[A/N: I'm sorry for the long delay, everyone. I had a death in the family and I just haven't been feeling it lately. I'll try to get back into the swing of things soon. Once again, thank you to Calamity Owl for beta-reading this chapter.]


Lord Selwyn awoke with a splitting headache for two reasons. First, the hangover from the previous evening after he celebrated the extended demise of the Pink Bitch. Second, the manor's alarm ward was screeching.

He grabbed his wand and staggered over to the window. Just beyond the gates, three wizards in hooded cloaks hammered the wards with spell after spell, the flashes of purple and teal lighting up the predawn darkness. Selwyn recognized those cloaks, having worn one himself in service of the same Dark Lord. He knew how these raids worked, so he wasn't surprised a minute later when he confirmed his floo didn't work. There were still a few members of the Department of Magical Transportation who were willing to be victims of the Imperius Curse for the right price.

Selwyn spat out a curse and pulled out one of his own robes. He had no idea what he'd done to deserve this, but he was damned if he'd die in just his pants. After hastily throwing it on, he stormed out the door just as the wards finally fell. Now that he was closer, he recognized his assailants: Jugson and the Carrow Twins. Without the family or wealth of the other Death Eaters, they'd always done more of the dirty work.

"We served the same Lord during the war," Selwyn shouted, trying to ignore the pain from the loud noise. "Why attack me now?"

"You should have thought of that before killing Umbridge," Jugson said. The Carrows giggled wheezily, the sound alone making his skin crawl. "Sure, you got your blackmail material back somehow, but everyone else wasn't so lucky."

"What do you mean?" Selwyn asked. "The blackmail material was all safe!"

"He has a funny definition of 'safe,'" Amycus said with another giggle.

"Oh, it's at least as 'safe' as he is," Alecto added.

"What are you talking about?" Selwyn asked.

"Does it really matter?" Jugson asked. "You've incurred a debt, Lord Selwyn, and your peers have called it due. It's time to pay."

Selwyn gritted his teeth and raised his wand. His second-to-last thought, as he swung it to aim at his own head, was that he couldn't take more than two of those three bastards on a good day and today was not a good day. His last thought was "Reducto."


Director Rufus Scrimgeour stared at the weary Auror awaiting him in his office when he arrived at precisely 7:58 a.m. "It's never good when they send you to talk to me," he said. "They know I'm not going to get too mad at you. Is Sue…"

Harry smiled ruefully. "Talking to her Aunt? I'm afraid so." He wasn't proud of how Scrimgeour cultivated his fame as the Boy-Who-Lived to make the DMLE look good, but he wasn't above leveraging that treatment to save his colleagues from the occasional messy meeting.

Rufus unlocked his office door and gestured for Harry to follow him inside. He dropped his briefcase on his desk, sat down in his office chair, and gestured for Harry to sit on one of the wooden chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat, son. What fresh Hell have you brought for me this morning?"

"It started around 3:00 a.m. when we got a call from the Leaky," Harry began, swallowing annoyance at this man calling him "son." "Dolores Umbridge and Ludo Bagman were murdered."

"Merlin!" Scrimgeour said. "The former Deputy Undersecretary is dead?"

"Yes," Harry said. "She was tortured extensively first. Bagman was found bound in Japanese fetish style and beheaded. I don't wish to speculate on that discovery."

Scrimgeour's jaw dropped.

"Things worsened a few hours later," Harry said. "Parties unknown deposited in front of Diagon Alley stores what probably amounted to several hundred copies of the blackmail material Umbridge was alleged to possess on many of our leading citizens. All except one: the documents apparently specifically mentioned that a folder named 'Rupert Selwyn' was empty. That may be what inspired someone to attack his house not long before dawn. Employees of the ward monitoring and floo offices were placed under the Imperius Curse to ensure we were not alerted and he had no means of escape. Interestingly, the magical parchment recovered from Marcus Flint flashed a message a couple of hours before the time of his death, but all it said was 'Meet immediately.'"

"That's definitely interesting," Scrimgeour said. "It looks like you and Sue were right about Flint being part of a post-Death Eater crime ring. But they attacked Selwyn? He was one of the Marked ones who got off using the Imperius Defense."

"A number of other accused Death Eaters from the war were implicated in the material that was distributed," Harry said.

