It was Saturday morning and Y/n was sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall with Hermione as Ron sat opposite them.
"Morning." Harry's voice said brightly as he sat down besides Ron.
"What are you looking so pleased about?" said Ron, eyeing Harry in surprise.
"Erm...Quidditch later." said Harry happily, pulling a large platter of bacon and eggs towards him.
"I would bet two Galleons he ran into Cho Chang this morning." Y/n whispered to Hermione who nodded in agreement.
"Oh...yeah..." said Ron. He put down the piece of toast he was eating and took a large swig of pumpkin juice. Then he said. "Listen now that you are both here...you guys don't fancy going out a bit earlier with me, do you? Just to...er...give me some practice before training? So I can, you know, get my eye in a bit."
"Yeah, ok." said Harry.
"That is fine with me." Y/n agreed.
"Look, I don't think you should." said Hermione seriously. "While Y/n is caught up on his own you two are both really behind on homework as it.."
But she broke off, the morning post was arriving and, as usual, the Daily Prophet was soaring towards her in the beak of a screech owl, which landed perilously close to the sugar bowl and held out a leg. Hermione pushed a Knut into its leather pouch, took the newspaper, and scanned the front page critically as the owl took off.
"Anything interesting?" said Ron. Y/n shook his head, knowing Ron was keen to keep her off the subject of homework and continued with his breakfast.
"No." she sighed. "Just some guff about the bass player in the Weird Sisters getting married."
Hermione opened the paper and disappeared behind it. Harry devoted himself to another helping of eggs and bacon. Ron was staring up at the high windows, looking slightly preoccupied.
"Wait a moment." said Hermione suddenly. "Oh no...Sirius!"
"What's happened?" said Harry, snatching at the paper so violently it ripped down the middle, with him and Hermione each holding one half.
"The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer...blah blah blah...is currently hiding in London!" Hermione read from her half in an anguished whisper.
"It was Lucius Malfoy, I'll bet anything." said Harry in a low, furious voice.
"He must have recognized Sirius on the platform... " Y/n said in a quiet voice.
"What?" said Ron, looking alarmed. "You didn't say..."
"Shh!" said Harry and Hermione as they turned back to the paper.
"'...Ministry warns wizarding community that Black is very dangerous...killed thirteen people...broke out of Azkaban...' the usual rubbish." Hermione concluded, laying down her half of the paper and looking fearfully at Harry, Y/n and Ron. "Well, he just won't be able to leave the house again, that's all." she whispered. "Dumbledore did warn him not to."
Harry looked down glumly at the bit of the Prophet he had torn off. Most of the page was devoted to an advertisement for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, which was apparently having a sale.
"Hey!" he said, flattening it down so Y/n, Hermione and Ron could see it. "Look at this!
"I've got all the robes I want." said Ron.
"No." said Harry. "Look...this little piece here..."
Ron, Y/n and Hermione bent closer to read it, the item was barely an inch long and placed right at the bottom of a column. It was headlined
'TRESPASS AT MINISTRY
Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31st August. Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watchwizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o'clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak, in his own defence, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban."
"Sturgis Podmore?" said Y/n slowly. "The name sounds familiar..."
"He's that bloke who looks like his head's been thatched, isn't he?" Ron said. "He's one of the Ord..."
"Ron, shh!" said Hermione, casting a terrified look around them.
"Six months in Azkaban!" whispered Harry, shocked. "Just for trying to get through a door!"
"Don't be silly, it wasn't just for trying to get through a door. What on earth was he doing at the Ministry of Magic at one o'clock in the morning?" breathed Hermione.
"D'you reckon he was doing something for the Order?" Ron muttered.
'Wait a moment..." said Harry slowly. "Sturgis was supposed to come and see us off, remember?"
The other three looked at him.
"Oh, Yes, he was supposed to be part of our guard going to King's Cross." Y/n said remembering. "Moody was annoyed because he did not turn up, so he could not have been on a job for them, could he?"
"Well, maybe they didn't expect him to get caught." said Hermione.
