After one of the most eventful summers of Harry's life, he was now anxiously waiting for his return to what he would always call his first true home, Hogwarts. The end of their break had flown by in a blur of colors and memories, and all things considered, it hadn't been too bad.

While the trial had been an unforeseen negative that he wished he could have avoided, he had to admit that this had been one of his favorite summers ever. He had gotten out of the Dursley household far earlier than he normally did – even if it was under dodgy circumstances – and instead of spending his time miserably at Number Four Privet Drive, he spent it with his friends and his godfather building and strengthening relationships.

He had continued training his occlumency, and if Sirius was to be believed, he was getting better quickly. Thanks in large part to Hermione he also had no doubt that he would pass the entry exam for runes when he returned to Hogwarts, and most exciting of all, Dumbledore had told him that he would like to begin one on one training with Harry for his inevitable next confrontation with Voldemort. For the first time ever, Harry felt like he was moving forward and not just standing around waiting for things to happen, and the proactiveness made him feel great.

At the moment however, he was tapping his foot impatiently as he and Hermione waited for the Weasley's to finish their last-minute packing so they could all head to the platform together. Some things never changed Harry thought as he heard the twins scrambling back and forth upstairs. After what seemed like ages, they finally all made it into the foyer where they lined up and took turns flooing to a point near the platform where they would have just a short walk to the magical barrier leading to platform nine and three quarters.

They got there with just a few minutes to spare, and they all dutifully took their turns being crushed by Mrs. Weasley's hugs as she bid them goodbye. Harry wished Sirius could have here with him, but they both recognized the danger that he would be in and so they had said their goodbyes back at Grimmauld. After a quick hug, Sirius had given Harry a mirror that they could use to communicate with one another whilst Harry was away, and he could hardly wait to test it out.

He had stowed the mirror safely in his case along with his other possessions, he had been tempted to keep it on his person and to try calling his godfather on the train, but if the ministry was trying to kick him out of Hogwarts for saving his life he could only imagine what they would do if he was found consorting with a suspected mass murderer.

Harry pushed those thoughts aside as he boarded the Express. He led his friends to the back in search of an empty compartment, and just when he had given up hope he had found one in the second to last carriage.

After stowing his own luggage Harry turned to help Hermione and began to blush a bit after she beamed up at him in thanks. Finally, they were all settled and with a low whistle the train started its long journey towards Scotland and the ancient castle.

After a short while they settled in. Hermione was reading a novel and Ron was flipping through a quidditch magazine looking at this year's new model Cleansweeps. "Hey Hermione?" Harry said, breaking the comfortable silence the three friends had fallen into.

Hermione held up a finger indicating for Harry to wait as she finished her paragraph before marking her page and closing her book. "Yes Harry?"

"I was just wondering when we had to go to the prefect meeting at the front of the train, I know you had mentioned it earlier, but I can't remember the time, and I wouldn't want us to be late." Harry replied sheepishly.

"It's not until half past ten, and you should know by now that I wouldn't let us be late." Hermione pointed out.

"I know, and I appreciate it." Harry said suddenly feeling guilty, "but I think it's unfair that I rely on you to be a personal alarm clock. You deserve better and we," he said emphasizing the fact that Ron should be included in his statement as well "shouldn't do that to you."

"Harry, it really is no problem, I hardly mind –" Hermione started to reassure him, somewhat shocked by his sudden fierce apology, but she was cut off.

"No, he's right, we take advantage of you and that's not fair." Ron cut in surprising both Harry and Hermione. "From now on I promise to try to not rely on you so much anymore, and that means I'll try my best to do my work without you needing to nag or prod me."

"We both do." Harry said with a firm nod. The sudden exclamation from his other best mate had been surprising, but most definitely welcome.

"Just don't expect us to have everything done two weeks in advance like you do." Ron said, a smile playing on his lips. "We may be willing to do try and get it done on time, but that's just crazy."

Hermione sent a radiant smile at both of them, "Oh, you two –" she said embracing each of them in turn. Nagging them was something she never really minded doing, but it had often times driven a wedge between the three when Harry and Ron wanted to do nothing more than goof around for an afternoon or play quidditch. Now it seemed as though Harry's own accountability was rubbing off onto his other best friend as well.

