"Well, if you want to -- er -- what is it?" Harry let out a very forced laugh, checking Percy's letter. "Oh yeah -- 'sever ties' with me, I swear I won't get violent."
"Give it back," Ron demanded, taking it without Harry even moving to hand it over. "He is -- " He tore it in half, "the world's -- " he tore it in half again, "biggest -- " and again, "git." He threw the letter in the fire.
Mentally, knowing it wasn't the appropriate time nor place, Amisty clapped for his dramatics.
"Come on," He continued, as if nothing had happened, "we've got to get this finished some time before dawn."
Hermione watched Ron, her mouth quirked up in a little smile, "Oh, give them here."
"What?"
"Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them," She replied, holding out her hands expectantly.
"Are you serious?" Ron exclaimed. "Ah, Hermione, you're a lifesaver, what can I -- ?"
"What you can say is, 'We promise we'll never leave our homework this late again,'" Hermione cut him off.
"Thanks a million, Hermione," Harry's voice was very soft, and he sank back into his chair, pushing up his glasses to rub his eyes.
Hermione set to work immediately, scribbling out sentences and correcting things with the familiar scratch of a quill.
"Okay, write that down, and then copy out this conclusion that I've written for you," Hermione pushed the essay and slip of parchment toward him.
"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met, and if I'm ever rude to you again -- " Ron began, positively relieved.
" -- I'll know you're back to normal," She finished. "Harry, yours is okay except for this bit at the end, I think you must have misheard Professor Sinistra, Europa's covered in ice, not mice -- Harry?"
Amisty turned toward him, almost laughing as she saw where he was. He was kneeling just in front of the fire as if they were the meaning of life.
"Er -- Harry? Why are you down there?" Ron asked.
"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire," Harry replied as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Harry..." Amisty's voice trailed off as she looked at him. "Are you sure you're not just exhausted?"
"No, I saw him," Harry shook his head, watching the flames carefully. "His head in the fire. Pretty hard to miss, Am."
"Sirius's head? You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too -- " Hermione broke off suddenly, emitting a sharp gasp. "Sirius!"
Ron's quill fell to the floor and Amisty's jaw dropped.
Sirius's head, in fact, was floating in the flames, grinning up at them.
"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared. I've been checking every hour," His dark eyes sparkled.
"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry asked, a trace of a laugh in his tone.
"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear yet," Sirius replied nonchalantly.
"But what if you'd been seen?" Hermione pressed, fingers to her mouth in worry.
"Well, I think a girl -- first year by the look of her -- might've got a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry. 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," Sirius replied, adding on the hasty reassurance at Hermione's thunderous expression.
Still, Hermione fretted, "But Sirius, this is taking an awful risk -- "
"You sound like Molly. This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code -- and codes are breakable."
Amisty, Ron, and Hermione all turned to stare at Harry.
"You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!" Hermione exclaimed indignantly.
"I forgot," Harry shrugged. "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?"
"Too busy mooning over Cho," Amisty muttered under her breath.
Sirius smiled, "No, it was very good. Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed -- your scar."
"What about -- ?" Ron started.
"We'll tell you afterward, go on, Sirius," Hermione butted in.
"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 continued.
"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion. So maybe he just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention," Harry replied, seemingly unconvinced.
"Well, no he's back it's bound to hurt more often," Sirius exclaimed reasonably.
"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. I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater -- "
"She's foul enough to be one," Harry spat. They all nodded.
"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," Sirius pointed out with a small smile. "I know she's a nasty piece of work, though -- you should hear Remus talk about her."
"Does Lupin know her?" Harry asked.
"No, but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job," Sirius scowled darkly. Amisty stiffened.
"What's she got against werewolves?" Hermione snarled.
"Scared of them, I expect. Apparently she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too."
"Wonder if she's gonna ask Dumbledore if she can put me in a kennel?" Amisty snorted, half-joking.