"It could be a frame-up!' Ron exclaimed excitedly. "No...listen!" he went on, dropping his voice dramatically at the threatening look on Hermione's face. "The Ministry suspects he's one of Dumbledore's lot so...I dunno...they lured him to the Ministry, and he wasn't trying to get through a door at all! Maybe they've just made something up to get him!"
There was a pause while Harry, Y/n and Hermione considered this.
"Do you know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were true." Hermione said.
"It is not impossible, Fudge does seem to have a grudge against anyone who is supporting Dumbledore these days." Y/n added.
Hermione folded up her half of the newspaper thoughtfully. As Harry laid down his knife and fork, she seemed to come out of a reverie.
"Right, well, I think we should tackle that essay for Sprout on self-fertilising shrubs first and if we're lucky we'll be able to start McGonagall's Inanimatus Conjurus Spell before lunch..." Hermione said.
Harry felt a small twinge of guilt at the thought of the pile of homework awaiting him upstairs, but the sky was a clear, exhilarating blue, and he had not been on his Firebolt for a while...
"I mean, we can do it tonight." said Ron, as he, Y/n and Harry walked down the sloping lawns towards the Quidditch pitch, their broomsticks over their shoulders, and with Hermione's dire warnings that they would fail all their OWLs still ringing in their ears. "And we've got tomorrow. She gets too worked up about work, that's her trouble...and why didn't see get mad at you?" Ron now asked Y/n.
"Most likely because I finished all of my homework at night after detentions." Y/n said.
"Or because you're her boyfriend." Ron grumbled slightly. There was a pause and he added, in a slightly more anxious tone. "D'you think she meant it when she said we weren't copying from her?"
"Yeah, I do." said Harry. "Still, this is important, too, we've got to practise if we want to stay on the Quidditch team..."
"Yeah, that's right." said Ron, in a heartened tone. "And we have got plenty of time to do it all..." Ron finished as they approached the Quidditch pitch. They collected balls from the cupboard in the changing room and set to work, Ron guarding the three tall goalposts, Y/n was playing Chaser with Harry both trying to get the Quaffle past Ron. Harry thought Ron was pretty good, he blocked three-quarters of the goals Harry attempted to put past him and half of the ones Y/n tried. They found he played better the longer they practiced.
After a couple of hours they returned to the castle for lunch, during which Hermione made it quite clear she thought Harry and Ron were irresponsible...then returned to the Quidditch pitch for the real training session. All their teammates but Angelina were already in the changing room when they entered.
"All right, Ron?" said George, winking at him.
"Yeah." said Ron, who had become quieter and quieter all the way down to the pitch.
"Ready to show us all up, Ickle Prefect?" said Fred, emerging tousle-haired from the neck of his Quidditch robes, a slightly malicious grin on his face.
"Shut up." said Ron, stony-faced, pulling on his own team robes for the first time. They fitted him well considering they had been Oliver Wood's, who was rather broader in the shoulder.
"Ok, everyone." said Angelina, entering from the Captain's office, already changed. "Let's get to it, Katie and Fred, if you can just bring out the ball crate for us. Oh, and there are a couple of people out there watching but I want you to just ignore them, all right?"
Something in her would-be casual voice made Y/n think he might know who the uninvited spectators were, and sure enough, when they left the changing room for the bright sunlight of the pitch it was to a storm of catcalls and jeers from the Slytherin Quidditch team and assorted hangers-on, who were grouped halfway up the empty stands and whose voices echoed loudly around the stadium.
"What's that Weasley's riding?" Malfoy called in his sneering drawl. "Even if it is terribly outdated there is no way his family could afford a nimbus!" Malfoy laughed.
Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson guffawed and shrieked with laughter. Ron mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground. Y/n and Harry looked at one another then followed him, watching his ears turn red from behind.
"Ignore them." Harry said, accelerating to catch up with Ron. "We'll see who's laughing after we play them..."
"Exactly the attitude I want, Harry." said Angelina approvingly soaring around them with the Quaffle under her arm and slowing to hover on the spot in front of her airborne team. "Ok, everyone, we're going to start with some passes just to warm up, the whole team please."
"Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle, anyway?" shrieked Pansy Parkinson from below. "Why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?"
Angelina swept her long braided hair out of her face and continued calmly. "Spread out, then, and let's see what we can do..."
Y/n reversed away from the others to the side of the pitch. Harry went to the far side and Ron fell back towards the opposite goal. Angelina raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Fred, who passed to George, who passed to Y/n, Who passed to Harry, who passed to Ron, who dropped it...
The Slytherins, led by Malfoy, roared and screamed with laughter. Ron, who had pelted towards the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, pulled out of the dive untidily, so that he slipped sideways on his broom, and returned to playing height, blushing. Y/n saw Fred and George exchange looks, but uncharacteristically neither of them said anything, for which he was grateful.
"Pass it on, Ron." called Angelina, as though nothing had happened.
Ron threw the Quaffle to Katie, who passed back to Y/n, who passed to George...
"Hey, Potter, how's your scar feeling?" called Malfoy. "Sure you don't need a lie down? It must be, what, a whole week since you were in the hospital wing, that's a record for you, isn't it?"
George passed to Angelina, she reverse-passed to Harry, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to Ron, who lunged for it and missed by inches.
"Come on now, Ron." said Angelina crossly, as he dived for the ground again, chasing the Quaffle. "Pay attention."
It would have been hard to say whether Ron's face or the Quaffle was a deeper scarlet when he again returned to playing height. Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin team were howling with laughter.
On his third attempt, Ron caught the Quaffle, perhaps out of relief he passed it on so enthusiastically that it soared straight though Katie's outstretched hands and hit her hard in the face.
"Sorry!" Ron groaned, zooming forwards to see whether he had done any damage.
"Get back in position, she's fine!" barked Angelina. "But as you're passing to a teammate, do try not to knock her off her broom, won't you? We've got Bludgers for that!"
Katie's nose was bleeding. Down below, the Slytherins were stamping their feet and jeering. Fred and George converged on Katie.
"Here, take this." Fred told her, handing her something small and purple from out of his pocket, "It'll clear it up in no time."
"All right." called Angelina. "Fred, George, go and get your bats and a Bludger. Ron, get up to the goalposts. Harry, release the Snitch when I say so. We're going to aim for Ron's goal, obviously."
Harry zoomed off after the twins to fetch the Snitch.
"Ron's making a right pig's ear of things, isn't he?" muttered George, as the three of them landed at the crate containing the balls and opened it to extract one of the Bludgers and the Snitch.
They returned to the air. When Angelina blew her whistle, Harry released the Snitch and Fred and George let fly the Bludger. From that moment on, Y/n was focused on nothing but the Quaffle, not even paying much attention when the snitch and Harry flew past him but too soon, the whistle brought him to a halt again.
"Stop...stop...STOP!" screamed Angelina. "Ron...you're not covering your middle post!"
Y/n looked round at Ron, who was hovering in front of the left-hand hoop, leaving the other two completely unprotected.
"Oh ...sorry..." Ron said.
"You keep shifting around while you're watching the Chasers!" said Angelina. "Either stay in centre position until you have to move to defend a hoop, or else circle the hoops, but don't drift vaguely off to one side, that's how you let in the last three goals!"
"Sorry..." Ron repeated, his red face shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky.
"And Katie, can't you do something about that nosebleed?"
"It's just getting worse!" said Katie thickly, attempting to stem the flow with her sleeve.
Y/n quickly glanced around at Fred, who was looking anxious and checking his pockets. He saw Fred pull out something purple, examine it for a second and then look round at Katie, evidently horror-struck.
"Well, let's try again." said Angelina. She was ignoring the Slytherins, who had now set up a chant of "Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers." but there was a certain rigidity about her seat on the broom nevertheless.
This time they had been flying for barely three minutes when Angelina's whistle sounded. Harry, who had just sighted the Snitch circling the opposite goalpost, pulled up feeling distinctly aggrieved.