Harry ignored Hermione's misty eyes as she clung tightly to him. "Come on Hermione we have fifteen minutes 'til the meeting and I know how you like to be early." He said softly after she didn't seem to have any intention of breaking her embrace anytime soon.

Reluctantly she let go, "You're right, we should get going." She stood, straightening out her clothes. "We'll see you later Ron." She called over her shoulder as she led the way out of the compartment. Ron muttered an agreement already sitting back down and reaching for the quidditch magazine he had been reading earlier as Harry followed her out. Once they closed the door Hermione once again drew Harry in for a quick hug. "Thank you, Harry, really."

"No, thank you, Hermione." He replied in the sincerest voice he could muster. Left unsaid was just how grateful he truly was for everything she had done for him, from helping with his homework to saving his life, but words weren't needed; she already knew. She smiled at him and turned, beginning to make her way towards the front of the train.

When they were nearly there Harry asked her "So who do you think the prefects for the other houses are going to be?"

Hermione began to chew on her bottom lip as she contemplated the question. After a moment of thought answered slowly, as if she were thinking through the question out loud. "For Ravenclaw I'd imagine it'd have to be Padma for the female prefect, as for the male one I'm not really sure, maybe Anthony Goldstein. Hufflepuff will have either Susan Bones or Hannah Abbot as the prefect, those two are nearly interchangeable when it comes to academic ability and are both genuinely nice," She said sending Harry a small grimace as they both thought back to the two Hufflepuff's wearing the 'Potter stinks' badges "and likely Ernie Macmillan for the males as he's undoubtedly most qualified."

After a moment, she continued "As for Slytherin I thought it would be Malfoy and Parkinson, but you seem to know something that you're not willing to share." She sent him a pointed look and he simply shrugged in response. He wasn't sure of anything, but Dumbledore had said he would talk to Snape about appointing the most deserving person rather than playing favorites. They would find out in a few minutes whether he had held true to his word.

"let's see if you're right." He told her and then pulled open the compartment door which was empty except for the upcoming years head boy and girl. They were both from Ravenclaw and although Harry didn't know them well, he figured that they must be alright as Hermione looked upon them with approval. After a few more minutes the Ravenclaw prefects walked in together, confirming Hermione's guess as Padma and Anthony sat down across from them discussing their summer arithmancy project as they waited for the meeting to start.

Not long after them Hannah Abbot walked in and a few minutes later they were also joined by Ernie. Now they had to wait to see whether or not Draco had been chosen unfairly over someone more deserving. Harry noticed he wasn't the only one who was getting a little antsy, as all of the other conversation had stopped, and everyone was openly watching the door.

When the handle shook indicating there was someone on the other side, it seemed as if everyone in the small compartment were holding their collective breaths, which came rushing out in sighs of relief as they saw none other than Daphne Greengrass enter alongside Theodore Nott. The most audible sighs of relief came from the head boy and head girl, and it wasn't hard to understand why. Having to train Draco 'I'll tell daddy if you're mean to me' Malfoy would have been difficult on the best of days.

As Daphne sat down, she sent Harry the slightest nod of recognition which he returned. Hermione looked between the two of them with a slightly confused expression and Harry mouthed silently, 'I'll tell you later.' Hermione seemed appeased by that and went back to listening to the meeting which had gotten underway as soon as everyone had arrived. Soon they were instructed on how patrolling would work, how to best help out the younger years, and other duties they could expect as prefects. Harry was paying rapt attention, taking every detail into account. He promised himself that he would be the best damn prefect Gryffindor had ever seen.


Daphne was currently walking alongside Theodore Nott as they patrolled the train. They were both already dressed in their school robes as they had gotten the last shift and had both decided to change prior to their scheduled patrol. They were currently only a few minutes away from the ancient school, and Daphne was starting to get antsy.

Theodore Nott was quickly proving to be the second worst boy in her year that she could've been stuck with behind Malfoy. She would even prefer one of the gorillas that constantly flanked the blonde git to this utter buffoon. Since their patrol had begun an hour prior, he had constantly been trying to 'enrapture her with his smooth talking, and irresistible charm' as he had so eloquently put it. She had asked him nicely to be left alone and even asked him rudely before eventually threatening him with bodily harm, but the idiot would not shut up.

