Chapter 5 Waiting for War

Dear Hermione,

On 24 June (A.N. the date of the third task), Peter Pettigrew tried to sneak into Ilvermorny, but was detected by the wards and caught. MACUSA law-enforcement gave him a 10-year sentence. This no doubt signifies that V is up to no good. Also, I'm having nightmares that make my scar hurt. This started last October, but has become more frequent. We worry that this is another bad sign.

Other than that, this schoolyear at Ilvermorny has been like the one I was hoping to have at the beginning of this year at Hogwarts.

No, I never got any mail from strangers. We only discussed this after we left, and we don't want to go to the UK just to investigate. We suspect Dumbledore put up a mail-ward in 1981, it's the only thing that makes sense, and if true is just one more way he decided my life for me without ever telling me.

I've come around to your point of view about Hagrid. He has always been so nice to me that I was inclined to overlook his penchant for giving away secrets and introducing his students to animals they are not experienced enough to handle. Now that I'm having Care of Magical Creatures by a professor with a progressive 7-year lesson plan I can see what a difference it makes.

Since the end of the school year, the three of us have been on some daytrips to see some of the magical and non-magical sights in the USA. R and I preferred the Grand Canyon and the Everglades over Washington DC and New York, S was the other way around. S is trying to insist we need to visit Las Vegas, and we'll probably give in.

I got a A- (»O) on my Transfiguration OWL. Thank you, Professor McGonagall, for your excellent teaching. I'll drop it next year, because a NEWT class is too intensive to fit into my OWL year when I'll be busy enough trying to get my Potions and Care of Magical Creatures up to OWL level. I might take up Transfiguration again after that.

Please find attached a shrunken mirror. It's spelled unbreakable, so you'll need to cast a Finite Indissulobilis before you can unshrink it (though the enchantments should be more difficult to remove than a charm, so a Finite Incantatem with a clear intent of only removing the shrinking charm should work, Remus thought that for repeated use Engorgio might be better to make sure the enchantments are not affected). You can call me by saying my name to the mirror. Please remember not to call me before 3 pm UK time.

Cheers,

Harry

Hermione had had to go to Diagon Alley to get an adult to undo the charms for her, but it had been well worth it for a chance to talk to Harry without having to wait for an owl. "Harry Potter."

"Accept."

"Hello Harry, thank you for the mirror. That's really impressive magic."

"Yes, it's not used very much, because, unlike telephones, you can't call different people on the same mirror, so most people prefer owls. Sirius and my dad had a pair because they got up to so much trouble that they wanted to talk while they each had separate detentions and would get bored. But it's also used by people like us, who want to stay in touch internationally and don't want the delay that using an owl causes."

"Congratulations on your OWL. How are you getting on with your other subjects?"

"Defence, Charms, Arithmancy and Herbology are good. I'm going to try and catch up with Potions by the end of the coming school year, and I'd like to do my OWLs in Care of Magical Creatures and Runes in two years. How about you?"

"This year was good. Like you said, it's rather nice not to be in any life-threatening situations and just be able to study. But next year I intend to do 10 OWLs, so it's going to be tough. I promised I would take it easy when I go to Spain with my parents, but the rest of the holidays I'm going to study ahead, so that I can keep up with everything when I go back to Hogwarts."

"And how are things with Victor, are you two together?"

"No. He invited me to come and stay with his parents in Bulgaria, but I couldn't see it working. I really liked him, but he's 2½ years older, and moving to Bulgaria would be difficult because Durmstrang doesn't accept muggleborns, and as I said I don't want to leave anyway. Although, after I read what you said about Pettigrew getting caught in Ilvermorny, I fear that at some point leaving may become necessary. Once that happens, I'll decide then."

"Have you talked with your parents about it?"

"Yes. They were unconvinced. I'm not sure whether it's because for years I've been downplaying the dangerous situations at Hogwarts, or because they don't really understand wizarding society, or because it's such a banana-republic kind of thing for a terrorist to be trying to take over the government that they can't really believe it would happen in Britain. It's rather depressing. On the other hand, I want to thank you for pushing me to talk to them about it. If left to myself I might have waited until after OWLs, but this way I have another year to try and make them see it's looking bad."

