Briar's second term at Hogwarts did seem to be a bit better than her first. She was improving in Occlumency, she was relieved to be back at regular D.A. meetings, and she never went to a single Defence lesson with Umbridge. But Gryffindor's quidditch team were worse than ever since Ron, Andrew, and Jack had no confidence, and Ginny was good, but not as fast as Harry.
In their most recent D.A. meeting, they had been practicing patronus charms and Briar's friends were thoroughly impressed that she could already produce one, since so many other people older than her were struggling
But Briar's enjoyable lesson came to an end when the door opened and closed, and the house elf Dobby came running in looking shaken and horrified. He ran to Harry and tugged on the 15 year old's robes
"Hi, Dobby!" he said. "What are you - what's wrong?"
The patronuses in the air faded away as everyone looked at Dobby's terrified expression
"Harry Potter, sir..." squeaked the elf, trembling from head tofoot, "Harry Potter, sir...Dobby has come to warn you...but thehouse-elves have been warned not to tell..." He ran headfirst at the wall: Harry, who had some experience ofDobby's habits of self-punishment, made to seize him, but Dobbymerely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. Hermioneand a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy. "What's happened, Dobby?" Harry asked, grabbing the elf's tinyarm and holding him away from anything with which he might seekto hurt himself.
"Harry Potter...she...she..." Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist: Harry seizedthat too.
"Who's 'she,' Dobby?" But Briar was sure she already knew the answer since only one woman could make anyone so scared "Umbridge?" asked Harry, horrified.Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head off Harry's knees but Harry held him at bay. "What about her? Dobby - she hasn't found out about this - about us - about the D.A.?" Dobby gave a shaky nod. His hands held fast byHarry, the elf tried to kick himself and fell to the floor. "Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.
Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on thefloor. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"
Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!"
The room suddenly descended into chaos, as everyone scrambled to get away as fast as they could. Briar grabbed Ginny and the pair began to sprint through the hallways. They were going to head back to Gryffindor tower, but Briar suddenly realised that Umbridge, or some of her students, would be waiting for them
So she grabbed her friend and tugged her into a broom cupboard at the bottom of the stairs, watching as other students ran to the tower. But sure enough, several of them were caught by members of Umbridge's inquisitorial squad
It was only when she was sure the coast was clear, that the pair crept up to the Gryffindor tower
And the next morning she was greeted by a truly horrifying announcement outside the Gryffindor common room
Dolores Jane Umbridge (High Inquisitor) has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraftand Wizardry.
The above is in accordance withEducational Decree Number Twenty-eight.
Briar instantly wrote to her dad to inform him of this, though it must have already been in the Daily Prophet by now, but she was furious. And sure enough when she came down to breakfast and saw that Gryffindor's house hourglass was nearly empty, she knew the rest of this year would be difficult
"Noticed, have you?" said Fred as he and George sat down with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Briar who just arrived
"Malfoy just docked us all about fifty points," said Harry furiously as they watched several more stones fly upward from the Gryffindorhourglass.
"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George.
"What do you mean, 'tried'?" said Ron quickly.
"He never managed to get all the words out," said Fred, "due to thefact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on thefirst floor."
Hermione looked very shocked. "But you'll get into terrible trouble!"
"Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, Idunno where we sent him," said Fred coolly. "Anyway...we've decided we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."
"Have you ever?" asked Hermione.
" 'Course we have," said George. "Never been expelled, have we?"
"We've always known where to draw the line," said Fred.
"We might have put a toe across it occasionally," said George.
"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem," saidFred.
"But now?" said Ron tentatively.
"Well, now -" said George.
"- what with Dumbledore gone -" said Fred.
"- we reckon a bit of mayhem -" said George.
"- is exactly what our dear new Head deserves," said Fred.
"You mustn't!" whispered Hermione. "You really mustn't! She'dlove a reason to expel you!"
"You don't get it, Hermione, do you?" said Fred, smiling at her. "We don't care about staying anymore. We'd walk out right now if weweren't determined to do our bit for Dumbledore first. So anyway," hechecked his watch, "phase one is about to begin. I'd get in the GreatHall for lunch if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can'thave had anything to do with it."
"Anything to do with what?" said Hermione anxiously.
"You'll see," said George. "Run along, now."
Briar grinned and dragged Hermione in to the Hall with her. The pair ate in silence, both of them anxiously waiting for whatever the twins had planned.
"Lupin," came the voice of Draco Malfoy and Briar took a deep breath before turning to him
"What?" she asked
"Careful with that attitude or I'll have to dock points like I did to Scar-head, Weasel-bee, and mudblood Granger" He smirked
"Sure," she shrugged and raised a challenging eyebrow, but Draco didn't do anything "Like I thought, coward"
"Watch it, Lupin," he snarled
"I'm good, thanks," she said "Now why don't you run along and report me to Little Miss Piggy"
"Shut up," he hissed "If you opened your eyes and saw that she's trying to rid the school of mudbloods, half-breeds, idiots, and imbeciles like you and your little friends then maybe you'd realise-"
"-That she's exactly like Voldemort?" Briar asked "Well excuse me for not wanting that"
"How dare you say his name," Draco scoffed
"How about you just say what you came to say and then leave," she suggested "That way the air around here might start to smell better" Draco's pale skin flushed pink "Run along now please"
"You better watch yourself, Lupin. You've already got a target on your back"
"Then shoot me," she snapped and turned back to Hermione, who just rolled her eyes. Draco realised she wasn't going to engage anymore so he huffed and stormed away
And then there was a loud bang from outside the hall and they knew this was what the twins had planned. So they ditched their food and ran up the stairs to see where the chaos started from
Dragons comprised entirely of green-and-gold sparks were soaringup and down the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs asthey went. Shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter werewhizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers. Rocketswith long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls.Sparklers were writing swearwords in midair of their own accord. Firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere.
Filch and Umbridge were standing, apparently transfixed with horror, halfway down the stairs. One of the largerCatherine wheels seemed to decide that what it needed was moreroom to maneuver; it whirled toward Umbridge and Filch with a sinister wheeeeeeeeee. Both adults yelled with fright and ducked and itsoared straight out of the window behind them and off across thegrounds. Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat thatwas smoking ominously took advantage of the open door at the endof the corridor to escape toward the second floor.
The fireworks continued to burn and to spread all over the schoolthat afternoon. Though they caused plenty of disruption, particularlythe firecrackers, the other teachers did not seem to mind them verymuch.
The upshot of it all was that Professor Umbridge spent her first afternoon as headmistress running all over the school answering thesummonses of the other teachers, none of whom seemed able to rid their rooms of the fireworks without her. When the final bell rang andthe students were heading back to Gryffindor Tower with their bags,Harry saw, with immense satisfaction, a disheveled and soot-blackenedUmbridge tottering sweaty-faced from Professor Flitwick's classroom.
"Lupin!" Professor Umbridge barked as she spotted the 14 year old. Briar turned to the headmistress with a smug grin "Lupin! What did you have to do with all this?!"
"Nothing, headmistress," Briar replied innocently, saying the second word incredibly sarcastically
"I have heard stories of your father and his antics of this school, so once I find out that you are behind this, I swear I will-"
"Good luck with that, Professor" Briar scoffed
"That is headmistress to you!" She snapped
"Sorry," Briar chuckled and turned around "Professor"
She ignored Umbridge's angry calls after her as she and Ginny made their way up to their tower, laughing loudly as they did
Fred and George were heroes that night in the Gryffindor commonroom. Even Hermione fought her way through the excited crowdaround them to congratulate them.