"What now?" he said impatiently and he turned to see Angelina, Y/n, Fred and George all flying as fast as they could towards Katie. Harry and Alicia sped towards her, too. It was plain that Angelina had stopped training just in time. Katie was now chalk white and covered in blood.
"She needs the hospital wing." said Angelina.
"We'll take her." said Fred. "She...er...might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake..."
"You two need to take more care with those products." Y/n warned them now.
"Well, there's no point continuing with no Beaters and a Chaser gone." said Angelina glumly as Fred and George zoomed off towards the castle supporting Katie between them. Come on, let's go and get changed."
The Slytherins continued to chant as they trailed back into the changing rooms.
"How was practice?" asked Hermione rather coolly half an hour later, as Y/n, Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room.
"It was..." Harry began.
"Completely lousy." said Ron in a hollow voice, sinking into a chair.
"Well, it was only your first one." Hermione said consolingly. "It's bound to take time to..."
"Who said it was me who made it lousy?" snapped Ron.
"No one." said Hermione, looking taken aback. "I thought..."
"You thought I was bound to be rubbish?" Ron accused.
"No, of course I didn't! Look, you said it was lousy so I just..."
"I'm going to get started on some homework." said Ron angrily and stomped off to the staircase to the boys' dormitories and vanished from sight.
Hermione turned to Y/n Harry. "Was he lousy?"
"No." said Harry loyally.
"Yes." Y/n admitted annoyed with how Ron had just spoken to Hermione.
Harry went to argue but then sighed. "Well, I suppose he could've played better." He muttered, "But it was only the first training session, like you said..."
It was nighttime now and Y/n was sitting with Hermione as she finished working on a hat for the elves.
"It's much easier when someone else holds the wool." Hermione said.
"Glad I can be of some help." Y/n said kissing her cheek and letting her continue to work.
He then looked over to Harry and Ron as neither seemed to be making much headway with their homework. Y/n knew Ron was probably too preoccupied with how badly he had performed at Quidditch practice.
Harry and Ron spent the whole of Sunday in the common room, buried in their books while the room around them filled up, then emptied. It was another clear, fine day and most of their fellow Gryffindors spent the day out in the grounds, enjoying what might well be some of the last sunshine that year. By the evening, Harry felt as though somebody had been beating his brain against the inside of his skull.
"You know, we probably should try and get more homework done during the week." Harry muttered to Ron, as they finally laid aside Professor McGonagall's long essay on the Inanimatus Conjurus Spell and turned miserably to Professor Sinistra's equally long and difficult essay about Jupiter's many moons.
Yeah." said Ron, rubbing slightly bloodshot eyes and throwing his fifth spoiled bit of parchment into the fire beside them. "Listen...shall we just ask Y/n and Hermione if we can have a look at what the've done?"
Harry glanced over at them, Hermione was sitting on an asleep Y/n's lap who had one arm around her waist, the other holding his head up. Noctis and Crookshanks were on her own lap and she was chatting merrily to Ginny as a pair of knitting needles flashed in midair in front of her, now knitting a pair of shapeless elf socks.
"No." Harry said heavily. "You know she won't let us."
And so they worked on while the sky outside the windows became steadily darker. Slowly, the crowd in the common room began to thin again.
At half past eleven, Y/n had woken up and both he and Hermione wandered over to them, yawning.
"Nearly done?" Hermione asked the pair.
"No." said Ron shortly.
"Jupiter's biggest moon is Ganymede, not Callisto," she said, pointing over Ron's shoulder at a line in his Astronomy essay, "and it's Io that's got the volcanoes."
"Thanks." snarled Ron, scratching out the offending sentences.
"Sorry, I only..."
"Yeah, well, if you've just come over here to criticise..."
"Ron.." Y/n started having noticed something.
"I haven't got time to listen to a sermon, all right, Y/n, I'm up to my neck in it here..."
"No...look!" Y/n was pointing to the nearest window. Hermione, Harry and Ron both looked over. A handsome screech owl was standing on the windowsill, gazing into the room at Ron.
"Isn't that Hermes?" said Hermione, sounding amazed.