Daphne could hardly wait until they were out of sight of so many witnesses; her thoughts on how and where to curse him had been getting progressively darker since they started patrolling and she was itching to see if real life would live up to the expectations of her imagination.

Currently he was spouting off some nonsense about how a priestess in Egypt had read his palm and claimed he would be the next Merlin, "And that sugar badger, is when I knew I was destined to become a great wizard. I already knew of course, but that just gave me the confirm-"

"First of all, if you ever call me anything besides Greengrass ever again I will chop off your bollocks with a rusty knife and force feed them to you." Daphne interrupted with an icy glare and venom in her voice. Nott took a step back looking genuinely frightened for the first time after one of her threats. "Secondly, I couldn't possibly care less about the nonsense that dribbles out of that inept mouth of yours, do I make myself clear?"

Nott nodded his head in the affirmative, and only a few seconds after that the head boy caught up with them and let them know that they could head back to their compartments. Daphne took great satisfaction in the way that Nott ran away from her as soon as he could, and she headed back towards her own compartment where Tracey, Astoria, and a friend of Astoria's from Slytherin in the same year, were all getting ready to exit the train.

Tracey asked her friend whether or not anything interesting had happened while she was gone, and Daphne denied any problems out loud but gave her friend an 'we will discuss it soon' look. Tracey nodded her understanding and in no time they were off the train, heading towards one of the horseless carriages that would be their ride to the castle. The group of four stuck together all the way to the Great Hall where they sat down and awaited the sorting of the first years to take place.

The sorting went on without a hitch and Daphne, ever the proud Slytherin, joined in the applauding of her housemates whenever a young student was deemed fit of joining the house of the cunning and ambitious. It was after the sorting took place that things took an interesting turn.

Just like every other year, Headmaster Dumbledore went through the beginning of year announcements where he gave a customary welcome a few warnings and announced the new teachers. It was in that last category where things began to go awry. After Professor Dumbledore introduced the toad looking women that Daphne immediately recognized from Harry's trial, she had actually interrupted him in a sickly-sweet voice and gave a long-winded speech basically saying that defense this year would be completely based off of theoretical magic rather than practical magic.

Daphne looked around to see how others were reacting to this news and was disappointed to see a lot of blank stares. However, there were also some upset looks throughout the throngs of students mainly from the fifth- and seventh-year students. It made sense too, how were they supposed to pass NEWT's and OWL's in defense without using practical magic? Daphne really hoped that this toad like hag wasn't being serious, she could try her best to learn spells on her own, but that wasn't always the safest option especially when it came to the DADA curriculum.

After what seemed like forever the annoyingly sweet voice stopped as her speech finally came to a halt. She was met with no applause until Dumbledore awkwardly started it for her, but even then, only a few students joined in. The great hall remained painfully quiet until the food came in and only then did the conversation begin to pick up once more.

Daphne turned to Tracey after they had loaded their plates with food and asked her in a whispered hiss "Did you hear what that woman was spouting?"

"Yeah, I don't know if she truly expects us to go into our OWL's with no knowledge on practical magic, but if she does than she might actually be crazy." Tracey replied with a sour look on her face. After a moment of deliberation, she continued "As far as I can tell the ministry sent her here, so they must have at the very least approved this… this..."

"Nonsense? Utter garbage?" Daphne suggested helpfully. Tracey nodded and Daphne shook her head in disgust. "You know that's the same woman from Potters trial that I told you about."

Tracey looked up towards the head table again and suddenly she looked as though she might laugh. "You're right! She does look like a human got stuck halfway through being transfigured into a toad." She said with a chuckle. "But that means my guess was right," she said a moment later after sobering up, "She's here on account of the ministry trying to push some bullshit agenda. You would think they would've learned after the headmaster and Potter shut them down so soundly at the trial earlier on in the summer."

Daphne nodded, "But it is the ministry we're talking about, and they're not exactly known for being very smart." She replied.

"That's true. So, what happened earlier while you were patrolling? You gave me the 'we'll discuss it later look'" Tracey asked her.

"Well…" she went on to explain what had happened as her best friend listened closely, adding a remark or two where appropriate and nodding her head as necessary. By the end of her story – or maybe it was more of a rant at this point – Tracey seemed just as upset as she had been, but also seemed close to laughing.