Harry nodded, not knowing what to say. After some moments he asked, "how are you getting on with the underage magic detection?"

"As you'd expect, it's complicated. I could destroy it without problem, but I would need to do it in such a way that the ministry wouldn't immediately figure out what has happened and arrest me as well as restore the damage. I don't know whether that is possible. I don't suppose you know anyone who knows computer programming?"

"No, I only know Sirius, Remus and students at Ilvermorny here."

"I'll ask my cousins. At the moment I think that's my best chance at success, to use the speed of a computer to go through many arithmantic permutations, and pick out something that degrades the magic detection without anything obvious being broken."

Harry smiled, "you haven't even done your OWLs yet, but what your saying sounds like mastery level to me."

"That's what I'm worried about, that I won't find a solution soon enough. I've tried to subtly find out the political leanings of Professor Babbling. She's somewhere in the middle of the Potter to Malfoy spectrum, but I'm not sure that's enough that I can tell her what I'm really trying to achieve."

"Remus knows a fair bit about runes as well. Much less than the professor, I'm sure, but at least you can rely on him to not tell the Ministry."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"Shall we talk again in a month?"

"Wait, I've done all the talking, what have you been up to."

"Ah, nothing much really. I already put the exciting bits in my latest letter. In a month I could tell you about the potions camp and whatever crazy scheme Sirius is cooking up that he won't tell me about."

"What about your nightmares?"

"I think Tom is back among the living. I think he's using the fact that no-one knows he's back to prepare while our side sit on our hands. I've owled Madam Bones, the head of law enforcement. She is trying to also quietly prepare, but Minister Fudge is in the pocket of Malfoy Sr, so she said telling him would be counterproductive, and without his support there is only so much she can do. Sirius is trying to reduce the economic power of the Death Eaters by getting rid of some of the investments of House Black, but Slytherins are used to those kinds of shifting alliances, therefore so far it hasn't had much of an impact yet. Black is possibly the richest House, so Sirius hopes that if he keeps shifting his money abroad that eventually it will start to hurt."

"I'm glad to hear you're trying to find ways to prepare for worse to come. Yes, let's talk again in a month."

"Hermione Granger."

"Harry Potter."

"Hey, how are you enjoying the summer?"

"I've mainly been studying. I could tell you all about the latest arithmantic theories, but rather than bore you with that, why don't you tell me about the potions camp?"

"It was great. If I work hard I might actually stand a chance at 5th year potions in September. And it wasn't just potions. We did a fair bit of ingredient collecting as well. That was a good way to get us out of the laboratory and into the open air, and it was also refreshing to deal with the common ingredients, instead of the usual Herbology and Magical Creatures class, where we learn to deal with the most dangerous we're able to handle at that point. They even managed to throw in some astronomy and arithmancy. And we had trips to a nursery and an import-export business, so they really managed to cover potions from all angles."

"That's good. What about the other students and teachers?"

"The teachers were good. You know, professionals who had all done this before, including making sure everybody had fun as well as learning at our various levels. And the other students were nice, except for this one girl … well, I suppose she was nice enough, but she was incredibly clingy. Must have been either the one fangirl in the USA who has read all the Harry Potter novels, or someone who thought she'd throw herself at a rich heir."

"Poor Harry."

"Well, sure, it was definitely better than the Triwizard Tournament, or even being crushed by twenty adults the first time I showed up in the Leaky Cauldron."

"And has Sirius executed his crazy scheme already?"

"Yes, turned out it was a trip to Las Vegas. He insisted that for the true experience we had to go for a whole week. Remus and I ended up taking turns going with him, because there was only so much of it we could take, but we didn't feel safe letting him go alone. After putting up with that we insisted we would walk from one end of the Olympic National Park to the other."

"How long is that going to take?"

"Probably more than a week, so to keep things fair I guess we'll hike for a week and then take a portkey back. But because there's two of us and only one of Sirius, in addition we negotiated that we would go to four more National Parks. Just for a day each. At the moment the top contenders are the Biscayne coral reef, Sequoia, and Yellowstone."

"Sounds lovely."