"Blimey, it is!" said Ron quietly, throwing down his quill and getting to his feet. "What's Percy writing to me for?" He crossed to the window and opened it. Hermes flew inside, landed on Ron's essay and held out a leg to which a letter was attached. Ron took the letter off it and the owl departed at once, leaving inky footprints across Ron's drawing of the moon Io.
"That's definitely Percy's handwriting." said Ron, sinking back into his chair and staring at the words on the outside of the scroll, 'Ronald Weasley, Gryffindor House, Hogwarts.' He looked up at the other three. "What d'you reckon?"
"Open it!" said Hermione eagerly, and both Y/n and Harry nodded in agreement.
Ron unrolled the scroll and began to read. The further clown the parchment his eyes travelled, the more pronounced became his scowl. When he had finished reading, he looked disgusted. He thrust the letter at Harry, Y/n and Hermione, who leaned towards each other to read it together.
'Dear Ron,
I have only just heard from no less a person than the Minister for Magic himself, who has heard it from your new teacher, Professor Umbridge that you have become a Hogwarts prefect.
I was most pleasantly surprised when f heard this news and must firstly offer my congratulations. I must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the "Fred and George" route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility.
But I want to give you more than congratulations, Ron, I want to give you some advice, which is why I am sending this at night rather than by the usual morning post. Hopefully, you will be able to read this away from prying eyes and avoid awkward questions.
From something the Minister let slip when telling me you are now a prefect, I gather that you are still seeing a lot of Harry Potter and Y/n Grindelwald. I must tell you, Ron, that nothing could put you in danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternisation with those boys. Yes, I am sure you are surprised to hear this...no doubt you will say that Potter has always been Dumbledore's favourite...but I feel bound to tell you that Dumbledore may not be in charge at Hogwarts much longer and the people who count have a very different and probably more accurate view of Potter and Grindelwald's behavior. I shall say no more here, but if you look at the Daily Prophet tomorrow you will get a good idea of the way the wind is blowing, and see if you can spot yours truly!
Seriously, Ron, you do not want to be tarred with the same brush as Potter and Grindelwald, it could be very damaging to your future prospects, and I am talking here about life after school, too. As you must be aware, given that our father escorted him to court, Potter had a disciplinary hearing this summer in front of the whole Wizengamot and he did not come out of it looking too good. He got off on a mere technicality, if you ask me, and many of the people I've spoken to remain convinced of his guilt.
It may be that you are afraid to sever ties with Potter and GrindeIwald. Now I know that they can be unbalanced and, for all I know, violent...but if you have any worries about this, or have spotted anything else in their behaviour that is troubling you, I urge you to speak to Dolores Umbridge, a truly delightful woman who I know will be only too happy to advise you.
This leads me to my other bit of advice. As I have hinted above, Dumbledore's regime at Hogwarts may soon be over. Your loyalty, Ron, should be not to him, but to the school and the Ministry. I am very sorry to hear that, so far, Professor Umbridge is encountering very little co-operation from staff as she strives to make those necessary changes within Hogwarts that the Ministry so ardently desires, although she should find this easier from next week... again, see the Daily Prophet tomorrow! I shall say only this...a student who shows himself willing to help Professor Umbridge now may be very well-placed for Head Boyship in a couple of years!
I am sorry that I was unable to see more of you over the summer. It pains me to criticise our parents, but I am afraid I can no longer live under their roof while they remain mixed up with the dangerous crowd around Dumbledore. If you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledore's, has recently been sent to Azkaban for trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders. I count myself very lucky to have escaped the stigma of association with such people...the Minister really could not be more gracious to me and I do hope, Ron, that you will not allow family ties to blind you to the misguided nature of our parents' beliefs and actions, either. I sincerely hope that, in time, they will realize how mistaken they were and I shall, of course, be ready to accept a full apology when that day comes.
Please think over what I have said most carefully, particularly the bit about Harry Potter and Y/n Grindelwald, Once again congratulations again on becoming prefect.
Your brother,
Percy.'