"What the hell is a sugar badger?" she asked after Daphne finally finished telling her story.

"I have no clue but coming from him it sounded disgusting." Daphne replied with a shrug.

"What are you going to do about him?" Tracey asked her friend, some real concern shining through in her voice. They had both always been very protective of each other, ever since they were two quiet and timid first years.

"I wish I could just do what I want to and put him in the hospital wing for the entirety of the school year, but I would probably be stripped of my own badge then." She said regrettably. "The only other option would be to talk to the head boy or girl, maybe ask them to put me with someone else. I might be able to claim he and I don't get along well enough to work together and that might make them put me with someone else." She replied thinking aloud.

"Any of the other prefects would be better than him." agreed Tracey.

The conversation from that point on flowed easily as it normally did between the two of them and Astoria also joined in on their discussion asking for clarification on what the new defense professor had been saying. They explained it to her, and she was soon as upset as they were about the level of instruction that would be taking place.

Soon enough, the three switched onto more pleasant topics and spoke about fun things as they finished dinner and began on dessert. Astoria had just finished arguing a point on why she was most definitely well-suited for a spot on the quidditch team. She was determined in her conviction even though she would likely never play the sport at school. Even Slytherin's quidditch team involved politicking and Astoria didn't want to get involved in that, even if she was actually quite talented when it came to flying.

Daphne was about to retort that her sister was too fair to play dirty like the Slytherins when Dumbledore announced that it was time for the students to head to their dormitories. Instead, she got up and bade Tracey and her sister goodbye and began to call for the first years to follow her.

As she led the new students down towards the dungeons, she couldn't help but let her mind wander to all the issues that were cropping up already. However, she couldn't not be excited at the prospect of a new year being underway, even with so many things going wrong at the start. Starting school again was always exciting for her and this year with the added weight of OWL's and being a prefect, she was looking forward to challenging herself. Daphne thrived under pressure, and weird as it may seem, she was looking forward to proving herself amidst these seemingly endless struggles.


It had taken Daphne longer than it usually did to fall asleep, but that wasn't surprising considering it was her first night back at Hogwarts. She still was the first one in her dorm to wake up which was normal dating back to first year. She was often up before dawn unless it was a weekend, but even then, she typically was the first awake.

She padded her way across the cool stone steps to the bathrooms where she began to set up a shower for herself. She realized groggily that today was a Saturday and she didn't have any classes. Rarely did September 2nd land on a weekend, but this year that was exactly what had happened, which meant that they had two days off before they began their classes.

As she fiddled with the knob in the shower trying to get the water to a pleasant temperature, she suddenly remembered that as a prefect she would be allowed to use the prefects bath. She had been so surprised at the fact that she had actually been made a prefect that the thought had completely slipped her mind.

Feeling slightly better, she finished her shower and after quickly drying her hair and body with a charm, she dressed into a black skirt and a green jumper which showed her house colors even without the uniform but had the added side effect of making her eyes pop. A little bit of makeup finished the ensemble, and she was soon ready to go.

While she had been getting dressed Tracey had also woken up and taken a quick shower, and Daphne hardly had to wait on her friend as she got dressed quickly. Once they were both ready to go Daphne led the way up towards the great hall, and they made it up in no time. Daphne didn't often love being housed in the cold and drafty dungeon, but one positive was she didn't have to deal with whether or not the stairs were in a cooperative mood on her way to breakfast every morning. When they entered the large hall, they saw that it was mostly empty except for a few Ravenclaws and a lone Hufflepuff.

They quietly seated themselves close to the doors and began to pile their plates high with the delicious elf-prepared foods they found in front of them. They kept up light conversation throughout breakfast and in no time the hall began to fill little by little until a generous number of students had accumulated at their respective tables, and the air was filled with the constant buzz of conversation.

Daphne and Tracey were both watching carefully to see who walked in, as the two preferred to leave before Malfoy or any of his ilk could try to talk to them. Surprisingly enough Nott walked in by himself. This wasn't a big deal as sometimes people wake up at different times or had prior arrangements they had to attend to, but about a quarter hour later the rest of the group containing Malfoy and the others walked in and pointedly sat away from the shorter brunette boy.