"If you want to come, I'm sure that Sirius would be happy to convince a travel agent to send you portkeys."

"Ah, thank you, but I'm already going to Spain."

"For six weeks?"

"Well, no."

"…"

"It's a tempting offer. I'll talk to my parents about it."

"Sirius would be happy to pay for everything."

"But I hardly know him."

"It would make me happy, that would be enough reason for him."

"…"

"I'm pretty sure that he's a billionaire. Well, in muggle currency at least."

"Fair point." "I'll talk to my parents. Shall I call you same time tomorrow?"

"OK."

"Yes, I'd like to come."

"Excellent! Sirius was immediately trying to go overboard with it, but we negotiated him down to a week with four National Parks and three cities. How does that sound?"

"Lovely. And thank you for curbing his enthusiasm. Please remind him that the four National Parks are the main attraction, so he can only have a few activities in each city."

"Yes. At least, we'll do our best. Do you have preferences?"

"No, the three parks you mentioned yesterday sounded great. Whatever else you want to do is fine with me."

"Sirius thought we should do New York, Washington D.C. and Disney World. Remus and I thought that the latter was too much, and we should do it another time. After much whinging Sirius conceded with New Orleans."

"Hmm. Difficult. I agree with all of you. It's my turn to whinge. You know what my solution was to having to choose electives, so can I say that whatever you three agree on is perfect for me as well?"

"OK. And what dates could you do?"

"We're going to Spain on Saturday for three weeks, so between 21 and 31 August."

"No problem. I expect they will owl the portkey to Spain. I'm looking forward to seeing you."

"Me too. Be sure to thank Sirius profusely."

Harry had to suffer through three weeks of innuendo from Sirius, which Harry put up with; he would have liked to say put up with heroically, but in truth it was resignedly, knowing that however little or much Harry protested it wouldn't change how Sirius acted. However, Harry drew the line at embarrassing Hermione, so he told him that he had to shut up about it once she arrived. Harry was relieved when Sirius agreed.

They had a great week. When Hermione arrived she was fuming about the assigned Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook, but she quickly got into the holiday spirit. At the end of the week Sirius told Hermione he had agreed to leave Disney World off the itinerary only if it would be included next year and that he hoped she would join them then.

"Hermione Granger."

"Harry Potter."

"Happy birthday."

"Thank you for the book on warding."

"Sorry it wasn't very imaginative to buy you a book."

"No, no, it was imaginative to buy me the right book."

"I'm glad. How is life back at Hogwarts?"

"Mostly the same. All the professors started their lesson by pointing out we have OWLs at the end of the year, and then assigned more homework than in previous years. The latest Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts has been assigned by the Ministry. They actually pushed through an educational decree just so that the Minister could interfere at Hogwarts. It is purely political, although they of course told the Daily Prophet that they were improving the standards of education. However, Professor Umbridge doesn't teach at all. I mentioned this horrific book she uses, and she just has us read a chapter every week. She actually had the gall to say that if we had studied the theory sufficiently that we would be able to do the practical part of the exam just fine."

"Calm down, Hermione. I agree that it's outrageous, but Dumbledore is useless, and the Minister is clearly ready to sacrifice the students' education for his political gain, so you'll have to fly under the radar. Ward a room, make sure you have an alternative exit, like bringing brooms, so that you can fly out of the window if you have to. Then practise with a small group. Maybe ask Madam Bones for help, but don't involve any of the teachers. Even if they want to help you, they might end up having to choose between you and their jobs."

"But if we only have a small group, then everybody else will fail their OWL."

"No, if they care about their OWLs they will find a way themselves. If you start a large group, it will be too noticeable. A few people together can claim they were practising charms. Or doing their written homework if you leave your books and essays lying ready and you have a detection ward in the corridor."

"You might be right. I'll give it some more thought. That isn't all, though. Hagrid is gone, and no-one will tell us where he is, or whether he's alright. There's a substitute teacher for Magical Creatures." … "How are things at your end?"

"Thankfully, much quieter. So far, I've been doing well in fifth-year Potions. So I intend to do five more OWLs at the end of the year."

"Plus fourth-year Magical Creatures and Runes?"

