• Serena Black •

"You will never be able to escape
from your heart,
so it's better to listen
to what it has to say."

"You go with him, Serena." She would have liked to throw a pumpkin at her best friend for that sentence. Grinning stupidly, Hailey disappeared around the next corner and finally left Serena alone with Hall. She knew that this had been her best friend's intention. For Serena it was almost like a betrayal. Maybe she should have told the Hufflepuff what he had thrown at her in the library. Then she probably wouldn't have taken this action.

"Come on," Serena bitched at him, really just wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. But Hall remained rooted to the spot, which only made her more upset. "You're walking in the wrong direction." he remarked knowingly. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"No, but in a pinch I'll just put you in a cell in the dungeon," she replied, but actually reluctantly changed direction so she would get rid of him faster. She just couldn't figure out his mood swings and they were also starting to get on her nerves beyond belief.

He grinned stupidly, as he had always done in the last school year, just before he said something stupid and indeed she was not to be disappointed. "But for all I care, we can just go to your dorm room..."

"Forget it, Hall," Serena interrupted him, running down every staircase she could find. The dungeons had to come eventually, didn't they? Gradually, she began to seriously worry about the Slytherin's mental health. Did he have something like a split personality? After all, only a few hours before he had made it clear to her again how little he wanted to have to do with her and now he was making such remarks again.

When it seemed to get gradually darker and darker and Hall no longer corrected her, Serena knew she was on the right track. Stubbornly and with quick steps she walked on until she turned a corner and Hall opened his mouth again: "Watch out!"

Serena stopped, startled, and her eyes fell on the small shadow right in front of her feet. She almost ran into Mrs. Norris, who of course had not moved a step aside and was merely looking at her expectantly. She knew it was unusual for a student to come closer than two metres to Filch's cat, but Serena bent down and stroked her.

Mrs Norris began to purr and Hall stared at her, stunned. "What are you doing?" he asked, perplexed, staring at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Petting her," Serena replied smugly and had to suppress a laugh at the expression he gave her. So it was that easy to irritate Hall. She straightened up again with the cat still stroking around her legs. "Still, we should keep moving, if Mrs Norris is here, Filch will probably be on the mat soon too."

The two continued walking down the dark corridors. "Just everyone likes you." Hall suddenly blurted out, "Even Filch's deviant cat."

"Except the Slytherins, Snape and all your broads, if they knew what we are doing here right now." Serena merely listed a few she could think of.

He grinned and raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Well, what are we doing here right now?"

Serena merely rolled her eyes. "Besides, I don't like everyone," she added.

"I know."

Their eyes met briefly before Serena quickly looked away. Only when the dungeons came into view did the Slytherin speak up again with a question: "How's our project going?"

"It's sleeping." Thanks to you, she added in thought. Indeed, the infantem had fallen asleep immediately after eating and hopefully still did in her makeshift bed, which consisted of the open drawer of her bedside table and a pillow in it.

He grinned. "I guess you can add it to your list of creatures that don't like you."

Serena gave him a withering look and was more than happy to finally discover the stone wall that contained the opening to the Slytherin common room. "You're welcome to do better tomorrow," she retorted, eagerly looking forward to his pitiful attempts at immobilising the thing.

"Didn't you want to make sure I slept in my own bed, too?" asked Hall, after he had given the correct password and the stone wall had opened, which he was now holding up for her, grinning stupidly.

"As long as you stay in your house, you can sleep in the fireplace for all I care."

The next morning, which Serena had of course spent in her own dormitory, she was rudely awakened by unbearable shrieking. But instead of burying herself in her pillow with a grumble, a nasty grin spread across her face; for today it was Hall's turn.

As quickly as she could, she got ready and headed for breakfast. Seldom had Serena been so motivated to get out of bed on a school day. Still grinning, she handed the still screaming project to Hall at the Slytherin table, and the stares that followed her to the Gryffindor table were so indifferent to her.

Her expression dropped again, however, the moment Hermione wordlessly shoved the Daily Prophet under her nose. Her hated new teacher looked at her like a big pink toad, winking at her thoughtfully under the big headline.

"MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATION REFORM: DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED TO NEWLY CREATED OFFICE OF GRAND INQUISITOR"

"She's only been here a week," Serena commented dryly on the article whose huge letters almost jumped out at her. Only now did she notice how the first students around the tables had begun to whisper excitedly to each other.

