Even though Sage wanted to discuss the matter of Sirius Black further, Arlene had already spent the entire term fretting over it, the last thing she wanted to do was add it to her friend's shelf of worries.

And so they used the remaining three hours to catch up on news, aka gossiping.

Whether it was about how Arlene's third cousin twice removed got disowned, how Janet Everglow from Gryffindor broke up with her third boyfriend, or how what's-his-face from Ravenclaw is totally secretly dating that Hufflepuff prefect.

The moment they disembarked the train, Arlene spotted Sage's mother, Paloma had told her that she was coming home for Christmas but she had completely forgotten.

Sage's mother looked exactly like Sage, the same untamable curls but hers were much longer, tied and twisted into perfect dreadlocks and put up in a high bun, her eyes were the same dark brown but hers were sharper and more focused, she was still in her military uniform and was standing with two other people, Paloma and Sage's dad.

Sage's dad who, as part of the British Army, is supposed to still be in Africa offering Humanitarian Aid.

It was clear that Arlene was not the only one who was surprised as she let out a high pitched squeal and ran at her dad.

Unlike her mother, Sage looked nothing like her dad, he had fair skin, short fawn hair, hazel eyes, was well built and, like Sage's mom, wearing his military uniform.

While the little family of three reunited, Paloma, wearing a pencil skirt and a blazer over a white blouse, threw her arms around her daughter and squeezed the life out of her.

Arlene protested and tried to get out of the hug, but there was no use as her mother continued to hold on while the other family reunited as well.

Finally, Paloma let go, but not before running her hand through her daughter's hair and ruffled it, then chuckled when Arlene yelled in horror.

"Mom! Do you know how long this took to make?" Arlene groaned as she grabbed her mother's bag and started to dig for a mirror.

Paloma shook her head "Blacks and their obsession with their hair."

She wasn't wrong, after all, Blacks were overly dramatic as well, seeing as Arlene was too upset in the morning and had just pulled it into a ponytail without looking in the mirror, but still.

Her mother rolled her eyes at her daughter "Oh come on, I missed you."

"I don't think my hair could say the same."

Paloma, her eyes bright, black hair falling softly on her shoulders and her pale skin showing a hint of pink, burst out laughing at her melodramatic daughter.

Arlene, who had the enchanted mirror floating in front of her as she redid her hair, glared at her mother, which only made her laugh even harder. "Here, let me do it."

The train station was still full, some people hadn't even gotten off the train yet and Arlene really just wanted to leave and collapse on her bed, but she let her mother do it nevertheless.

Just as Paloma finished the braid, Sage crashed into Arlene and hugged her tight, "See you on Christmas."

Arlene nodded as Paloma gave one last smile the family, and with a CRACK, they were gone.

The house pretty much looked the same, the door was on the right wall, on its left was the tiny kitchen and in front of it was the table, on the left on the door was Paloma's room, In front of it on the left wall was Arlene's room, beside it was a fireplace and beside that was the bathroom and a closet.

Between the two bedrooms was a window seat that both of them used when painting and in the middle of all that was a couch surrounded by armchairs and a table, all facing the TV.

"Home sweet home." Arlene announced as she threw her trunk on the floor and started to pull her tank top off.

"You will not believe the crazy term I had." She called out to her as she entered her room to grab something more comfortable.

As she pulled her skirt down and stepped out of it, she noticed something was off about her room, then her eyes widened and she ran back to her mother in nothing but pajama shorts and an undershirt.

"What did you do to my glass shards!?" she demanded as she pulled her t shirt over her head.

Paloma had mirrored her daughter's actions and her handbag was thrown on the ground next to the trunk, she had taken off the torturous heels and was melting into the soft armchair.

She rolled her eyes "I took them down."

"Mom!" Arlene complained, dramatically dropping on the couch and throwing her arms over her head. To be fair, she didn't even like the glass, whenever a hint of sun rays entered the room the glasses amplified the light and for a night owl like Arlene, it wasn't fun.

But twelve year old her saw it in a muggle DIY magazine and thought it looked aesthetically pleasing, but now being almost fourteen, she just protested to keep them up to annoy her mother.

Paloma got up and headed to the kitchen "Oh don't be so dramatic," she said coolly "One of them fell and hurt my foot."

Arlene rolled her eyes at the obvious excuse and turned away from her mother to look at the ceiling, she had much bigger problems than dangerous décor.

Paloma poured herself a glass of wine and drunk it all in one go, looking as though she was trying to drown in it.

Arlene frowned, her mother did appear more tired than usual, it then hit her with a shocking realization that her life had more knots in it during the last few months more than it did during her entire life because of Sirius Black, and no doubt her mother was the same.