The Director leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "Bloody hell, Harry. We're going to be cleaning up this mess for years."

"We're already getting demands from the public and some members of the Wizengamot to investigate the allegations in the distributed materials," Harry said. "Other members are, of course, demanding that we ignore those materials entirely."

"This just keeps getting worse," Scrimgeour said.

"Yes, it does," Harry said, "but the graveyard shift is over and I'm exhausted. May I go home now and leave it to get worse on your watch?"

"Fine," Scrimgeour said. "You've earned a rest by now. If you come up with any political insights, please let me know."

"I don't think I've ever had any of those," Harry said as he rose to his feet and stretched.

Scrimgeour smirked. "Hope springs eternal, my boy. Now get the hell out of here and leave me to this misery."

Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting when he arrived home, but two drinking glasses full of Bluebell flames and stuck to the wall with Sticking Charms flanking a note weren't it.

Dear Harry,

Dobby and Kreacher are both exhausted from their adventure this morning, and I wasn't sure what to do so I floo'd Remus and Sirius. They suggested bringing them over there and having them in the room while we practised magic. I had no idea that exposure to our magic sustains them! There's so much I wish to learn about house elves, but I suppose that must wait. Anyway, I wasn't sure how to inform you of this plan, but then I remembered that I was getting the hang of extended conjurations of these neat little flames and I thought they would be a good way to get your attention. I hope you like them!

All my love,

Hermione

Harry smiled at the tone of the note and put it in his pocket…no sense leaving it out where Sue or Nev might see it. He was tempted to take a quick shower, but he wanted to check in on the house elves first.

As the note had said, everyone in 12 Grimmauld Place was downstairs in the practice room. Remus was casually duelling a couple of training dummies shooting Stinging Hexes at him while Sirius and Hermione stood next to a pair of cots on which Kreacher and Dobby lay.

"Are they alright?" Harry asked as he hurried over.

"Yes, they are." Hermione gave him a quick hug before stepping aside so he could kneel next to Dobby. "They're just tired."

Dobby nodded slowly. "That was lots of papers to distribute. Dobby is properly tired now. Thank you."

"Old Masters," Kreacher wheezed, "would have ordered Kreacher to iron his ears for being this tired out after only a few hours of work. Sluggards cannot further the vengeance of the House of Black."

"Well," Sirius said, "I'm the current Lord Black and a bit of a sluggard, and I think we did—" he froze. "There's something at the ward line."

Harry shot to his feet, flicking his wand into his hand as he did so. "How in Merlin's name did anything unauthorised find this house?"

"I have no idea," Sirius said as Remus hurried over, "but I'm going to find out."

"Wait," Kreacher said. "Another house elf is outside." He sniffed disdainfully. "Unbonded."

"Just an elf?" Sirius closed his eyes. "I'll be damned. I think he's right."

"We should check on it," Harry said.

"I'll come, too," Hermione said.

"It might not be safe," Harry told her.

"Honestly, Harry, if it's enough of a threat to find this house and take on you three, do you think I'd survive you by more than a few minutes, regardless?" She shook her head. "I'd rather face my fate at your side than cowering under a bed somewhere."

"Well said!" Sirius said. "Especially because of what's probably under some of the beds in this house."

Hermione shuddered.

"New Mistress," Kreacher said, "might not be a complete stain on the House of Black after all."

Harry spun around to give the old elf a piece of his mind, but Hermione put a calming hand on his shoulder. "I'll take it," she said. "It's a weird sort of progress. Now let's go check on our visitor."

Sirius led the six of them up to the front door before stopping. "Remus and I will take the lead on the way out. If there's no one outside to betray the Fidelius Charm, we'll be able to see out from the front yard, but they won't be able to see in."

There was no one at all out front, not even muggles walking by (the street was usually quiet at 10:00 on a Saturday). After scanning carefully for threats visually, Sirius cast the Human Presence-Revealing Charm. It found nothing, but before any of them could suggest another test, a tremulous voice spoke up.

"Enny felt that spell. Does yous know where Dobby is?"

Harry gave Sirius a sharp nod and the older man closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he returned the nod. Harry holstered his wand and walked toward the source of the voice. "I can take you across the ward line if you wish, but be warned that Sirius has raised the anti-apparition ward. If you try to cast any magic or apparate away with one of us, we'll treat it as a threat and respond accordingly."

