HARRY:

"Sirius!" Ron said sleepily quite a while later.

Hermione and I both jumped up, and the three of us gathered around the fire, where, surely enough, we could see Sirius's head.

Sirius smiled. "Hi."

"Hi," we all said back.

"How's Lucy?" I asked.

"She's alright. A bit tired, understandably, but she'll be back there tomorrow. How're things there?"

I sighed. "Not that good. The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams-"

"-or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?"

I blinked. "Did Lucy mention that?"

"She didn't have to. You want to choose your meeting places more carefully. The Hog's Head, I ask you-"

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks! That's always packed with people!" Hermione said.

"Which means you'd have been harder to overhear. You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" I inquired.

"Mundungus, of course. He was the witch under the veil," Sirius explained, laughing.

I cocked my head. "That was Mundungus? What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing? Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"I'm still being followed?" I asked, indignation burning the tips of my ears.

"Yeah, you are, and Lucy, too. It's just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group."

From anyone else, this might have come across as a rebuke. But Sirius was still smiling, as if he were proud of us.

Ron broke the silence next. "Why was Dung hiding from us? We'd've liked to have seen him."

Sirius snorted. "He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately. Anyway... first of all, Ron, I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Er... yeah?"

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"On duty doing what?"

"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order, so it's fallen to me to be the messenger, and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me to."

Ron sighed. "So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?"

"Me? Certainly not! I think it's an excellent idea!" Sirius replied enthusiastically.

I smiled a bit. "You do?"

"Of course I do! D'you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"

"But last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks-"

"Last year all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry! This year we know that there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"

Hermione furrowed her brow. "And... if we do get expelled?"

"Hermione," I said exasperatedly, "this whole thing was your idea!"

"I know it was, I just... wondered what Sirius thought."

"Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," he replied.

"My thoughts exactly," said a new voice on the other side of the fireplace.

"Lucy!" all three of us exclaimed, leaning closer to the fire.

Sirius grinned, half-turning around, presumably to face her. "Alright, your turn, it sounds like they all want to see y-" His eyes widened suddenly, and his head snapped all the way around and disappeared.

"Sirius?" I asked after a moment. "What's wrong? Why did y-"

A hand emerged in the flames, groping through the embers. The three of us jumped up and ducked behind the couch.

The hand belonged to none other than Dolores Umbridge.

We all needed a moment to collect ourselves. I was shaking. If she had grabbed Sirius, or Lucy...

"Umbridge has been reading your mail, Harry," Hermione panted. "There's no other explanation."

"You think Umbridge attacked Hedwig?" I asked.

"I'm almost certain of it." She sighed heavily. "I've been suspecting this ever since Filch accused you of ordering Dungbombs, because it seemed such a stupid lie. I mean, once your letter had been read, it would have been quite clear you weren't ordering them, so you wouldn't have been in trouble at all — it's a bit of a feeble joke, isn't it? But then I thought, what if somebody just wanted an excuse to read your mail? Well then, it would be a perfect way for Umbridge to manage it — tip off Filch, let him do the dirty work and confiscate the letter, then either find a way of stealing it from him or else demand to see it — I don't think Filch would object, when's he ever stuck up for a student's rights?"

"That was a close call," Ron muttered. He hazarded a glance over the couch. "Her hand's gone. I reckon we're in the clear."

I managed a nod, feeling somewhat numb from head to toe. I hadn't even realized I had broken out in a cold sweat.

"I-I doubt they'll come back," Hermione said as we all rose to our feet. "We should probably go to bed, we don't want to give Umbridge any more reason to suspect that we're up to something by being exhausted tomorrow."

"We didn't get a chance to talk to Lucy. You reckon she's alright?" I asked, gaze wandering to the fire. No faces appeared again.

"Snuffles said she was, didn't he?" Ron inquired.

"He did," I agreed, "but he didn't say much else."

"Well, we'll talk to her tomorrow, so try not to worry too much," Hermione said though she looked plenty worried herself. "Besides, it might even be for the best we didn't talk to her. If Umbridge found out she was with Snuffles of all people, or Professor Lupin..."

I nodded. "Right." I replayed what Sirius had said in my mind. She was alright, but tired, but coming back the next day. Then he changed the topic.

Well... I suppose that makes sense. We can catch up with Lucy tomorrow. This was probably the last chance we would get to talk to Sirius for quite a while.

But at the same time... what if there was something he didn't want to tell us? Something he doesn't want us to find out?

I finally tore my eyes away from the fire and sighed, a bit shaky still. "Well, knowing Snuffles, he's probably getting a good laugh out of this right now."

Ron grinned. "Definitely."

"Well, he shouldn't be laughing!" Hermione said indignantly. "That was an incredibly close call!"

"All the more fun for him," I remarked with a tired, half-hearted smile. "He certainly has a knack for escaping."