That was a change of events as normally he was part of the little group that clung to Malfoy like flies to dung, but it seemed he had either decided to ditch them or he was no longer wanted. This was an interesting turn of events, and Daphne turned to discuss it with her best friend, "Did you see Nott walk in by himself?" She asked quietly as to not be overheard by someone sitting close to them.

Tracey nodded in response before replying in an equally low voice "Do you think it has to do with the prefectship?"

This time it was Daphne's turn to nod her agreement before she gestured that they stand up and make their way out of the hall. "My guess would be he either believes himself better than his former friends or Malfoy is more upset than he's letting on after being snubbed of the position." She responded in a more normal tone of voice now that they had exited the room full of students.

"Yeah, I came to the same conclusions. If it's the latter you should be careful, you never know when that bint Parkinson might try something." Tracey had genuine concern showing on her face, but Daphne wasn't too worried.

"Please, Crabbe and Goyle are arguably more of a threat magically than her." she replied haughtily.

Tracey however didn't look convinced. "Just promise me you'll be careful. I know you're smart and powerful, but I wouldn't put it past them to try something sneaky."

"I promise Trace, besides with you by my side, not even they're stupid enough to try anything. I think they might actually be more scared of you than me which is saying something." Daphne replied hoping to get a positive reaction out of her friend.

"Damn straight they are. You remember that one time Malfoy tried to put the moves on you, and I gave him those boils that he couldn't magic away for a week." She said, a reminiscent smile appearing on her face.

"Ah the good old days, third year was a blast wasn't it." She replied causing both girls to laugh. "Come on let's go for a walk around the lake we only have so much of this nice Scottish weather before all the rain begins."


Harry woke up Monday morning ready to begin his academic school year. So far everything was going well besides a minor incident with his roommate and friend Seamus Finnigan. Apparently, the Irishmen's mother believed the tripe that the Prophet was saying about him and Dumbledore, but when Harry had simply told him to believe what he wanted to and gone to sleep it left him in a loop.

Eventually after talking to Ron and Dean who had both vouched for Harry, the young man agreed that it was probably the prophet that was lying about him and not the other way around. Harry had also taken the entrance exam for Runes Sunday afternoon and passed with flying colors. He had also set up a tentative schedule for his meetings with Dumbledore, agreeing they would try to meet every Sunday evening for a lesson.

The first lesson had gone well as Dumbledore continued his occlumency training, but for the first time Harry had done more than practice exercises to clear and order his mind. Dumbledore had begun to teach him how to lay down a foundation for defense that they could build upon. It left Harry feeling tired beyond words and physically and emotionally drained, but content with the knowledge that he was getting somewhere. Dumbledore had told him that as soon as his defenses were of a solid enough level, they could begin their training on the history of Voldemort.

Now however he was eating breakfast with Hermione to his right and Ron to his left. They were mostly finished with their food, besides Ron who could put away seemingly endless amounts, but they were still seated, waiting for Professor McGonagall to hand out their timetables. Finally, she made her way over to the table and began to pass out the parchment containing their class schedules.

Harry looked at his schedule and gave a low whistle. "Damn, history of magic, double potions with the Slytherins, then lunch, ancient runes, and double DADA all back-to-back. What a way to start the week."

Hermione looked as if she was about to admonish him for his language, but instead just grimaced in response, "And tomorrow is double charms, double transfiguration, care of magical creatures and herbology." She said instead.

Harry sent her his own grimace, the first two days of their week would be grueling, but the rest of it was rather light. They even had a free day on Thursday besides Astronomy in the evening, and only DADA with the Hufflepuffs on Friday.

"Well, we better get going, History starts in a few minutes." Hermione said causing Ron to groan. Harry had to admit he wasn't looking forward to it either, Binns could put just about anyone to sleep, even Hermione if she was tired enough. But the three friends stood up anyway and began to maneuver the hallways and staircases to get to their first class of the week.


History went like every lesson they'd had up to that point. Right at the hour Binns floated in and began teaching with no welcome or introduction Harry and Ron tried their hardest to pay attention and Harry fared a bit better than Ron who had given in to sleep after half an hour of struggling to keep his drooping eyes open. Hermione as always took meticulous notes and Harry tried his best to take notes as well but stopped when Hermione had mercifully told him he could look over hers after class.