"Enny understands." The elf ended whatever invisibility spell it had cast upon itself and faded into view. She was a thin little thing, maybe three inches shorter than Dobby, with droopy, scarred ears.

Harry held out a hand and the elf blinked in surprise as the appendage appeared from within the Fidelius Charm. She gingerly placed her hand in Harry's and allowed him to draw her onto the small front lawn.

"Welcome to our home, Enny," Harry said as soon as she was inside the house. "How can we help you?"

She wrung her hands and looked up at him. "You is not going to punish me for bothering yous?"

"Absolutely not," Harry said. "Now, did you say something about wishing to see Dobby?"

She nodded.

"Dobby, could you come here?" Harry asked.

The excitable elf hurried over, very nearly tripping on his extra socks. "Dobby is happy to!'' he said. "Does Enny have a question for Dobby?"

"Yes, Enny does," Enny said. "All of the elveses talk about how you were freed and became a hired elf and how bad an elf you were, but…Enny's last owner died and Enny wants to know how to be a free elf, too, now."

Harry's ears perked up at that statement, but he decided to let the conversation play out before switching to interrogation mode.

"Dobby loved being a free elf," Dobby said. "Headmistress Kittycat would hire you if yous wanted and you could be a paid elf at Hoggywarts."

Hermione and Sirius started coughing violently to cover up their laughter.

"You is not a free elf anymore?" Even as timorous as it was, the disappointment in Enny's voice was still clear.

Dobby shook his head. "The magic at Hoggywarts is good, but isn't like what you gets from your family. It's like if yous gave humans all they could eat, but only bread and water and maybe occasional bites of other foodses."

"Enny understands." Her shoulders drooped even more. "It still better than having a family, though. Hoggywarts elveses don't have to punish themselves and nobody makes them stay."

"Dobby doesn't have to punish himself, either, not even when he really wants to," Dobby said. "Great Wizard Harry Potter won't let him. And Dobby could leave right now if Dobby wanted to."

"If only…" Kreacher muttered, his voice trailing off under the sudden force of four angry human glares.

Enny shook her head. "Is good you don't have to punish yourself, but yous will never be free."

Dobby drew himself up to his full height. "Great Wizard Harry Potter promised to free Dobby whenever Dobby asked and Dobby will prove it to you! Wise and powerful wizard Harry Potter, will you free Dobby for a few minutes to show Enny she's wrong?"

"Of course." Harry patted his clothes, trying to figure out what item to give Dobby. He was just taking off a shoe when Hermione hurried up and knelt next to Dobby.

"Wait!" Hermione said. "You're still weakened, Dobby. What will happen to you without the magic you've been absorbing from our bond?"

"Dobby doesn't know," the elf said. "It probably won't hurt Dobby too much."

"Probably?" Hermione asked.

"I don't like those odds," Harry said as he knelt next to Hermione. "Dobby, you know I'll free you if you want me to, but please don't do this to prove a point."

Enny shook her head. "Enny warned you."

"Is alright," Dobby said. "Dobby wants the whole world to know how great and wonderful Harry Potter is."

Harry shot Enny a glare. "I don't give a pile of dragon dung about the world! What if something happens to you? What do I care if everyone in the world is saying 'Harry Potter is the greatest wizard ever!' if you're not there to see it and be smug about how you were right the whole time? You've been my friend since I was twelve years old and I'm not ready to lose you yet."

Dobby's eyes teared up and he threw his arms around Harry's neck. "Harry Potter really is the bestest wizard in the whole wide world!"

Harry froze for a moment before hugging Dobby back. "I wouldn't go that far," he said, "but I definitely have the bestest friends in the whole wide world."

"Friend?" Both Enny's voice and her eyes were full of tears. "A wizard calls Dobby his friend?"

Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry and Dobby. "And a witch, too."

The little elf looked down at the ground and shook her head violently. "Enny does not believe you. You is trying to trick Enny."

"Hmmm…" Hermione released her embrace. "Does anyone here know if Unbreakable Vows work with house elves?"

"Clever," Remus said, "but I'm almost positive they don't. You need two humans or part-humans for that magic to work."

"I think I can work around that," Hermione said. "Enny, what if you bonded with me and I made an Unbreakable Vow to release you if you requested it?"

"Yous would risk your life for Enny?" the elf asked her.