"I didn't think that Umbridge would get so much power over Hogwarts so quickly," said Hailey, who had appeared behind Ron and squeezed in between him and Lavender at the table.

Serena was still skimming the first few lines of the article, but that was enough to understand which way the wind was blowing here. Goosebumps ran down her spine and bile began to rise in her throat. The Ministry had probably passed a law and it now had a certain amount of power over Hogwarts.

"This is almost like the Death Eaters," Hailey remarked grimly. "They want to raise us all to be little Ministry followers who follow their leader without questioning anything ."

"I'm afraid it's not getting any better," Hermione revealed to them with a furrowed brow. "Umbridge can now give the Minister a first-hand account of what's going on here at Hogwarts, and I'm betting she won't just go out of her way in one aspect to make the school look bad."

"And it probably won't even have anything to do with the lessons, it will just conform to their views and standards," Nate, who had apparently just finished his breakfast and was actually on his way to the entrance hall with Luna, now interjected.

So Umbridge, as Grand Inquisitor, had the right to control the other teachers' lessons, according to the article, which also mentioned Percy Weasley and named Remus as a dubious choice for the teaching post. Serena clenched her fists haphazardly, Remus was the best teacher they had ever had and surpassed this toad by universes. Perhaps the fact that he was a werewolf was exactly what Nate had meant by her beliefs and standards.

"This is unbelievable." Hermione crumpled up the paper angrily. "But at least now we know why we got Umbridge in front of us. Fudge wants to remove Dumbledore from his post and prevent us from taking action ourselves."

There was a restrained silence for several minutes as they all tried to process what they had just experienced. But no solution came to any of them. How could they possibly rebel against the Ministry when not even Dumbledore could do something. Serena sighed and massaged her temples. "So how's your project going?" she finally asked tiredly, turning to Hailey and Ron to change the subject.

"Really good." Hailey now began to smile. "Our Christopher is almost all yellow already."

"Your what?" grinned Serena, at first thinking she had misheard.

"We named him Christopher," the Hufflepuff explained proudly, to which Hermione snorted disdainfully. Hailey seemed not to have missed this and eyed her. "And what about you and Malfoy?"

"Going well," she replied dryly. "We've got it sorted out in much the same way as Serena and Hall."

"With the exception that yours doesn't scream non-stop and doesn't seem to think anything is good," Serena added with a sigh.

Hermione gave her a pitying look. After all, she had been witness to how much effort she had put herself through to satisfy the infantem to no avail. "You just have to find out what it likes. Every infantem is different and has different needs."

Serena sighed once more and ventured a glance towards the Slytherin table. She was starting to feel a little better, because her infantem seemed to dislike Hall as much as it did her.

Umbridge seemed to get straight down to work, because on the same day there was an inspection visit to Trelawney, as Harry and Ron reported, as well as to McGonagall. She, however, was not disturbed by Umbridge in any way, much to the amusement of the students.

In the afternoon, Serena practised a bit of Quidditch with Ron, as he wanted to apply for the vacant post of the Keeper. He didn't do badly, but to actually make the team would probably take a bit more practice. However, Serena had to keep quiet about it. Ron didn't want Harry to know about it in case he didn't make the team.

But Harry was probably thinking about something else at the moment anyway. He spent most of his time either with Cho because of the project or in detention with Umbridge - and this time they found out that he didn't just have to write sentences there after all.

"I hate that woman." Serena slammed her clenched fist down on the table, so hard that she nearly dropped the bowl of murtlap essence Harry was holding his injured hand in.

"That's assault," Hermione muttered, holding her feet in front of the roaring fire in the common room. "You should complain about that."

"No," Harry said firmly.

"Yes, I do," Serena contradicted him. "Are you going to take that shit again? Because I don't think you're going to keep your mouth shut with her in the future if she brings it up again..."

"I'm sure it won't be long before the old woman gets a new decree that anyone who complains about her will be thrown out immediately," Ron speculated grimly.

"But then at least she won't have anyone to rub her nonsense in when everyone has been expelled from school...", Serena replied with a shrug.

"She's a horrible woman," Hermione said, shaking her head before saying firmly, "We have to do something."