"Yes, and third-year Runes as well, plus the odd History lesson. So, not as crazy as your ten OWLs, but busy enough."

"How are Sirius and Remus?"

"They seem to be going through a second childhood. They're in a continuous low-level prank war, where they alternate between collaborating on a new invention, or trying to get one over on the other. Remus regularly finds a few weeks of work, I think mostly because he's too proud to accept Sirius paying for everything. During those weeks Sirius often finds a short-term girlfriend."

"Unless you had something else you wanted to talk about, I'll speak to you in a month."

"Actually, I've just remembered that I still have a map of Hogwarts that Sirius, Remus and my dad made. The twins found it and gave it to me. I'll send it to you. Please be sure that Umbridge doesn't find it, OK? I'll talk to you in a month."

"Harry Potter."

"Accept."

"Hey, Harry. Thanks a lot for the map. How is quidditch?"

"Good. We haven't played our first game yet, but the new players are integrating into the team well. There's an amateur USA-wide league, and I've been invited to play seeker for the Ilvermorny team."

"Congratulations, I'm not surprised."

"How are you getting on with the illegal Defence club?"

"I followed your advice, and asked Susan, Neville, Justin, Lisa and Morag, and then Susan brought Hannah along. The Ministry appointed Umbridge as High Inquisitor in addition to her professorship, which is as intrusive as it sounds. She's been inspecting the other teachers. Professor McGonagall wasn't fazed at all, told her that if she wanted to learn her habitual teaching style she'd have to shut her mouth, because she's not in the habit of letting others interrupt her while she's speaking. However, she got Hagrid all flustered with underhanded tactics. She's quite well-known for her prejudice against half-humans, and she made it quite clear she wasn't going to give Hagrid a fair chance. I'm told her inspection of Professor Trelawney was at least as bad."

"There's 7 of you practising defence?"

"Yes, and I think you were right in another thing as well. Others have started similar gatherings, and everybody knows about the biggest one."

"Have you told them they are being too obvious?"

"They wouldn't listen to me if I did."

"Who's leading it?"

"I don't know. Cormac McLaggen was bragging about how their lack of Defence teaching wasn't really such a big problem, and the Weasley twins were staring daggers at him, so I gather they're in the same group. The next day McLaggen got pranked, but he's so unobservant that he didn't make the connection."

"How are the twins?"

"They're menaces. They've set their hearts on starting a joke shop. Ginny told me that Mrs Weasley disapproves. It makes me wonder whether it's a coincidence that both of the two oldest sons have emigrated, doing dangerous but challenging work, and the third is in a nice and safe, boring job at the Ministry."

"Do you think you could ask the twins for their business plan without making it obvious that it's me who's asking?"

"Well, beneath the childishness and the bravado I think they're actually smart enough, so I'm not sure I can. … I could ask them anonymously. Or if you're only worried about the rest of Britain knowing, I could tell them to keep quiet about it."

"The latter, please."

"Alright, talk to you in a month?"

"Yes. Constant vigilance."

"Hi, how is the Umbridge drama unfolding?"

"Rita Skeeter has asked me to keep her informed on what's happening at Hogwarts."

"And how is that working out?"

"Well. It's really weird, and I do worry that it will come back to bite me, but I went with the 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' attitude, and she's been writing articles in the Daily Prophet that have portrayed Umbridge and Fudge as abusing the power of the Ministry, and how Hogwarts shouldn't be used to fight a political battle by subverting education. And Umbridge has been making it really easy to criticise her by introducing an educational decree that forces us to ask permission for every regular meeting of three or more students, which means that every informal study group has to be officially approved."

"Umbridge has found out about the students teaching themselves defence, then?"

"Presumably. The penalty for unsanctioned groups is expulsion, and nobody has been expelled yet, but I think it's only a matter of time."

"Have you asked for permission for the study group of the seven of you?"

"Yes, as a charms study group. We're still waiting for a decision. That was one of the harsher criticisms in the Daily Prophet, that we're being kept from doing our homework because Umbridge is being both slow in granting permission and prejudiced in which groups have gotten permission already."

