AN: I do not own Harry Potter.

If anyone is confused with the last two chapters, I assumed that the children went and spent part of Christmas day with Sirius in Grim Auld Place. I know it was not clearly stated if at all.

I am also a civilian. If I make mistakes about army hierarchy or whatnot, I don't know how an actual army is supposed to be run in detail.

The Rest of Winter Holidays and Hogwarts By Voldibridge

Harry Potter was suspicious. Harry wasn't sure of many things, but he knew when triggered his mental alert that ignoring it would typically cause issues for him. Because of that, he didn't ignore things that triggered his trouble alert. Lately, something was happening and things were odd. Dumbledore was odd, Percy was odd, Snape was being odd, Madam Umbridge was being odd, and even Lucius Malfoy was being odd. It started with Percy actually relaxing with the twins for once, and continued from there with a letter from Lord Lucius Malfoy apologizing to him for the trouble he caused him in second year that he got the next day. As it was written as from Lucius Malfoy's position as a Lord, Harry knew it was out of his depth to answer on his own and asked his godfather for the requirements. Padfoot helped with all of it, so he got Hermione to read it in case the tone of the letter was out of line in a way she could tell. She may not know traditional letter forms in the magical world, but as dentists, her parents were rich and she had to learn some Muggle ones. She didn't find anything.

Padfoot had said laughing, "You can't expect everything I do to be a practical joke, Pup, not when I know it could be the difference between you surviving the rest of the year or not."

Harry had scrunched his nose at him and said, "I don't know. You've got the same always mischievous look as the twins and you've pulled some this evening."

"Yeah, but the twins got you out of the Dursley's place," chimed in Hermione.

"I just don't want him to be pulling a joke on Lord Malfoy when I need to be not funny," said Harry, shrugging. He had also heard the "you're not serious, I am" joke multiple times in the last few days.

"I get it, pup," said Sirius, ruffling Harry's hair. "Well, it's finished, sent off with Percy, and we'd best not worry about it until we hear an answer. Do you want to play chess with me? I am not as good as your friend Ron, but we'll see how good I am since I have been out of Azkaban."

Harry thought that to be a good idea, as despite the last hour being a crash course on formal letter writing, he had been enjoying the time spent with his godfather and wanted to have fun with him as well.

What was not fun was hearing his godfather get scolded by Dumbledore for the tradition he had taught them.

"It's been illegal for years! One of the younger Derrin boys wished his family dead with it, and magic answered by killing his parents! If it is possible with such a cheerful tradition to kill loving family, than there is something really wrong with it. I refuse to participate in such dark magic, Sirius, and if you continue to teach young Harry such Dark magic, I wonder why in the world I am letting you stay near Harry."

"Is it because you know that if Azkaban could not hold me if I wanted to be near Harry, then it is best to let me spend some time near my godchild?"

Dumbledore had huffed and said, "You may have a point. But! No more Dark magic!"

Then he had watched Sirius with an eagle eye for the rest of the time he was there that evening so Harry couldn't ask questions.

Sirius had answered his curiosity with a sigh after the Headmaster had left, and said, "There are some things in this world that the Headmaster is willfully blind to. He believes that with a little more effort on the part of the uncared for, the person that was supposed to care will start to care. That is the reason why the Derrin parents died, even though he won't believe it. Trying to get him to help didn't work for me, or my brother, and I don't know how many others. That is the reason he was hesitant in giving you permission to go with the Diggory's this past summer, and why he was the same with me when I left for the Potter's."

There had been someone dressed like a dark shadow that had been passing by at that moment that had paused to listen for a minute, and Harry ended up hearing from Sirius how he and Snape had had an argument over who had had it worse and their school years. Apparently their feud had them both in the wrong eventually, even if the Gryffindor boys started it with their Slytherin prejudice, and neither were wanting to admit it, even though the argument had made it clear as they went along. Harry had become uncomfortably caught between the two and was looking for an escape, when Snape had turned to him to ask him if Dumbledore had refused his request for a place to live that was not his family, and it was because of how his family was on par from what he heard about Sirius's and Snape's from what he had heard that day, and said "yes". Snape left after that to go get confirmation from the younger Weasleys, as they had gone to get him more than once, and also from Hagrid (who couldn't keep his mouth shut without being obvious). He came back deadly quiet the next day, apologized to Harry, and said he would be back to talk with Sirius another day and left through the Floo. Harry was sure that Snape was deadly furious, and deeply upset. Sirius stormed out after Snape, and Harry could hear him through the Floo apologizing to Snape before it shut off. Harry didn't want to be caught up in it any more than he had to, and left the room quickly.

Otherwise from that bit of drama, he did what he normally did at the Burrow, did a few chores, played games, and did his homework the day before the train went back to Hogwarts for the rest of the school year.

There was not much of a difference that Madam Umbridge could see with her new passenger. There was a slight fuzziness to her brain, but she knew more stuff that helped her avoid looking like there was something different going on, so she could keep doing what she had been, for the most part. Currently, she had a craving for spinach and honeyed ribs, but that was within her normal flavour pallet, so there wasn't anything wrong with that. She was more prone to anger, but it could be covered up with being mentally tired as well as stress over doing a bad job.

There was a difference in what people could see. She became more snappy, more prone to take points or assign a detention than previously. She also started inspecting the other teachers. She said it was because she wanted to see what made students like them better, but nothing they told her was ever put in place. Instead her classroom got worse. She ranted about how awful they were. She told the students that now there would be no practical practice before exams, because it was there fault in how slow they were reading (never mind that she set the assigned reading). It was more awful than previous, when they were doing theory work for a practical class.

Then, in a twist of irony of the crash that everyone wished didn't happen, one of the plots to get Dumbledore away from being a Headmaster worked, and Minister Fudge placed her in charge of Hogwarts. She made up exacting rules and doubled the number of prefects. She limited the things that the kids could do outside the classroom, and seemed to forget that the kids lived there and needed to be able to do things. She visibly turned more hatred on Harry and his Gryffindor year mates.

Harry, while now avoiding Umbridge like the plague, noticed that Snape was acting nicer, even in potions. It seemed that his apology actually meant something. He at least stopped showering him with hate, and taught and gave sharp constructive criticism while snapping at random in the room in general. Harry felt more positive about potions for the first time since first year. However nice it was to not be the target all the time in potions class, it seemed that the fate had decided that there must be a teacher yelling at him this year, for when one stopped, one started.