Granted, Paloma did grow up in a post Global Wizarding War society and witnessed the Great Wizarding War, hell, Regulus was a spy for Dumbledore, not to mention the disowning scandal.

But Sirius Black was Britain's latest obsession, everybody wanted to know about the 'fallen angel' -that was a direct quote from one of the newspapers- the bloke who rebelled against his purist parents, James Potter's best man, a trusted member of the Order of the Phoenix, who ended his seemingly golden legacy with madness and a mass murder.

It also occurred to her that McGongall did mention having to fend off reporters, and in that moment Arlene wondered, if they went to such extreme lengths just to speak to an old teacher of Black's, how much would they do to speak with his sister in law?

And she wondered about other things, from what she heard the Minister say, it didn't seem like they suspected Paloma, but then again, before that night in The Great Hall, she would have never thought they would suspect Lupin either.

She looked over at her mother, who was pouring second glass of wine.

"So," she asked warily "how was work?"

"Same old, same old, no interesting cases if that's what you mean." She assured her, trying to shut the concern down, then continued to contradict herself by finishing the glass in one go.

"How was school?" her mother questioned, returning to her previous position on the armchair.

"Well, my murderous uncle managed to sneak into the fortress of a castle that managed to hold off witch burning muggles, countless armies, Grindelwald and Voldemort and the first competent defense teacher we've had is suspected of helping him, so I'd say pretty mundane."

"Hmph." Was her mother's only reply, as though that sentence was as ordinary as a discussion of the weather, as though nothing could surprise her anymore, as though she already knew all of that.

'She probably does,' Arlene thought 'she probably has Dumbledore, Snape and McGongall all keeping her updated about my every move'

Dumbledore.

'Do you honestly trust that man?'

That simple sentence bought to mind a lot of things, the dementors, the truth behind her father's death, Lupin's suspicious behavior.

She could have opened the subject, confront her mother about why she had hid the truth from her for so long. But one look at Paloma showed how tired the woman clearly was, and no matter how rude or inconsiderate Arlene seemed, she heeded adding more to her mother's already full plate.

"Any boys?"

The simple question caused an instant reaction in Arlene, she sate up and turned to her mother with an expression of utter disgust.

Taking Paloma's laughter as evidence that her reaction succeeded in giving her mother an answer, Arlene laid back down and continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Any girls?"

It felt as if all air was sucked of her lungs, she frowned and turned to her mother with a questioning look.

Paloma chuckled, amused once more by her daughter's theatrical expressions "Oh come on darling." She mused "Give me some credit, would you?"

Arlene rolls her eyes with the tiniest hint of a smile "Alright, how?"

"You paint your nails with the same colors of the bisexual pride flag and refer to your future spouse as 'my future partner'." Paloma said casually.

"Those could easily be-"

"Once, we were watching 'That Seventies Show' and you said you were having as existential crisis deciding whether Lisa Robin Kelly was hotter than Laura Prepone or if it was the other way around."

"...All valid points."

"So? Who is she?" Paloma asked with an eager undertone.

Arlene bit her lip "Her name is Hermione," she finally gave in and surrendered the name "And she is the smartest person I know with the most untamable hair."

"Tell me more."

Hermione was having an existential crisis.

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but her day wasn't just a mild inconvenience either.

After the events of the Hogsmead Visit of Doom -that was what she and Ron had started calling it- they had stayed up all night practicing the perfect speech to convince Harry not to do anything stupid.

Except, he was able to shoot them both down and declare that he was going to see Hagrid, and from her experience dealing with Harry, that was code for "I'm going to go yell at him for not telling me the truth"

Only that when they got there, they got even more bad news.

Hagrid stood there with his eyes red and swollen, tears splashing down the front of his leather vest.

"You've heard, haven't you?" he bellowed, shoving the official looking letter in their direction.

Dear Mr. Hagrid,
Further to our inquiry into the attack by a Hippogriff on a student in your class, we have accepted the assurances of Professor Dumbledore that you bear no responsibility for the regrettable incident. However, we must register our concern about the Hippogriff in question. We have decided to uphold the official complaint of Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and this matter will therefore be taken to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. The hearing will take place on April 20th, and we ask you to present yourself and your Hippogriff at the Committee's offices in London on that date. In the meantime, the Hippogriff should be kept tethered and isolated.

"Oh," said Ron. "But you said Buckbeak isn't a bad Hippogriff, Hagrid. I bet he'll get off."

"Yeh don' know them gargoyles at the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures!" choked Hagrid, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "They've got it in fer interestin' creatures!"

Hermione bit her lip, she knew that Hagrid lacked the ability to tell the difference between 'interesting creatures' and 'dangerous monsters' but she also knew that by Hagrid's standards, Buckbeak was just a cute furrball.

