The next two days went more or less the same, Krystal wore her bandage always and thankfully Umbridge never asked to see her hand after the first night. Although Harry's hand was beginning to show signs of the words coming through.

People had questioned her about her bandage, but Krystal remained silent on the subject, only she and 5 people knew the truth and she felt that was 5 people too many.

The rest of the week went by and Krystal was glad that Friday had finally passed.

For the first time she woke up in good spirits once more knowing Harry no longer had detention, she rushed downstairs and found Cedric waiting for her as usual, unfortunately Gertrude was with him.

"Good morning you two." Krystal smiled.

"Good morning darling." Cedric smiled widely as he walked over and took her in his arms, he placed a chaste kiss on her forhead, "you look wonderful this morning."

"Thank you, what are you two up to?" Krystal asked.

"Prefect problems." Gertrude sounded, "talk to you later Cedi."

Krystal bit her tongue so as not to react to Gertrude's antics and upset Cedric.

"How about we skip breakfast?" Cedric asked as he snaked his arms around Krystal's waist.

Just then Peeves came whizzing by making loud raspberries and clapping as he shouted "no slobbering snogging" causing others near the staircase to look right at them.

"Maybe we should just go to breakfast, but maybe tonight after dinner we can meet up at our usual spot and you can help me with my homework."

"Alright." He agreed before kissing her and then walking with her into The Great Hall.

The mail arrived and still there was no reply from Sirius, she did however get her morning paper as usual.

"I don't even know why you bother reading that rag." George sounded as he took a sip of his drink, "you know it's a load of rubbish."

"I know but it doesn't hurt to know what the enemies reporting."

"Well don't get too invested in it." He insisted, "better yet come with me to the Quidditch pitch, we're having our first real practice and the team could use someone to cheer for them."

But Krystal was too busy reading the smallest article in the entire paper.

--TRESPASS AT MINISTRY--

Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the whizengamot charged with trespassing and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31 August. Podmore was arrested by the Ministry of Magic watch-wizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through the top-security door at 1 o'clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

"Oi, Krys, did you hear me?" George asked.

"Um yeah I'll go with you to Quidditch but look at this."

George took the paper and began reading the section whilst he munched on his toast. "Podmore, but we met him at Sir-"

"Shh." Krystal hushed him and looked around to make sure no had heard him. "I know, he's one of us, this must mean that they're finally trying to retrieve the prophecy." She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Come on." George said getting up. "You gotta get your mind off of this."

"George," she protested, "I'm in this, I'm part of this."

"Your just a kid Krys, and you're one of my best mates, so I won't watch you obsess over this now come on."

Krystal sighed and got up with him, the two exited the castle and made their way on to the Quidditch pitch.

"What are we doing?" Krystal whispered as they entered Gryffindor teams locker room.

"Getting brooms."

"Brooms?" She asked noticing he had said plural instead of singular.

"I'm going to teach you how to ride a broom." He said.

"B-but Cedric has already taught me."

"Good then we can skip the basics." He rambled. Then he sighed, "look when I've got a lot on my mind, flying helps me, whether it's school, money troubles, or the always pleasant 'what are you going to do with the rest of your life Mr Weasley?' I get on my broom and I just let it go. Because up their the only thing that matters is you and the broom."

Krystal smiled at her best friend, "alright then."

For the first time Krystal stepped on to the Quidditch pitch, she felt so small standing in the center of the large field, the tall goal posts standing high on either side of her.

"Come on then, let's see what Cedi-boy's taught you." George smirked.

Krystal mounted the broom and kicked off, she was a bit wobbly at first but she quickly gained her bearings and took command of the broom. Soon enough George joined her and before she knew it they were both zooming around the field high and low, and just like George had said, Krystal was no longer thinking about anything. Not classes, or Gertrude, not the Order or her future, all she was thinking about was the amazing feeling she was now experiencing as she was flying.

After a while the two of them retreated to the stands to talk.

"So I heard Ron's got the position of keeper."

"Yeah" George smiled, "I'm actually proud of the git."