"Imagine wasting your time and every persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose -- " Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Sirius!" Hermione scolded. "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? Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?" Sirius asked, ignoring Hermione who looked very affronted indeed.
"No. She's not letting us use magic at all!" Harry complained.
"All we do is read the stupid textbook," Ron added.
"Ah, well, that figures. Our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat," Sirius replied.
"Trained in combat?" Harry blinked, clearly shocked. "What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?"
"That's exactly what he thinks you're doing, 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."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with," Ron muttered.
"So we're being prevented from learning Defense Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells against the Ministry?" Hermione demanded.
"Yep. 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," Sirius sounded somewhat amused.
"D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow?" Harry asked. "Only Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be -- "
"I don't know, I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here..." His amused tone very quickly changed to bitter.
"So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?" Harry asked, slumping down.
"Ah... well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened to him," Sirius replied, eyes widening at their expressions. "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..." Hermione whispered.
"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 okay," Sirius reassured.
The four of them glanced at each other.
"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid, 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 okay," He continued, changing the subject quickly. "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!"
"Sirius, didn't you see the Daily Prophet?" Hermione cried, pulling on her hair.
"Oh that, they're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue -- " Sirius brushed it aside.
"Yeah, but we think this time they have. Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you, 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 -- " Harry protested.
"All right, all right, I've got the point," Sirius grumbled, not looking happy at all. "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together -- "
"I would," Harry interrupted desperately, "I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!"
Sirius watched him carefully, his eyes darkening, "You're less like your father than I thought. The risk would've been what made it fun for James."
Harry flinched, "Look -- "
"Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs. I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?" And before they can reply, he disappeared.
-=+=-
Amisty got her first detention with the horrid woman after a class that went very, very wrong.
The topic of the day, already a bad sign, was werewolves and what spells to use against them. No one in the class was very happy, not with the combined reading and notetaking and the constant jibes at Professor Lupin.
Around the time when Umbridge commented about how awful it must have been to be in the presence of such a 'monster' when Amisty snapped.
"He was not a monster," She snarled, slamming her hands down on her desk and sending her quill halfway across the room and nearly hitting Neville in the process. "He was the best Defense teacher we've ever had and far better than you ever will be!"
Umbridge's eyes flashed as she clasped her hands, "Now, now, Miss River, I know this is quite the... sensitive topic for you but that is not how you speak to a teacher."
"Amisty," Hermione hissed, tugging on her sleeve. "Sit down."
"I'm going to speak however I please when I don't feel like I'm getting the education and treatment I deserve, ma'am," Amisty retaliated, pulling her arm out of Hermione's grasp. "You haven't gone through a single class without making one denigrating comment toward half-breeds, and I for one refuse to hear it any longer."
"Miss River, I'm sure this must have to do with your mother's temperament and genetics. She was always a trouble-maker, especially during this phase of the month and -- "
"MY MOTHER WAS TWICE THE WOMAN YOU EVER WILL BE!" Amisty shouted, so furious it took all of her self-control not to go flying at her in full wolf form. "SHE WAS BRILLIANT AND KIND AND FAR MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU COULD EVER DREAM OF BECOMING! HOW DARE YOU INSULT HER!"
The classroom was silent. Everything was.
Everything, except for the persistent ringing in Amisty's ears.
"Detention, Miss River. Tonight at seven." Umbridge simpered, breaking the silence with her girlish, lilting voice. "And might I suggest you take a few minutes to... calm down outside of my classroom?"
"With pleasure," Amisty growled, all but throwing her books into her bag and swinging over her shoulder.
Silence persisted still, the Gryffindors knew better than anyone else of Amisty River's ferocious temper. She stomped down the aisle and through the door and slammed it shut behind her with a resounding bang that cracked the door frame.
And then, she ran.
Amisty is angryyyyyy! Ah... new character coming next chapter and you have to promise not to kill me when you meet them. No idea how important they're gonna be just yet since it depends how evil I want to be, but they will be returning. Okay, I'm tired, thanks for reading!