"Risk?" Hermione scoffed. "I'd never make you do anything you didn't want to do, so it's no risk to me."

"I'm not sure—" Remus began, but Sirius cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"I," Sirius said, "am now regretting even wondering whether she would have been sorted to Ravenclaw. I think that's a wonderful idea. Would you like a binder?"

"Yes, please." Hermione rose to her feet.

Harry released Dobby from his embrace and followed suit. He arched his eyebrows at her and she nodded firmly, so he held out his hand to her. "I'm ready when you are."

She took his hand and, once Sirius had his wand in position and cast the Charm to power the vow, said, "I, Hermione Granger, do vow to release Enny from her bond with me within five minutes of her making a request that I do so in a manner I can both hear and comprehend."

"I, Harry Potter, accept your vow." Golden magic swirled out from Sirius's wand and wove over both of their hands.

Once the magic faded away, Hermione thanked Harry and Sirius and turned to Enny. "Is that sufficient?" she asked.

Enny nodded, her eyes wide. "You did that for Enny?"

"I would do that for every house elf in the world if I could," Hermione said. "No one should ever harm you just because you need magic to survive."

The little elf reached out a trembling hand and Hermione took it in her own. A pulse of forest green magic flared out from their hands and faded away.

"We is bonded. Does yous have orders for Enny?" The little elf flinched as she spoke.

"No," Hermione said. "What would you like to do?"

Enny blinked. "Um…no one has ever asked Enny that question before."

"That's awful!" Hermione said. "Well, would you like to go work at Hogwarts while you figure out what else you might like to do?"

"You don't have any work for Enny?"

Dobby shrugged. "Great and Wise Harry Potter never has enough work. Dobby is hoping he and Mistress make some little witches and wizards soon." His face brightened. "Maybe they have twins and there be enough work for you, too!"

Harry felt his cheeks heating up, but Hermione just sighed and said, "I walked right into that one, didn't I? I might as well have put up a sign asking Dobby to start that conversation."

"But you is so tired now," Enny said. "Enny thought you was always like that."

"Dobby is afraid not," he said. "Dobby and Kreacher was lucky this morning and had enough work be really exhausted."

Kreacher sighed sadly. "And Masters took away all of the things in the house that kept trying to kill Kreacher, so even cleaning is a lot less tiring than it used to be. Kreacher only has spiders to fight now."

Hermione shuddered.

"Enny understands…no, Enny does not really understand, but Enny accepts," the little elf said. "Enny will go to Hogwarts until Mistress needs her for something. Enny will leave Master's needs to Dobby unless Dobby needs help."

"Dobby can do it!" Dobby said. "Unless Harry Potter has another amazing idea and needs more extra help."

Harry sighed. "Speaking of which, Enny, I know house elves can't reveal their master's secrets even after the bond ends, but can you tell us who your master was?"

She nodded. "Rupert Selwyn."

"Merlin!" Sirius said. Everyone else was too busy coughing or, in Harry's case, borrowing some vocabulary from Auror Tonks, to speak.

Once Hermione got herself under control, she cocked her head at Harry and gestured with her eyes at Enny. He nodded, so she put her hands on Enny's shoulders and spoke. "Enny, your master was a bad man and wanted to hurt people like me, so Harry and the rest of us made a plan that eventually resulted in his death. You can't tell anyone, but I'll understand if you want me to release you from our bond after this."

Enny screwed up her face in thought for a moment. "Other elveses," she said, "say House of Black is weaker now and not as proud or dangerous as it was in good old days. Enny not realise how wrong they are until now. Old Master was a very, very bad man. Enny is not sorry he is gone."

Kreacher's smile was a twisted grimace that made Harry appreciate its rarity. "Kreacher has been teaching Young Half-Blood Master and Muggleborn Mistress his family's history. Kreacher had despaired of them ever learning, but humans still manage to surprise Kreacher after all these centuries. Kreacher hopes one day to see the blood of the enemies of Black flow at his feet again as his Master tortures him for accidentally overlooking a few children."

"Um…" Enny turned to Hermione. "Is Kreacher being alright?"

"I have no idea," Hermione said.

"He and I have agreed to disagree on that issue," Sirius said.

Enny sighed. "Enny thanks Mistress for the bond, but needs some time alone to think about her life. Is Enny allowed to go away for a few days?"