"I think between you, you should swamp her with more applications. If you each find several students that would agree to study defence with, and a different group to study transfiguration with, then you can distract her with too much work, and then use her lack of response to paint her in a bad light."

"Yes, we had talked about doing that already. We're in the process of finding students who we trust not to rat us out."

"Then don't tell them what you're really doing."

"I thought of that, but you also said that I should trust that other people will figure it out themselves. That not only means some of them will figure out to overload her with requests for clubs, but also that if I ask those who are not doing that of their own accord, that it would be easy to conclude I'm organising a resistance, and if I'm too loud then Umbridge will single me out for punishment, and I've come around to your viewpoint that we want to stay below the radar."

"Good point. And do you think other people are figuring it out?"

"Yes. There is a lot of angry muttering going about."

"All right. It sounds like you don't need my warning, but allow me to say it anyway: please be careful of Skeeter."

"I know. If turning on me becomes more sensational than going after Umbridge, she wouldn't hesitate. Anyway, what's happening at your end."

"I'm living the dream. Studying hard, playing quidditch, mostly getting along with Sirius and Remus."

"Only mostly?"

"Sirius and Remus are- …", Harry sighed, "Don't get me wrong, they're great, but they're also exasperating. I asked them about the fight against Tom, but they just left all the strategic decisions to Dumbledore, even though they were losing, so I think he was a poor leader. And apparently my mother also thought so, and when she discussed her reasons for her lack of faith in Dumbledore with them, they said they agreed, but then still refused to help her change the hierarchy. Remus even told me in private that she had tested all of them for charms and potions, but they had shown up negative."

"You wanted to know how to build a resistance group?"

"Yes. You know, 'it's smart to learn from your mistakes but smarter to learn from others' mistakes'"

"Grindelwald was in the USA for a bit. There should still be people alive who remember."

"That's a good point. I'll ask around. Talk to you in a month."

"Have you won all your quidditch matches so far?"

"No. I did catch the snitch all four games, but in the amateur league we managed to do a Bulgaria, getting behind so many points that we lost anyway."

"The training must take up a lot of your time."

"Yes, in fact I told the school team that I couldn't come to the weekend training anymore; that I train with the amateur league team instead. Fortunately, the amateurs all play in their own school teams, so we have reserves who take our spots when we play a school match that week. I still go to the Potions club, and two years of Runes at the same time is really a lot of work, but you know that after going flying for a few hours I can focus on studying better."

"Yes, yes, you keep telling yourself that."

"Do you really think it's not true?"

"No, I do. Sorry. The sarcasm was because I don't understand how it works that you relieve stress by doing something so stressful. I didn't mean to imply that you're lying to yourself. You're not."

"Yes, just as I don't understand how you can relax your brain from doing too much studying by reading fiction."

"Exactly. Hagrid is back. He'd gone with Headmistress Maxime to speak to the giants in the Soviet -, I mean Russia. But the Death Eaters got there about the same time, and they managed to convince a giant to make a bid for leadership and kill the Gurg that they were negotiating with. They then tried to talk with the surviving supporters of the late Gurg, but the new Gurg put an end to that. I tried to warn Hagrid about Umbridge straight after he came back, but you know how headstrong Hagrid can be about his misunderstood creatures, so now he's become Umbridge's public enemy number two."

"Oh, sorry to hear that. How is he holding up?"

"Not that well. It's only been a few weeks, so I'm not sure, but I think he has something dangerous in the Forbidden Forest. His wounds are not healing, and I think it's because he's getting fresh ones. And Professor Dumbledore is too busy to teach Hagrid how to teach but also keep from giving Umbridge ammunition."

"It's easy for me to sit back here and solve all of Hogwarts' problems, but have you considered asking Professor McGonagall?"

"I will ask. It's fine, that won't take much time, but Professor McGonagall is teaching one of the core classes, and running Hogwarts when Professor Dumbledore is off doing one of his other jobs, so I'm not sure she has the time to talk sense into Hagrid."

"Thanks for the business plan of the Weasleys."

"Ah, good, you got that."

"Yes, I've offered to buy a quarter of their company."

"What did you think of my suggestion?"

"I did that too, I made the offer conditional on their passing their NEWTs."

