with long, bright silver tails comprised of stars; sparklers danced through the air writing out words celebrating the end of exams; and assorted firecrackers exploded all around everywhere you looked. And instead of burning themselves out or disappearing from sight, the twins' creations just seemed to gain energy and momentum the longer they burned.
After letting everyone enjoy them for several minutes, George pointed his wand at one of the rockets and shouted, "Stupefy!"
Rather than freezing like Stupefy normally did to objects that it hit, the rocket exploded with such a force that it made the ground shake faintly beneath all of their feet. Then Fred pointed his own wand at one of the dragons and cast the Vanishing Charm at it, making it multiply by ten.
Addressing the crowd, George shouted out, "There are other spells as well that will have other reactions! Have fun!"
For the rest of the evening, everyone was trying to see who could create the most spectacular results, the fireworks quickly spreading throughout the grounds and still burning long into the night after everyone had finally gone inside and headed to bed.
As FitzSimmons were peacefully sleeping that night, Voldemort was strolling into the Department of Mysteries to retrieve his Prophecy Orb.
Coming up with no other way of retrieving his prophecy besides doing it himself, earlier in the week he had made some of his less important slaves try apparating into the Hall of Prophecies where the glass spun balls were kept, and to even his own astonishment at the stupidity of the Ministry, he confirmed the report that he had received that there were no wards against apparation like there were at Hogwarts and even most people's private houses. So this night he and a few of his higher-ranking slaves, such as Lucious Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, apparated in themselves, black shapes emerging out of thin air at the end of row ninety-seven. There sat the orb — From S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D., about the Dark Lord and (?)Harry Potter. As one of only two who could, the other being safely locked away at Hogwarts during the school year and completely vanished during the summer, Voldemort easily picked the prophecy up, enjoying its warmth against his own cold palm for a moment before storing it away in his robes.
"Let us go — we have what Dumbledore has been trying to hide from me all this time, the secret to my final conquering of Harry Potter."
And with that they apparated back to the secret apparation point inside of Malfoy Manor. Leaving all of his minions behind, Voldemort took the glass orb into what had previously been Mr Malfoy's study, and set it down carefully on the desk. Tapping it with his wand that Pettigrew had magically procured for him from somewhere, sometime after he had been blasted into a less-than-human spirit form that certainly couldn't carry it out of the rubble of the Potter's cottage himself as he fled to Albania upon being hit by the ricochet of his Killing Curse off of the baby Potter, the pearly-white ghost form of Sybill Trelawney with her hugely magnified eyes rose into the air from the inside of the ball, and began speaking in a harsh, hoarse tone completely unlike her own.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"
"Well, that was a complete waste of a year," Voldemort muttered to himself as ghost Trelawney dissolved into nothingness again, leaving just the small glass orb lying innocently on the desk. "It would have been helpful to know '...he will have power I know not…' fifteen years ago, but it doesn't help me at all now that I've already marked Potter as my equal — as if. But I do wonder why Dumbledore has been spending so much time and effort trying to prevent me from getting this prophecy instead of convincing people that I'm back and stopping me from building up my numbers in the shadows? Because this prophecy helps me absolutely none. Then again, I did spend a lot of my time trying to get this especially since Dumbledore was trying to protect it so hard, so maybe that was his plan all along — waste both our times.
"Because I've already marked Potter I now know that he has some power I don't know, but still don't know what that power actually is unless it's the ability to survive Avada, which I guess I can try to look into and keep in the back of my mind when I do go to kill him. Then it says that one of us has to kill the other, which is obviously going to be me killing him, but there is absolutely no explanation given for why I have to kill him and someone else can't do it, so who knows if that's even true or not, or just a prophecy that I will kill him eventually, because obviously I'll be the one to do it. And I probably actually don't have to do it myself, since 'Neither can live while the other survives' is obviously a load of bullshite since we've both been living simultaneously for fifteen years now. Unless it means me living my intended life as ruler of the world both wizarding and muggle, that I can't do as long as Potter's still alive, which I suppose is at least partially true because I'll always be worried about him and wasting my precious time hunting him down to kill him. Yeah, that's probably what it's really saying. And then the last bit's just a repeat of the first part that Snape heard for me all those years ago, because heaven forbid a Seer doesn't just make a prophecy that ends like a normal person's conversation.
"So other than keeping in mind that Avada might still not work on him, and I might need to use a lesser curse to kill him, the second half of the prophecy's a waste and gave me nothing of real use."
~FS~
The following morning, a bright and clear Saturday, FitzSimmons were finishing up a late (for them) breakfast when the morning post owls flew in.