"You can go whenever and wherever you like," Hermione said. "Come back when you're ready."

"Don't worry," Dobby said, "Dobby will take care of Great Wizard Harry Potter and Wise My-knee!"

"Enny thanks Dobby," Enny said, and popped away.

Harry stared at the empty air left in the little elf's wake. "Well…that happened."

"I probably shouldn't have done that," Hermione said, "but I hate how house elves are treated and I wanted her to be safe."

"I thought about saying something," Sirius said, "but I realised that you were handling that situation in the exact opposite of the way my parents would have, so I assumed that meant you were doing the right thing and didn't want to stop you."

"I was wondering why you didn't want me to intervene," Remus said. "That was a little reckless, my dear, but I can't fault Sirius's ethical analysis."

"Speaking of ethics," Harry said, "I have some things I need to discuss with you, but we should probably do it inside. Then, I desperately need to sleep."

"I understand." Hermione immediately threaded her arm through Harry's and moulded herself to his side. "Let's adjourn to the Sitting Room."

As soon as everyone was sitting down, Harry gave them all a summary of what had happened that morning. "So that's the situation," he concluded. "Everything is going roughly according to plan but for Bagman's death."

"That's a sizable caveat," Hermione said. "An innocent man is dead."

"I didn't think she'd be able to sort out that memory after we Obliviated it," Harry said, "but I didn't pick him by accident, either. Remember the Triwizard Tournament?"

"You mean the death tournament you were forced to compete in when you were a child?" Hermione asked.

"Right," Harry said. "Ludo was one of the judges. Once I was selected, I couldn't be removed from the tournament, but he could have designed three simple tasks for the 'tournament' and then used the more difficult ones for the real contestants on the side. Sirius begged him to, but he refused. It turned out later that he was heavily indebted to the Goblins for his gambling and he wanted to bet on me to claw his way out of debt." He laughed bitterly. "It worked, too. I made him a pretty penny by surviving every task and winning the tournament."

"I see," Hermione said. "So you put him at risk the same way he put you at risk?'

"Yes," Harry said. "I didn't want to tell you because it felt petty and I was pretty sure he would survive, anyway."

"It was petty," Hermione said. "Petty and immensely convenient, since that lets me remove someone from my list."

Harry blinked. "You…um…have a list?"

"It's a work in progress," Hermione said. "One of the entries was 'People responsible for trapping Harry in the Death Tournament.' Is there anyone left from that group?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it, no. Ludo was the last."

"Good," Hermione said primly.

Sirius and Remus stared at her. "She has a list?" Sirius asked.

Remus nodded. "Yes, and we're never going to do anything to end up on that list, are we?"

"Definitely not." Sirius shuddered.

Hermione bit her bottom lip in thought for a moment. "This…isn't the first time you've killed someone on your own, is it? And I don't mean in self-defence; I mean you found someone who needed to die and ensured they did."

All three of the men in the room froze.

She gave a satisfied nod. "I thought so. You were too calm about it, even Harry. None of you ever hesitated to help me, regardless of how legal what you needed to do was. And the night I met Remus, he said he made it his life's work to ensure evil werewolves didn't hurt anyone."

"You're…um…not upset?" Harry asked.

"Now that I understand more about the astounding evil people in the Magical World are capable of?" Hermione shook her head. "I suspect the whole world is better off for what you did."

"I think it is," Remus said. "The werewolf who turned me called himself Fenrir Greyback. He was a vicious, brutal killer who delighted in turning children into werewolves. A few years after Harry graduated, I discovered some information that allowed me to begin hunting him properly. During the Quidditch offseason, we hatched a plan to hunt down him and his pack. On the full moon of June 5th, 2001, I took a dangerously large dose of Wolfsbane Potion and kept my faculties enough to scratch out some directions in the dirt of my cell to where I thought that pack was. The next morning, Harry, Sirius, and the American Hit Wizard we'd hired to train him for the Triwizard Tournament attacked the werewolves' safe house."