Harry looked up at Ron. "Well." he said, trying to sound as though he found the whole thing a joke. "If you want to...er...what is it?'" he checked Percy's letter. "Oh yeah...'sever ties' with me, I swear I won't get violent."
"I cannot make any promises." Y/n lightly joked but then his brow furrowed with concern.
"Give it back." said Ron, holding out his hand. "He is..." Ron said jerkily, tearing Percy's letter in half. "The world's..." he tore it into quarters. "Biggest..." he tore it into eighths. "Git." He threw the pieces into the fire.
No one said a word as they watched the pieces burn.
"Come on, we've got to get this finished sometime before dawn." he said briskly to Harry, pulling Professor Sinistra's essay back towards him.
Hermione was looking at Ron with an odd expression on her face. "Oh, give them here." she said abruptly.
'"What?' said Ron.
"Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them." she said.
'"Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you're a life-saver." said Ron. "What can I..."
"What you can say is, 'We promise we'll never leave our homework this late again.'" she said, holding out both hands for their essays, but she looked slightly amused all the same.
"I will take Harry's..." Y/n resigned.
"Thanks a million, Hermione, Y/n." said Harry weakly, passing over his essay to Y/n and sinking back into his armchair, rubbing his eyes.
It was now past midnight and the common room was deserted but for the four of them, Noctis and Crookshanks. The only sound was that of Y/n and Hermione's quills scratching out sentences here and there on their essays and the ruffle of pages as they checked various facts in the reference books strewn across the table. Harry was exhausted. He also felt an odd, sick, empty feeling in his stomach that had nothing to do with tiredness and everything to do with the letter now curling blackly in the heart of the fire.
He knew that half the people inside Hogwarts thought him strange, even mad, and that some really did suspect Y/n of killing Cedric. He knew that the Daily Prophet had been making snide allusions to them for months, but there was something about seeing it written down like that in Percy's writing, about knowing that Percy was advising Ron to drop him and Y/n and even to tell tales about them to Umbridge, that made the situation real to him as nothing else had. He had known Percy for four years, had stayed in his house during the summer holidays, shared a tent with him during the Quidditch World Cup, had even been awarded full marks by him in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament last year, yet now, Percy thought him unbalanced and possibly violent.
And with a surge of sympathy his godfather, Harry thought of Sirius and how they were the only one who knew how he and Y/n felt, Sirius was in the same situation. Nearly everyone in the wizarding world thought Sirius a dangerous murderer and a great Voldemort supporter and he had had to live with that knowledge for fourteen years...
Harry blinked. He had just seen something in the fire that could not have been there. It had flashed into sight and vanished immediately. No...it could not have been...he had imagined it because he had been thinking about Sirius...
"Ok, write that down." Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron. "Then add this conclusion I've written for you."
"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met." said Ron weakly. "and if I'm ever rude to you again..."
"We will know you are back to normal." said Y/n, his eyes on Harry's essay. "Harry, yours is mostly alright, except for this bit at the end. I think you must have misheard Professor Sinistra, Europa is covered in ice, not mice...Harry?"
Y/n looked up now to see Harry had slid off his chair on to his knees and was now crouching on the singed and threadbare hearthrug, gazing into the flames.
"Er...Harry?" said Ron uncertainly. "Why are you down there?"
"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire." said Harry.
"What?" Y/n asked quite calmly, after all, he and Harry had seen Sirius's head in this very fire the previous year and talked to it.
"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you and Y/n during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too...Sirius!"
She gasped, gazing at the fire, Ron dropped his quill. There in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long dark hair failing around his grinning face.
"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared." he said. "I've been checking every hour."
"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry said, half-laughing.
"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear."
"That was rather daring, what if you had been seen?" Y/n asked.
"Well, I think a girl...first-year, by the look of her...might've get a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry." Sirius said hastily, as Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth. "I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly-shaped log or something."
"But, Sirius, this is taking an awful risk..." Hermione began.
"You sound like Molly." said Sirius. "This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code...and codes are breakable."
At the mention of Harry's letter, Y/n, Hermione and Ron both turned to stare at him.