"You'll have to put up a good strong defense, Hagrid," said Hermione, sitting down and laying a hand on Hagrid's massive forearm. "I'm sure you can prove Buckbeak is safe."

"Won' make no diff'rence!" sobbed Hagrid. "Them Disposal devils, they're all in Lucius Malfoy's pocket! Scared o' him! Ad if I lose the case, Buckbeak-"

Hagrid drew his finger swiftly across his throat, then gave a great wail and lurched forward, his face in his arms.

"What about Dumbledore, Hagrid?" said Harry.

"He's done more'n enough fer me already," groaned Hagrid. "Got enough on his plate what with keepin' them Dementors outta the castle, an' Sirius Black lurkin' around."

At the mention of Black, she and Ron shared a look, as though they were worried that Harry would start berating Hagrid for lying to him, but poor Hagrid looked so tired and miserable that the only thing any of them could do was to promise to help.

Except Ron, he made tea -"What? It's what my mum does whenever someone's upset."

At last, after many more assurances of help, with a steaming mug of tea in front of him, Hagrid blew his nose on a handkerchief the size of a tablecloth and said, "Yer right. I can' afford to go ter pieces. Gotta pull meself together..."

The trip to Hagrid's, though far from fun, had nevertheless had the effect Ron and Hermione had hoped. Though Harry had by no means forgotten about Black, he couldn't brood constantly on revenge if he wanted to help Hagrid win his case against the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures.

He, Ron, and Hermione went to the library the next day and returned to the empty common room laden with books that might help prepare a defense for Buckbeak. The three of them sat in front of the roaring fire, slowly turning the pages of dusty volumes about famous cases of marauding beasts, speaking occasionally when they ran across something relevant.

"Here's something, there was a case in 1722, but the Hippogriff was convicted, ugh, look what they did to it, that's disgusting-

Hermione sighed and went back to her book, she couldn't believe what was happening. She always had a lot of complains about the magical world, simply because it contradicts her beliefs as a muggle, such as the house elves, in the muggle world that would have had slavery stamped all over it.

Another perfect example was this, she couldn't wrap her head around it, in the muggle world, everyone has the right to an attorney, but the Ministry of Magic expect Hagrid, a man who gets nervous talking in front of a bunch of thirteen year olds, to defend himself in court against a team of Malfoy's expensive attorneys. How was that fair?

She sighed once more, maybe one day she'll be able to change the clearly flawed system, but for now, she'll have to settle for reading through twenty legal books.

"This might help, look, a Manticore savaged someone in 1296, and they let the Manticore off, oh no, that was only because everyone was too scared to go near it..."

With every book that Hermione finished, her frustrations grew, and Ron's Manticore comment was the last straw.

"This is ridiculous! How can they expect Hagrid to argue against Malfoy's lawyers? Hagrid shouldn't have to depend on us to help him in a clearly biased case!"

"What can we do, Hermione? Back in the old days the accused and the accuser would meet in front of the coven leader to defend their arguments and you could get someone to argue for you. It's the same now, except that after a few cases of bribery, the Chief Warlocks decided to include a jury." Ron said monotonically, then returned to his book.

She and Harry shared a look "Erm...Ron, how do you know so much about the Magical Legal System?" Asked Harry, careful as to not offend him.

Ron closed the book he had been reading and turned it around to show them the title.

HISTORY OF WIZENGAMOT

"I've been reading this piece of trash for the past hour." He sighed

And then it all clicked.

It was like a light bulb lit up above her head and she started grinning like crazy.

"I have an idea." Was the only thing she said before she pushed the books off her and went running to her dorm.

When Arlene woke up the next day, it was because of a clicking on the window.

"Wha-?" she was on the couch in her pajamas surrounded by blankets as some black and white movie played on TV.

"Morning sleepyhead." Her mother remarked, Paloma was in her flannel pajamas, holding up a plate of eggs and bacon.

Arlene took and sate up "What is that noise?" she grumbled.

Paloma opened the window for the owl that looked more than pissed, it gave then a look as though to say 'finally!' and dropped the letter in its beak on the floor.

Her mother chuckled and picked it up "Looks like it's from one of your friends." She told her with a mischievous grin.

She handed Arlene the letter and went back to the kitchen to get the owl some water.

Arlene frowned, her friends' letter always had the family crest on the wax seal, except for Sage, who as the genius muggleborn that she is, just used tape, but she would always doodle on the outside.

Her eyes fell on the back of the letter.

From Hermione.

Arlene's eyes lit up in excitement as she ripped it open and started to read.

"Dear Arlene, If memory serves me right, you mentioned before that your mother was a lawyer...."