"Thank you for allowing me to avoid death by Mrs Weasley's howlers."

"Do you have plans for the holidays?"

"I'm actually in Austria with my parents, we're on a skying holiday."

"Oh, what's that like?"

"A bit like duelling practice: intense bursts of activity with gaps in between to catch your breath. But it's outdoors, and the frozen mountain air is invigorating."

"Sounds great. Sirius and Remus and I are going on a few day trips, but I'm also studying ahead so that I can continue playing in two quidditch leagues and still pass my OWLs."

"Me too. I'll talk to you in a month, OK?"

However, it was only two weeks later when Hermione called again, so Harry was immediately worried, "Did something happen?"

"Yes."

"… It's bad news, then?"

"Yes. … Mr Weasley was killed. … Fred and George were very upset that no-one would tell them what happened, but they invented something- they call them extendable ears- and they heard the adults talking about the snake of You-Know-Who attacking him while he was on guard duty. They didn't overhear what he was guarding. They confronted the Order about it, argued they had a right to know, but they wouldn't tell them."

"…"

"Harry? I'm sorry. You were quite close to Mr Weasley, weren't you?"

"No. I mean, I liked him, he was kind to me when I stayed at their house, but we were not close. No, I was coming to the horrified realisation that I saw what happened. I thought it was just some weird dream. I woke up because my scar was hurting, but I didn't fully wake up."

"Did you tell Sirius and Remus?"

"No, but I will now. What were you saying about Fred and George? I agree with them completely. It's part of the problem. They fail to keep us out of it, but won't admit it, so we end up facing danger, lacking information that was actually known."

"An SEP field?"

"Luna, have you brewed Polyjuice Potion?"

"Very funny. An SEP field is from a science fiction novel, SEP is the acronym for Somebody Else's Problem. It's like a notice-me-not charm, but made with technology instead of magic. It uses our usual inclination to think a problem is there for someone else to solve to get us to ignore something hidden in plain sight."

"Yes, I suppose it is a common problem. How are Ginny and Ron?"

"Devastated. They're very quiet. I think the twins are planning something major. Presumably against Umbridge."

"I'll write to them. Remind them of their NEWTs. Hopefully that will keep them from going too far."

"Thanks. They're not particularly worried about my prefect badge."

"Do you get the Daily Prophet?"

"If you're talking about the outbreak from Azkaban, that made it into the New York Ghost, the paper here."

"The Minister was quoted as saying it might have been the same group that disturbed the Quidditch World Cup finals."
"Anything to keep from admitting that it was Tom Riddle."

"Who did the Ghost blame?"

"They also quoted Fudge, but added a comment by an anonymous MACUSA official, who said that they assume that Pettigrew's break in at Ilvermorny was only one attempt to revive the British Dark Lord, and that he must have succeeded some other way. And also that they transferred Pettigrew to a secret facility to prevent a similar break in here."

"Maybe you should write to the paper, saying that Riddle is not going to stop once he conquers Britain, and that the international community can either step in now or deal with a bigger problem later."

"That's a good idea."

The New York Ghost, 16 January 1996, Letters from readers

Tom Marvolo Riddle, who prefers to go by an anagram of his name, I am Lord Voldemort, is a British half-blood who somehow convinced a group of wizards and witches, who are mainly purebloods, to use torture and murder to persuade everybody that their agenda of pureblood rule is Britain's best chance at prosperity and happiness. He was temporarily defeated by Lily and James Potter in 1981, only for him to try unsuccessfully to regain a body in 1992 and 1993, and apparently finally succeed last year, despite the part of his plan that involved Peter Pettigrew infiltrating Ilvermorny failing. Last week he managed to break 10 of his most trusted servants out of Azkaban prison. The British Ministry is making up fanciful stories about the incident, just as long as they don't have to admit they face another war like the 11-year battle from 1970 to 1981 that they almost lost. Unless the international community steps in, Riddle will likely succeed. Like Grindelwald, he will not stop after an initial success. No, if Riddle manages to take over Britain, he will set his eyes on the rest of the world. I ask the international community to step in now and nip the problem in the bud, or to face a much bigger struggle in a few years' time.