"You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!" said Hermione accusingly.
"I forgot." said Harry, which was perfectly true, his meeting with Cho in the Owlery had driven everything before it out of his mind. "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?"
"No, it was very good." said Sirius, smiling. "Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed...your scar."
"What about..." Ron began, but Hermione interrupted him.
"We'll tell you afterwards. Go on, Sirius."
"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion." said Harry, ignoring, as usual, Ron and Hermione's winces. "So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night Y/n and I had that detention."
"Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often." said Sirius.
"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked.
"I doubt it." said Sirius. "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater..."
"She's foul enough to be one." said Harry darkly, and Ron and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters." said Sirius with a wry smile. "I know she's a nasty piece of work, though...you should hear Remus talk about her."
"Does Professor Lupin know her?" asked Y/n now, remembering Umbridge's comments about dangerous half-breeds during her first lesson.
"No." said Sirius. "But she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job."
Y/n remembered how much shabbier Lupin looked these days and his dislike of Umbridge deepened even further. "That soulless woman..."
"What's she got against werewolves?" said Hermione angrily. She knew how much Y/n liked Lupin.
"Scared of them, I expect." said Sirius, smiling at their indignation. "Apparently, she loathes part-humans, she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year, too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose."
Ron laughed but Hermione looked upset.
"Sirius!" she said reproachfully. "Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher, I'm sure he'd respond. After all, you are the only member of his family he's got left, and Professor Dumbledore said..."
"So, what are Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interrupted. "Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?"
"No." said Harry, ignoring Hermione's affronted look at being cut off in her defence of Kreacher. "She's not letting us use magic at all!"
"All we do is read the stupid textbook." said Ron.
"Ah, well, that figures." said Sirius. "Our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."
"Trained in combat!" repeated Harry incredulously. "What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?"
"That's exactly what he thinks you're doing." said Sirius. "Or, rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing...forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic."
There was a pause at this, then Y/n said, "How absurd...Fudge has gone power-mad, his obsession with it has turned him into a paranoid deluded fool."
"So we're being prevented from learning Defence Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells against the Ministry?" said Hermione, looking furious.
"Yep." said Sirius. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge."
This reminded Harry of Percy's letter.
"D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow? Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be..."
"I don't know." said Sirius. "I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here." There was a definite note of bitterness in Sirius's voice.
"You two must be getting along like a house on fire..." Y/n commented.
"I'm tempted to set fire to the house and leave Kreacher in it.." Sirius said and Hermione frowned.
"So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?" Harry asked now.
"Ah..." said Sirius. "Well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened to him. "Then, seeing their stricken faces, he added quickly. "But Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you three get yourselves in a state, I'm sure Hagrid's fine."
"But if he was supposed to be back by now..." said Hermione in a small, anxious voice.
"Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home...but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt or...well, nothing to suggest he's not perfectly ok."
Unconvinced, Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione exchanged worried looks.
"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid." said Sirius hastily. "It'll just draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be ok." And when they did not appear cheered by this, Sirius added. "When's your next Hogsmeade weekend, anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could..."
"No!" said Harry, Y/n and Hermione together, very loudly.
"Sirius, didn't you see the Daily Prophet?" said Hermione anxiously.
"Oh, that." said Sirius, grinning. "They're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue..."
"No, this time it is different Sirius." Y/n began to warn him. "Wormtail knows you are an Animagus, he knows everything about your form. There is no doubt he has told Voldemort and his death eaters everything he knows. They will recognize you now. We think one already has..."
"Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you." Harry said now to Sirius. "And his father was on the platform, Sirius... you know, Lucius Malfoy...so don't come up here, whatever you do. If Malfoy recognizes you again..."
"All right, all right, I've got the point." said Sirius. He looked most displeased. "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together."
"I would, I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!" said Harry.
There was a pause in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes.
"You're less like your father than I thought." he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. "The risk would've been what made it fun for James."
"Look..."
"Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs." said Sirius, but Y/n could tell he was lying. "I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?"
There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius's head had been was flickering flame once more.