Potions began with Snape giving a speech to let them know this year would be more difficult as they would have to take OWL's at the end of the year and therefore he would be covering more difficult subject matter to prepare them. After his spiel, he set them loose so that they could each individually attempt to make a ridiculously complicated draught. Harry paid close attention to instructions and despite some mild goading from Snape stayed focused on getting it right.

By the time class had ended he'd gotten nearly the exact shade of orange that the instructions associated with perfect completion and basked in the brief flash of surprise on Snape's face when he turned in his labeled glass bottle. He was currently walking on air as he made his way towards the Ancient Runes classroom.

His first lesson went well. They were partnered with the Claws, and he had understood nearly all of the content that Professor Vector covered today, as she was refreshing them on last year's subjects. Harry allowed himself to feel slightly prideful that he had managed to catch up on 2 years' worth of material in just a few months and immediately understood how much more practical this class could be in his fight against Voldemort than Divination. 'I just need to learn enough to take the bastard down with me' Harry thought not for the first time.

After a quick lunch Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way over to the new Defense classroom. Harry had listened to her ridiculous speech and was hoping that she was just blustering, and that she would allow them to practice magic. These thoughts were quickly dashed as Professor Umbridge had started her class by reiterating what she had said at the opening feast. "So, seeing as there are no real threats, we don't need to learn any practical magic." she responded in her annoying, sickly-sweet voice to the third question asked about why the students wouldn't be using their wands. However, it was easy to see the beginnings of her frustration begin to poke through her fake sweet exterior.

"How will we be expected to perform these spells in the practical portion of our OWL's if we have no practice with them beforehand?" This time it was Ernie Macmillan asking the question.

"Five points from Hufflepuff for speaking out of turn! And to answer your question if we are sound in theory, practice will not matter as you should be able to cast the spell perfectly regardless." She replied speaking slowly as if the students she was addressing were toddlers rather than teenagers.

There was an audible scoff from the class at her ludicrous statement, but Harry was more upset at the fact that she had earlier stated that there was no current danger. He did his best to bite his tongue, but she was making it difficult especially with her next remark. "I know that certain individuals" She said shooting a pointed look Harrys way "are trying to spread rumors about how there is a 'dead dark lord returned from the dead' and other types of lies, and look at all of you, frightened thinking you need to train like soldiers for war. I'm here to assure you that you are all perfectly safe." she said in what was probably the most reassuring tone she could muster.

Harry was about to shout out in anger at the obvious accusation, but Hermione grabbed his arm effectively calming him down. Instead, the next outburst came from Susan Bones. "It's not training for war," she said with disgust in her voice. "It's learning how to defend ourselves in case we are in a situation that requires it. Heaven knows there aren't enough aurors to be everywhere at once."

"Ten points from Hufflepuff for speaking out of turn." Umbridge snapped "What is your name girl?"

"Susan Bones, and I'm sure my auntie Amelia, the head of the DMLE, will have something to say about this ludicrous teaching method." She responded hotly.

Harry thought he might've imagined it, but Umbridge seemed to pale a bit. Harry knew that the smear campaign against himself and Professor Dumbledore had been going relatively well until the dementor incident, but afterwards when he had proven in court that he wasn't a crazy lying psychopath it caused many people to doubt what the ministry were writing and saying.

Harry also knew Amelia Bones was a prominent ministry official and should she come out against what the minister was implementing at Hogwarts, especially with the support of Dumbledore, the people would do what they could to get rid of ministry influence in the school.

Harry was interrupted from his thoughts as Umbridge seemingly recollected her wits and shouted, "That is enough! All of you get out now! I want three feet of parchment on why theoretical magic is more important than practical magic by the next time I see you." By the time she finished she was panting as if she had run a marathon and had turned an absolutely wonderful shade of puce Harry had never seen, even on his uncle.

The students quickly collected their things and hurried out of the classroom, eager to get away from the upset teacher. Once Harry was outside, he could hear them talking to one another about what a dumb policy this no practical magic rule was, and he agreed completely.

"Let's go to the library and pick up some books so we can get started on this assignment." Hermione said to him and Ron as they had begun to make their way towards the common room. "Class ended really early so we should be able to get through about a foot of it before Harry and I need to go start our patrols."