Harry Potter

Ilvermorny

"It's … how do I say. I can't say it's nice when I don't hear from you for a month, but at least I don't immediately think there's more bad news. Or is there?"

"Just more Umbridge. The other professors are helping the students rebel against her, so she passed yet another Educational Decree, forbidding professors from talking about anything but their subject. It's becoming Animal Farm here. Oh, and thanks for the article from the Ghost. I copied and enlarged it and put it up in the common room. Then Umbridge banned the article, ensuring that absolutely everybody has read it."

"Is there any good news?"

"That most of the other professors loathe Umbridge as much as the students, so they turn a blind eye to the pranks and other havoc that are steadily growing worse."

"I would think you'd sound more upset about that."

"Anything to upset Umbridge. Also, I have yet to see her enter the library, so that's still a safe place to study. What about you?"

"Good. I have a girlfriend, she's a quidditch player."

"Congratulations, do you have a picture? What's her name? How old is she?"

"Fern Herrmann, she's fifteen, I'll ask her for a picture."

"OK, I'll talk to you in a month, then."

"How are things at Hogwarts?"

"Still progressively getting more antagonistic. Umbridge fired Professor Trelawney. However, Professor Dumbledore allowed her to stay in the castle. In fact, he insisted she do so. And he hired a centaur as the new Divination professor. I fear that she's not done yet, and that Hagrid will be next."

"How is Hagrid?"

"He still looks awful. Like he's been fighting with the centaurs regularly. He still refuses to tell me how he keeps getting injured. How are your OWL preparations?"

"I'm glad that I'm only doing five OWLs this year, those are bad enough. Despite the fact that you started preparing 5 years ago you must be feeling the strain as well."

"Yes. I'm still on schedule, but what with prefect duties, which nowadays includes counselling younger students after they've been tortured by Umbridge, teaching Defence together with Susan to our little group, encouraging Hagrid, and keeping the twins from going too far, it's getting to be a strain."

"What do you mean torture?"

"She makes students write lines with a blood quill during detentions."

"Ouch."

"Have you used one?"

"Yes, for signing magical contracts."

"It's totally barbaric to use it as a punishment. But what can you expect from a society that guards their prisoners with dementors?"

"No argument here."

"Professor Dumbledore is gone. Umbridge caught a whole group of students practising Defence and called in the Minister, who came with aurors. They had called themselves Dumbledore's Army, and Dumbledore took the blame to protect the students and then went on the run. Now Umbridge has been appointed headmistress by yet another ministerial decree, but apparently, she's unable to get into the headmaster's office. The twins set off a whole load of fireworks indoors, and they somehow managed to make them so that they became worse if you tried to dispel them. Rather than doing something about them, the other teachers sent for Umbridge whenever one managed to get into their classes, so she spent the whole afternoon running all over the castle trying in vain to get rid of the fireworks. The Marauders' Map has been used for its originally intended purpose of creating havoc again."

"Sirius and Remus will be glad to hear that."

"I'm also really glad that we have these mirrors, because it looks as if Umbridge is reading people's mail. And Malfoy has been spying on me. I think he was trying to be subtle about it, but you know that Malfoy is incapable of subtlety."

"Please be careful."

"We are. Umbridge also started an inquisitorial squad, no doubt because the prefects refused to dance to her tune. It's made up of all the people you'd expect, like Malfoy and Edgecombe. The main selection criterium seems to be an eagerness to use their authority to pursue their personal vendettas. It's becoming like with the basiliskthird year, no-one goes anywhere alone anymore."

"I found out how Hagrid has been getting beat up this year. When they went to try and convince the giants not to enlist with Riddle he found his half-brother and brought him here. Except his brother didn't want to go. And of course, Hagrid was trying to minimize how bad it was like he does with all his misunderstood monsters, but he got so worried that Umbridge might get rid of him without Dumbledore to protect him that he introduced us. He calls him Grawp. He doesn't speak English, and the centaurs are upset with Hagrid for bringing him, and he made me promise that if Hagrid is forced out that I go and keep Grawp company from time to time so that he won't get lonely."

"Are you still coming to Disney World with us?"

"Oh, …, to be honest, I thought Fern might not be too keen if I joined you."