And just as they were about to stand up and head first to their dorm to get their Firebolt and then outside to fly it around, Sara Jones hurried over to them from where she was sitting with her seventh year friends a ways down the table from the Shield couple.
"You're going to want to see this," she said, handing the Daily Prophet to them to read the front page article.
~.~
3 YEAR MANHUNT FINALLY ENDS
Mass murderer Sirius Black was captured at long last near Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire.
A tip-off by the prestigious Mister Lucious Malfoy himself, who spotted the escaped convict roaming near his property the night before last, led to a team of highly trained aurors capturing the elusive convict late last night in the dark when the mass murderer was least expecting anyone and had his guard down.
Minister Cornelius Fudge has informed the Daily Prophet that a Wizengamot trial will be held for the mass murderer on Monday, adding evading the authorities to his long list of crimes he was already imprisoned for, but that it should be a very short trial and the murderer should be back in Azkaban where he belongs by Monday evening at the absolute latest. Fudge declined to comment on why the Dementors Kiss order that he signed two years ago upon the capture of Black was not applied, or whether or not it will be implemented upon his arrival back at Azkaban sometime on Monday.
~.~
"Well, at least he's getting a trial and wasn't immediately executed," was Fitz's immediate comment upon finishing the short article.
"Let's just hope it's actually a trial, and not a farce where the Wizengamot has already found him guilty before hearing anything he has to say," Simmons replied. "This isn't exactly a Ministry that I would trust to take care of my goldfish for an overnight trip, let alone give someone who they clearly believe to be guilty based on the number of times they call him guilty in two and a half short paragraphs, a real, fair trial. But I guess we'll find out Tuesday morning, or a special edition Monday evening." Looking back up at Sara she added, "Thank you, Sara, for showing us."
"Not at all," Sara answered. "I know you two like to know the big things going on."
FitzSimmons (and Sara and everyone else in wizarding Britain) heard nothing more about the trial of Sirius Black for the rest of the weekend or on Monday, but on Tuesday morning a most surprising article headlined the front page of the newspaper.
~.~
SIRIUS BLACK FOUND INNOCENT BY WIZENGAMOT
In a shocking turn of events, Sirius Black was found not guilty on all charges Monday afternoon.
In Veritaserum testimony yesterday, Mr Black cleared his name by exposing how school friend Peter Pettigrew, once-thought hero and victim of the muggle massacre fourteen and a half years ago that Black was imprisoned for, was actually the guilty party that tragic day. According to Black's testimony, during their fifth year at Hogwarts, Black, Pettigrew, and James Potter, father of the Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter, all secretly became unregistered animagi, Peter Pettigrew's form being that of a rat. And it was through turning into his secret rat animagus form that Pettigrew was able to murder twelve muggles while framing Mr Black by faking his own death, and escape undetected for almost fifteen years while Black went to Azkaban. Additionally, it was Pettigrew who betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who, not Black, enabling You-Know-Who to track down the Potters and orphan baby Harry.
Mr Black escaped from Azkaban two years ago using his own dog animagus form after seeing a picture in the Daily Prophet of Pettigrew in his rat form, with its missing toe that Pettigrew cut off in his framing of Black and escape, so that the only piece of Pettigrew that was ever found was his finger, leading authorities to believe for nearly a decade and a half that Black had blown Pettigrew up so much that that was all that was left of Pettigrew. Mr Black's reason for escaping Azkaban was to attempt to protect Harry Potter by tracking down the traitor himself before Pettigrew could try to complete the mission that You-Know-Who had set out on that fateful Halloween night and harm Harry Potter, Mr Black knowing that no one would believe his story when all of the evidence fifteen years ago pointed to his guilt.
As for the reason behind Black receiving the trial that proved his innocence instead of being handed over to the dementors immediately upon his capture, an anonymous source from high inside the Aurors Office revealed to the Prophet that an Unbreakable Vow was made by Minister Cornelius Fudge, former Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot Albus Dumbledore, Head of the DMLE Madam Amelia Bones, and Head of the Auror Office Rufus Scrimgeour, that upon Black's capture he would be given the full Wizengamot trial that he never had when he was first sentenced to Azkaban nearly fifteen years ago in the wake of You-Know-Who's death at the hands of Harry Potter, when Death Eaters were being captured so fast by the Ministry that a few like Sirius Black apparently slipped through the cracks and never received full trials.
However, many court members remain convinced of Black's guilt. According to one member who wished to remain anonymous, "If he could escape Azkaban, a supposedly inescapable prison, who's to say he couldn't negate the effects of Veritaserum as well and buy off enough of the Wizengamot to set himself free? No sane person would believe these wild accusations against the late Order of Merlin, First Class Peter Pettigrew, that he is still alive and behind all of this. It's exactly the same as the disgraced Dumbledore claiming that You-Know-Who is back."