Krystal couldn't help but smile as well, "you should tell him that sometime."

"And give him a big head?" George laughed, "nah."

"How's the business going?"

George sat back in his seat more comfortably, "Fred's found a place in Diagon Alley, we've really been thinking about putting in an offer to the bank for the building, but to be honest we're worried they won't take us seriously as we're still in school and what not."

Krystal nodded, "that's a valid worry."

"To be honest i'd love to stay near the school, our biggest clients are going to be students so it would be great if they could get access to the products on their trips to Hogsmeade." He said, "maybe we can have a stand at Zonko's or something."

"I think you should start up shop in Diagon Alley and then branch out to Hogsmead later on. That way you can play on the whole supply and demand thing, like you said student will be buying your products, they'll have to stock up before they start school, and then you will have so much money you can buy out Zonkos."

The two talked a little more and then others began to walk onto the pitch. George took the brooms and left Krystal in the stands as he had to go get into his proper Quidditch robes.

Krystal noticed more people began to sit in the stands opposite her, of course she knew it would be Malfoy and his trio there to make Ron feel uncomfortable, but she hadn't anticipated to see them join the already sitting Gertrude Yaxley. She caught Krystal looking at her and she smiled an evil sort of smile. Krystal couldn't help but wonder how long she had been there.

Soon the team emerged and Krystal watched happily as the team began to practice. They weren't doing so well with Ron as a new player, as well as Malfoy and his cronies shouting and shrieking just about every five minutes.

Ron was nervous and more than a little embarrassed, Angelina was racked with fear of the upcoming season and Harry and the Twins were all worried about Ron's abilities.

As they passed the quaffle around (as part of their warm-ups) Ron dropped it a few times and when he finally caught it he was so excited that he threw the quaffle a little too roughly, hitting Katie in the face causing her nose to bleed.

Angelina shouted that she would be fine and Krystal watched as Fred reached in his robe pockets and give her something which Katie then popped into her mouth.

Practice continued, this time as an actual practice with a bludger and the snitch. The team was still having problems but none more than Ron who couldn't seem to guard his posts properly and Katie who's nose seemed to still be bleeding.

"...Katie, can't you do anything about that nose bleed?" Angelina yelled

"It's just getting worse!"

Krystal watched as Fred anxiously fiddled with his pockets once more and pulled out something to examine before place it back in his pocket.

They soldiered on for a while before Angelina's whistle sounded, and rightfully so. Katie was chalk white and cover in blood.

"Katie!" Krystal jumped up and ran down front the stands.

"She needs the hospital wing." Angelina pointed out.

"We'll take her." Fred offered just as Krystal reached them, "she may have swallowed a blood blisterpod by mistake."

"Well, there's no point continuing with practice with no Beaters and a Chaser gone."

Krystal knew there really wasn't anything she could do for Katie so she decided to go to the library and finish up some homework, Neville was in there and he waved her over enthusiastically.

"Hey Krystal, come to finish up your homework too?"

"Yeah" she admitted, "I don't want to put it off until the last minute."

The two worked together, helping each other when they could and even just talking a bit before it was time for dinner.

"You know you really are quite smart Neville."

He blushed, "it's just everything I read in the books really."

"No seriously, you should believe in yourself more, you let the teachers intimidate you so you don't perform so well in class, but when it's just you and I, you do so well." She told him as she pat his hand.

"Thanks Krystal, how's the hand?"

For the first time in a couple of days she looked down at her hand and removed the bandage. Neville carefully grabbed her hand to examine it.

"It seems healed, but I think it's going to remain as a scar." He said sadly.

Krystal's eyes welled with tears and Neville wrapped his arm around her shoulders trying his best to comfort her.

"Oh, excuse me, just grabbing a book." Gertrude said as she suddenly appeared near their table. "Oh Krystal, is everything alright?"

Krystal sneered at Gertrude as she wiped away her tears. "Everything's fine."

Gertrude nodded, "good to hear."

Neville looked between both girls and then a bell signaled it was time for dinner.

The three all awkwardly gathered their things and went their separate ways.