"Didn't I tell you? Duh, obviously I didn't. We broke up. I'm not sure why. Typical girls are from Venus, boys are from Mars stuff."

"Sorry to hear that. Yes, I'd love to come and visit. I'll have to ask my parents, but they had no problems with last year's visit. Will you please convince Sirius that at least half of the visit needs to be in Nature?"

"Of course. I'll be sure to pass on the reminder to Remus."

"Umbridge finally managed to upset the wrong person, had someone in detention who was the grand-niece of someone important, so all of a sudden everybody was shocked that Umbridge had been using blood quills, and I expect Fudge has dropped her like the opportunist he is. How did your exams go?"

"Alright, I think. What NEWTs are you going to do?"

"You're supposed to ask how my exams were, first. Am I really that annoying when I analyse how it went?"

"Not annoying, just predictable. You'll point out all the little things you've done wrong, and then you'll get 10 outstandings anyway."

"I may have done that in the first few years, but it was different this year. So many other things were happening, that I really don't think that I had as much time as I needed to be fully prepared. I even was the lookout for the twins recently when they got the whole school in an uproar with several simultaneous pranks. I have to thank you again for the map, it might be an important contributing factor to why the twins made it to their NEWTs."

"Whatever happened to the girl who thought getting expelled was worse than death?"

"Obviously she was infected by the pervasive corruption, or at least swept up in the protests against it."

"Yes, the only way we could get you to break the rules was when we needed you to try and keep us safe. How about those NEWT plans?"

"Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Charms, Defence, Herbology, Transfiguration, and if I get an outstanding in Potions, that as well. And you?"

"The latter five. Plus two more OWLs next year."

"Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Are you sure that you're alright?"

"I've been going out of my mind with worry. I've been trying to reach you for an hour."

"I had History of Magic exam. Why were you so worried?"

"I had a dream about Voldemort torturing you. And when I woke up my scar was hurting, like when Mr Weasley was killed."

"Nothing happened to me, Tom must have been trying to get you to panic and do something rash. It does explain why Malfoy has been taunting me that you don't write to me anymore. He had obviously noticed that Hedwig hasn't come to me in almost a year, and must have been told to find out if we're still close. Fortunately, I was suspicious of his motive, so I told him it is perfectly normal for people to make new friends after their old friends have emigrated. Do you think he's able to sense your response?"

"I don't know. I hadn't thought of that. Sorry for calling you."

"Does your scar still hurt?"

"Not in the same way. It's fading."

"That's good. What did Sirius and Remus say when you talked to them about your dream about Mr Weasley?"

"They were a bit worried, but didn't know what's going on, or what to do about it."

"Maybe you should go to the school healer?"

"Hmm, I'm afraid you're right. And maybe you should try to get an emergency portkey. It's a pity that the Ministry can't be trusted, but maybe Susan has an idea."

"She has to be careful, because what she does reflects on her Aunt Amelia, but I'll try to think of another way. Maybe the Room of Requirement has enough information that I could try myself."

"OK. Please let me know when you get home safe."

"I'm home. No sign of any Death Eaters."

"I'm glad. So, it seems as if the lack of a panicked reaction following the vision made Riddle conclude it's not worth the trouble to go after you."

"Yes."

"I talked with Sirius about it, and he agreed with me that the British Ministry of Magic probably employs several Death Eaters, so for you to come here from Britain might draw attention to you that we don't want. Are you going abroad with your parents again?"

"Yes, we're going to Italy, but we're going the last three weeks of July this year. Would that be too soon?"

"I'll discuss it with Sirius and Remus. Would you be able to travel to the Italian Ministry of Magic? And travel from Italy to Britain by muggle means by yourself 8 days later?"

"I think so, but I'll ask my parents for permission."

"It was a good suggestion to talk to a healer about the visions. The school mediwitch gave me the contact details of several occlumency teachers, so that I can learn to close my mind to further visions."

"There's a lot of eventualities we're trying to prepare for, aren't there?"

"Yes, but at least we're preparing."

Yes, Hermione could only nod to that, it wasn't as good a situation as they would like to be in, but at least her study group and Harry were preparing. Things could be worse.