The two voiced their agreement and once they had picked up the books they needed, they headed towards the common room to set to work. Two mind numbingly boring hours later and they had soldiered through a foot and a half of the essay that Umbridge had assigned them, and it was time for Harry and Hermione to head out on patrol.

As they were walking towards the meeting point where they would relieve the other two prefects on duty who had pulled the earlier shift they talked about tomorrow's classes, and more specifically ancient runes. "We'll likely be starting with a refresher on Egyptian hieroglyphs before moving on to the Norse runes we're going to be studying later on." Hermione was telling him "At least that's the way she started last year, by giving us a refresher on Greek and Latin runes before transitioning to…"

Harry looked at his friend quizzically to see why she had stopped talking and followed her gaze. There, waiting next to the classroom where the shift changes normally occurred, were the two Slytherin prefects. That was to be expected. The shocking part was that Theodore Nott had been stripped to his underwear, bound and gagged, and hanging from the ceiling. He also appeared to be a bit bruised and bleeding from some small cuts.

"Hello" Daphne greeted casually.

"Hi Daphne, how was your shift?" Harry responded, a bit too cheerfully.

"Oh, it was fine at first. Ted here," she said while motioning to the boy that was currently half naked and hanging from the ceiling, "was being quite annoying, but I could live with that. However, about 15 minutes ago while we were walking towards here to meet the two of you, he groped me and then tried to kiss me. That resulted in his current predicament."

"Ah, makes sense." Nodded Harry sagely. "And the cuts and bruises?" he asked continuing the casual conversation while Hermione looked back and forth unsure what to make of it and Theodore looked at them with pleading eyes.

"We were down a floor when he tried this, and my levitating charm is just so fickle. I may have dropped him from the top of the stairs… five or six times." Harry looked impressed and Daphne sent him a small smile.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I can get the swish just right, but the flick is tough." Harry said with the slightest chuckle.

Daphne looked close to laughing herself "Well if you'll excuse us, I think I have to take him to the hospital wing he might have had a freezing charm applied somewhere, shall we say, sensitive. Would hate to have it freeze and fall off." Theodore's eyes began to panic, and he tried to scream through the gag.

"Well, we won't keep you any longer. Have a goodnight, Daphne, and try not to drop him too many times on the way to the hospital wing." Harry said in parting.

"We'll see." was her simple response. Then, as she was about to turn the corner, she called over her shoulder, "Goodnight, Harry, Granger." And she was gone.

Hermione turned to Harry still seemingly unable to speak, and he just chuckled at her. "You know in all the years I've known you I'm not sure if I've ever seen you struck speechless before. Well, except for that one time with the basilisk, but that doesn't really count." He laughed teasing her a bit.

"Oh you… you prat!" She said, finally able to turn thoughts into words. "Come on let's start our patrols while we talk." She said and once they were underway, she picked up the conversation again. "So, it's obvious you know Daphne Greengrass, I could tell that much from the meeting on the train, but when did you guys meet? I haven't seen you say a word to her in your first four years here, and right now you guys were talking as if you've known each other forever."

"We bumped into each other after the trial. She told me that she was on my side and that she was glad that I won. We talked for all of thirty seconds before I left to find you and Ron." He told her the story as it had happened shrugging as though it was no big deal. "As for just now I'm not really sure. Honestly, I thought you'd be more upset about what she did to Nott."

"I have no sympathy for anyone who tries to take advantage of a girl, or anyone for that matter." She replied with a sour look on her face. "Besides Nott is nearly as bad as Malfoy, he just lacks the the brains or power to back up all his idiotic nonsense."

"He had it coming." Harry agreed, "Come on I packed the map so we could see if there's actually anyone out, without having to waste hours actually searching."

Hermione looked impressed "I didn't even think of that."

"Can't let you have all the good ideas." He said as he opened the map and activated it. "Looks like we're clear for the moment. How about we head to the kitchens and see if they have any leftover treacle tart?" He asked with a hopeful voice.

"Oh, alright then let's go," she conceded. "But keep your eyes on the map, and if we see anyone we leave immediately." Harry was quick to agree, and they began to head down towards the kitchens talking lightly between the two of them.


A/N : Timetables and other facts including dates and how legilimency works are taken from the Harry Potter wiki.