After dinner Krystal exited The Great Hall and shortly after Cedric rushed over.

"Ready to go?" She asked cheerfully.

"Sorry darling, I completely forgot when I scheduled the Quidditch pitch for this evening."

"Oh." Krystal acknowledged, "well let me just go and put my bag down and I'll come and watch you practice."

He made a sort of grimace as he rubbed the back of his neck, "well it's just, the team doesn't really want you there darling. They know you're good friends with practically the entire Gryffindor team and they don't want you to go and report our plays back to your team."

"It isn't MY team, and I'm not a spy, and you should know I would NEVER do that to you." Krystal defended angrily.

"Well I know that, but they're just paranoid."

"Fine, have a good practice and tell your team I send my best." She pouted.

"Come now darling," Cedric kissed her pouty lips, "don't be down I promise to spend the entire day with you tomorrow."

This made her smile, "alright, see you tomorrow then."

Krystal entered the great room just as Ron was violently tearing a letter (which she knew was a letter from Ron's estranged brother Percy) and throwing the pieces into the fire.

"Come on we've got to get this finished some time before dawn," Ron said as he pulled his parchment back toward him.

Krystal walked over as Hermione offered to write their papers, she smiled but shook her head. "You two are so lucky you have Hermione, so don't take her for granted."

Krystal sat down with the trio and pulled out the last bits of her own homework.

Just passed midnight Krystal had long finished her homework and was now helping Hermione on the boys essays.

"Here, just write down this sentence and finish it up with the conclusion that I've written out just here." Krystal instructed Harry, but he was too occupied as he stared into the fire a bit confused. Suddenly Harry slid off his chair and he was on his knees as he was now crouching down near the fire.

"Er-Harry, why you down there" Ron asked.

"Because I've just seen Sirius' head in the fire."

And surely enough, just as Hermione was saying how irresponsible it would be for Sirius to try and contact them through the fire Sirius' head appeared once more.

Soon enough Krystal was right next to Harry.

"I was starting to think you'd gone to bed before everyone else disappeared," Sirius said. "I've been checking every hour."

"You been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry asked half laughing.

"But Sirius, this is taking an awful risk..." Hermione scolded.

"You sound like Molly," Said Sirius, "this is the only way I could come up with answering Harry and Krystal's letters without resorting to a code - and codes are breakable."

All three of them looked at Harry, he hadn't told anyone about the letter.

"Don't worry no one would be able to get any information out of it." Harry assured them.

"No, it was very good," Sirius smiled, "anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we are disturbed- your scar."

"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?"

The two talked about Voldemort and his emotional tie with Harry.

"So Krystal you mentioned that Umbridges lessons are right awful and that you two managed to get detention on the very first day."

All three of then filled Sirius in on what an average class with Umbridge is like, none of them brought up the detention matter.

"Ah, well that figures." Sirius said. "Our information from inside the ministry is that fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"Trained in combat?" Harry repeated, "what does he think we're doing creating some sort of wizard army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks you're doing-or rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore is doing - forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the ministry of magic."

Harry questioned him about what he had read in Percy's letter to Ron and unfortunately Sirius couldn't provide any answers as he hadn't seen any Order members in sometime.

"So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?"

"Ah..." Said Sirius, "well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened." Then, seeing their stricken faces he quickly added, "but Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you four get yourself in the state; I'm sure Hagrid's fine."

They went on a bit more about Hagrid before Sirius offered to come and visit on their next Hogsmead visit. Harry managed to talk Sirius out of the idea but not before Sirius got a slight jest in.

"Well, i'd better get going...I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire then shall I?"

There was a slight pop and the place where Sirius' head had been was flickering flames once more.

The four got up and readied themselves for bed.

"Good night guys." Krystal said.

"Hey Krys, make sure to read the paper tomorrow, who knows what's going to be in it." Harry stated.

Krystal swallowed hard, she in fact knew very well what was going to be in the paper tomorrow, "yeah, thanks." She walked up the stairs toward the girls dormitories knowing that things at Hogwarts were about to get ten times worse.