The Weasley family is also now under investigation for harboring a fugitive for over a decade, though sources inside the Ministry highly doubt that anything will come of this, that the family couldn't have reasonably known that their pet rat was actually a mass murderer. And finally, questions are arising about the Azkaban breakout at the beginning of this year now that Black has been cleared of orchestrating it, despite being the first person to have ever broken out of the wizarding prison two years ago.
~.~
"Rat animagus? Weasleys? You don't think that Scabbers is Pettigrew, and the sneakoscope we had always went off around it because of this, and it deliberately fled when we took it to Professor Lupin, do you?" Fitz asked in shock as soon as they finished reading the article.
"Sure seems like it," Simmons answered. "Wonder if that had anything to do with the oath to give Mr Black a trial, as well. Professor Lupin and Dumbledore guessed what the rat really was, and Dumbledore made sure that Mr Black was given a fair chance to clear himself once he was captured?"
"If it did, then we did our job," Fitz replied. "Saved an innocent man's life and unveiled the truth that was denied the opportunity to see the light of day fifteen years ago."
But saving Mr Black's life wasn't the only positive impact that his trial, and therefore FitzSimmons' suspicions about Scabbers two years before, was going to have. Because the following morning there was a third article on the front page of the Daily Prophet.
~.~
COULD DUMBLEDORE'S FEARMONGERING OF THE PAST TWO YEARS ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN TRUE?
Following Sirius Black's shocking trial, new evidence has come to light supporting Dumbledore's claim that You-Know-Who has returned from the dead.
While the claim that You-Know-Who is back is still completely unsubstantiated, Minister Fudge and the Ministry are now advising all citizens to be alert to the possibility that You-Know-Who really has returned and will be trying to regain his former power. Leaflets have been sent out with this issue of the Daily Prophet, and will continue to be sent out periodically with updated information, on how to protect your home and family against dark forces, just in case these claims by Dumbledore do in fact turn out to be true.
This change in official position about the state of the former Dark Lord comes from two official developments, though there are likely more reasons that have not yet been released by the Office of the Minister to the Daily Prophet for publishing, as this is still a developing situation.
The first is Black being cleared from having anything to do with the January breakout from Azkaban of ten convicted Death Eaters, whose whereabouts are still unknown. It was originally believed that Black helped these ten follow in his footsteps and escape the wizarding prison, but now that that is known not to be the case, the question arises of how these ten did escape. While Black managed to escape on his own, none of the ten escaped Death Eaters are known to be animagi, and it is highly improbable that all ten of them would be able to escape in the same way that Black did even if some were unregistered animagi. Which begs the question, did they in fact have outside help, and possibly help from the dementors themselves if Dumbledore's warnings about their allegiance are true, just help from a different source than Black? And if they did, as seems possible according to veteran Aurors, then who helped them? Could it really be You-Know-Who, back from the dead?
Additionally, these ten have not wrecked any havoc in the name of their former Master since their escape six months ago, something that Dumbledore claims is because they are working for a living You-Know-Who and operating in the shadows to avoid the public becoming aware of You-Know-Who's return. And while this claim is completely unsubstantiated, it is odd that ten Death Eaters known for their public acts of violence, torture, and murder during the reign of You-Know-Who, have not been heard from a single time. What have they been up to since their escape that is more important to their sick, deranged minds than perpetuating the fear that You-Know-Who really could be back?
The second reason that the Ministry is considering the possibility of You-Know-Who's rebirth is because of reports from the Department of Mysteries that a prophecy made about You-Know-Who has been stolen from the Hall of Prophecies. While still unconfirmed by the Ministry itself that this theft actually has anything to do with You-Know-Who, Unspeakables confirm that only the subjects of prophecies are able to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. And as this particular prophecy is rumored to be about You-Know-Who and Harry Potter, and the High Inquisitor, Dumbledore, and the staff of Hogwarts can all confirm that Harry Potter has not left Hogwarts, that would make it seem likely that You-Know-Who had to have removed it himself. And no other potential suspects for the theft have been suggested at this time.
Because of these new developments, Albus Dumbledore has been reinstated as the Chief Warlock of the Wizenfamot at least temporarily, on the condition that he share all of his information on You-Know-Who's possible whereabouts and current actions with the Minister in a joint effort to discover the truth and best protect the public from whatever threats might exist. Additionally, the Ministry is also removing the High Inquisitor from Hogwarts for the time being, and Educational Decrees 22-25 are being suspended for further review.