"They're always weakest after the night of the full moon," Harry said. "Werewolves that fully give in to the wolf aren't as weak as those who try to fight it or take Wolfsbane, but they're still slower and more tired than normal. The plan was for Matt—the Hit Wizard, his name was Matthias Thorne—to guard the front door to make sure none of them got out while Sirius and I stormed the back door. I blew the door open with an overpowered Unlocking Charm and tossed a silver shrapnel grenade in, at which point everything went off the rails. The plan was that Sirius and I would take out the bulk of the pack with grenades and our magic, but they were bigger cowards than we thought. About two-thirds of the pack fled immediately, leaving only four more and Greyback for us to deal with. Even with the grenades, Greyback was a tough one who didn't hesitate to use his packmates as meat shields and it took us a few minutes to kill them and get to Matt's position."

Sirius shook his head. "Matt was outnumbered from the start, but the werewolves were cowardly arseholes and probably would have stampeded right past him if he'd just stepped aside. Instead, that madman stood his ground with his wand in one hand and a Colt. 45 loaded with silver bullets in the other. When we got back there, there were half a dozen corpses and two wounded werewolves trying to get past the last few spells he could cast with his off hand as he held his guts in his body with the stump of his other hand. We finished those two off while their backs were turned, but it was too late for Matt."

"Even the healing potions we'd brought with us weren't enough to save him," Harry said, "but he bled out on that floor with a huge smile on his face. We didn't know until we returned his body to his brother back in the USA that their older sister had been eaten by werewolves back in the '70s. Matt hated werewolves after that, though fortunately for us he'd learnt not all werewolves were evil by the time Sirius hired him. Apparently, Matt had made it a personal mission never to let a werewolf kill anyone if he could help it, so his brother thought that's why he refused to let a single one escape. Afterward, I thought a lot about how much Matt's life's work had meant to him and how satisfying I'd found it to hunt down Greyback's pack, and that's what put me on the path to becoming an Auror."

"Good God!" Hermione said. "I'm amazed any of you survived that. I'm glad that pack is gone, of course, but couldn't you have gone to the Aurors?"

"The Aurors had tried and failed to capture that pack several times," Harry said. "I was worried someone on the inside was leaking information, so we decided to handle it ourselves."

Hermione shook her head. "I'm sorry you had to do that, just like I'm sorry you've all been sucked into this mess with Umbridge, but I hope you don't have to do it again. I don't want to lose you like Matt's family lost him."

"You won't." Harry wrapped her in a firm embrace. "I won't say I won't get sucked into these situations ever again, but burying Matt was a terrible reminder to all three of us how dangerous doing that sort of thing was."

Remus nodded. "Since then, I've helped the Aurors track down a couple of other individual werewolves, but we've left the hunting to the professionals."

"Thank you," Hermione said. "I hope we can continue to do that once we're done dealing with the fallout from Umbridge."

"Likewise," Remus said, "but speaking of her, I'd like to go back to something. Harry had a good point a few minutes ago: how did Umbridge recover that memory? She was never a true mistress of the Mind Arts."

Harry snapped his fingers. "Of course! She was good friends with Fudge, who used to be an Obliviator before he clawed his way up the Ministry ladder. I'll bet he found it for her, and she might well have killed him depending on what else he found in there."

"That makes sense," Remus said. "Fudge was an arse, but even he would never have condoned what she was doing to muggleborns."

"Damn," Harry said. "That's another man we've gotten killed."

Hermione frowned. "Is he the one who set the soul-eating monsters around your school and then didn't want to allow Sirius to go free even after he found out Sirius had never had a trial?"

"Yes, that was him," Harry said.

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Was he on your list, too?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "I should probably be more concerned about his death, but it saves me a lot of trouble."

Harry ran his hand through his hair. "To be honest, I thought you'd be really upset. I mean, I'm upset."

"Harry, it's not your fault that awful people are awful," Hermione said. "You had no way of knowing she would react by murdering an unrelated person. Even with Lord Selwyn, all you did was create a situation where an awful person would react awfully. He didn't have to hurt anyone and you didn't encourage him to do so."

"I see what you mean," Harry said. "I guess Luna was right about all of this: we can put it into motion, but thinking we can truly control it was foolish."

Remus arched his eyebrows. "You told her about your plans?"

"Of course not!" Harry said. "She was referring to something else, but I think it applies here, too."

"I think she's guessed something is afoot, though," Hermione said. "She mentioned something to me about it the last time she came over, but then promptly encouraged me to keep helping Harry and said that she had no doubt it would be worth it."

"That's simultaneously disturbing and reassuring," Harry said. "I hope she's right…and that Umbridge didn't do anything else we didn't foresee."