Finally, Cornelius Fudge has announced that he will step down from the position of Minister at the end of the month to make way for Rufus Scrimgeour, current Head of the Auror Office, who is more familiar with handling times of great upheaval that wizarding Britain may be in for if, heaven forbid, You-Know-Who really is back from the dead.
~.~
"At least the Ministry is out of Hogwarts, and for all intents and purposes is finally admitting that Voldemort really is back," Simmons sighed as she finished reading. "Still covering their arses hardcore, like they didn't just spend the entire last year calling Dumbledore and everyone who believed the truth liars and nutjob conspiracy theorists, but it's definitely a step in the right direction."
"Take the wins where you can get them," Fitz replied, rubbing his wife's arm lightly. "Things could always be better, but we've just had a year of far, far worse. And a school out of the hands of the government is definitely a win."
"I know — and combined with Mr Black's release yesterday, this is a lot of winning, I'm not trying to downplay that. But would it really hurt for them to say, 'Yeah, we fucked up and led you all astray for a year, never trust us again.'?"
"For their perpetual fight to control the people they're supposed to be serving, yeah, it would," Fitz answered with a chuckle. "Come on, Jemma, let's go fly. Get away from the politics and clear our heads with the clear skies. I'm sure none of this is over, but we don't have classes and can go enjoy the beautiful day outside, and deal with this world's adults when something actually arises for us to do, and not just be irritated over."
Smiling softly at her ever-thoughtful husband Simmons nodded, and giving the newspaper back to Sara, stood up and headed out of the Great Hall to go enjoy one of their last few days at the castle before summer.
~FS~
That evening at supper, Dumbledore himself walked up FitzSimmons and asked to speak with them briefly in his office.
Once they were settled around his desk, Dumbledore said, "The end of the year is upon us once more, and the beginning of summer. Which, I dare say, you presumably plan on spending wherever it is that you spend it, and doubtlessly are already making your plans to escape to. And last year we came to an understanding that you can take care of yourselves over the summer, which I will continue to honor as you have done very well so far. I do, however, have two requests of you before you go. And I promise that I will let you go on your way without question as soon as they are completed if you will do them for me. Now, I know that you may not trust me the most, especially on something like your freedom over the summer, but…please. Both of them are important for you, Harry, and one of them is also very important for the school, and wizarding Britain at large."
Simmons studied him shrewdly for several seconds, before finally asking still slightly warily, "And what exactly is it that you want us to do for you?"
"First, you may or may not be aware of this, but Sirius Black is your godfather, Harry," Dumbledore answered. "And upon his being declared a free man by the Wizengamot, he immediately asked to meet with you, having been forcefully separated from his godson for the last fourteen years. I informed him that adults are not regularly allowed inside Hogwarts grounds, but that I would ask you if you were willing to meet him once school had let out. He cares more about you, Harry, than can be expressed, and I would highly suggest you meet him, whatever else you do this summer.
"And in conjunction with that meeting, I also ask you to help me persuade an old colleague of mine to come out of retirement and return to Hogwarts. I think you could be most helpful in that endeavor, and it is most crucial that he return to teach. And since I may not have been most clear on this, I do of course mean both of you for both of these meetings — I would never dream of asking you two to separate for even a moment, when it is most clear to anyone who has ever met you that that will not happen."
Fitz turned to look at Simmons, knowing that she was the best between them at sussing out whether this was an endeavor that they should embark on with the headmaster or not.
And Simmons chewed her lower lip for several long seconds, thinking hard over everything that Dumbledore had told them, before finally answering, "Yes. We will do both. But as good as Mr Black may possibly be, make sure he understands that we will not be going anywhere with him over the summer, we already have our plans. And it's nothing against him, or him not being able to be there for Harry because the government unlawfully imprisoned him without trial for fifteen years, it's just that we have our own lives, and are going to keep it that way."
"I will pass that along before you meet him," Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "And I thank you greatly for doing this for me. You will understand next year why recruiting Professor Slughorn is so important, but that is a much longer discussion that needs a certain amount of context to be properly understood, that does not make sense to have right before the start of summer. And on that topic, I wish for you two to have private lessons with me next year from time to time. There is much information that I probably should have told you before now, and other important information that I want your thoughts on as much as simply telling you what I know. But I will elaborate fully when we meet next fall. As for the present, while everyone else is boarding the carriages and then the Hogwarts Express, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to Hogsmeade to meet with Sirius, and then on to my dear friend Horace — Slughorn, that is? After that, you will be free to travel wherever you do each summer."
"That is acceptable," Simmons answered.