"Poison." replied Ron merely, probably a little loudly, for the few Gryffindors who had not yet visited their dormitory were giving him quizzical looks.

Serena nodded determinedly. "I'd be in favour of it too."

"No, it's about what a miserable teacher she is and how we don't learn any defence at all with her." Hermione looked around cautiously and lowered her voice. "You know, I've been thinking, maybe the time is right for us to just take it into our own hands."

"Take what into our own hands?" asked Harry with a snotty undertone in his voice.

"Learning Defence Against the Dark Arts," she replied. "That's more important than homework."

All three stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "There's something more important than homework?" asked Ron again in amazement. Serena had also raised her eyebrows. "Hermione, are you sick?"

"Don't be silly, of course there are more important things," Hermione replied sharply, her face suddenly glowing with the same eagerness that usually only S.P.E.W. sparked in her.

"It certainly won't hurt to prepare for what awaits us outside," Serena murmured, agreeing with her friend, who seemed to be really getting quite a kick out of Umbridge. "But we can't learn that much from books either."

"Yeah," Hermione agreed with her, finally revealing her idea, "We need a teacher."

"If you mean Lupin..." began Harry, but was immediately interrupted again by Hermione, "I mean you."

"Me?"

"That's an idea," Ron agreed and Serena nodded enthusiastically too, while she would have loved to be taught by Remus again, she knew how difficult it would be to make it happen. Especially with a Ministry toad walking around Hogwarts.

"Think about what you've done!", Hermione reminded him eagerly and with shining eyes. The common room was now empty, so the four of them could talk undisturbed.

But as Harry was still staring at them in confusion, Ron took over the explanation: "First year: You saved the Philosopher's Stone. Second year: you killed a basilisk and destroyed Riddle."

"That was luck and if Fawkes hadn't shown up then..."

"Then we saved Dad and..." continued Serena, but was immediately interrupted by Harry, "Wrong. You saved Sirius, it's because of you that he's free now."

But she didn't dwell on that and kept on enumerating, "You chased the Dementors away and last year you fought off You-Know-Who again and even dueled him."

"Listen!" exclaimed Harry now almost angrily. "Sounds great the way you guys pray it all down, but I've mostly just been lucky and had no idea what I was doing!"

"Harry..." said Hermione warningly, but he wasn't listening and seemed to be getting more and more upset.

"Now don't sit there grinning like you know better, after all, I was there!" he remarked, upset. "You don't know what it's like, all three of you have never had to face him have you? You think it's just a matter of memorising a few curses and hurling them at him like in class. But the whole time you know for a fact that there's nothing between you and death when you know you could be tortured or killed at any second. You don't know what it's like to watch someone else die! You sit there and pretend that I was a clever little boy and Cedric was stupid, like he was too stupid, but it could have happened to me just the same!"

"We didn't say anything about any of that, man," Ron said, looking at him aghast. "We didn't frame Cedric, I think you're getting something wrong..." He looked helplessly at Hermione and Serena, who were also stunned.

"Harry...", Hermione finally began tentatively again. "Don't you see? That's why we need you, we need to know what it's like.... To stand up to V...Voldemort." It was the first time she had mentioned his name and the others stared at her, gobsmacked, until Harry seemed to regain his composure.

"That's not how it works," he raged on. "You have no idea..."

"That's right, we don't," Serena said no less angrily by now, interrupting him. Harry's behaviour had been getting on her nerves since the holidays and now it seemed she finally had an outlet for it. "But still, you're not the only one who's faced you-know-who. Ask the Order, most of them have seen him and even fought him. They have lost their friends and family to him and watched them die, just like you Cedric. Maybe you should have talked to them about it instead of retreating into your shell and taking your anger out on us."

Serena's chest rose and fell rapidly, she hadn't even realised she had stood up in her anger. Hermione, Harry and Ron stared at her in disbelief until Harry rose as well and disappeared up the stairs to his dormitory with a bitchy "Fine." Serena knew she had probably overreacted a little, but it felt good to finally be rid of it.

"Think about it!" pleaded Hermione after him. "Please!"

"Um... I'll go check on him, good night guys..." mumbled Ron gloomily and went upstairs as well.

The two remaining girls stared in silence for a while at the fire, which was, however, merely sparking embers, until Serena noticed that a sad haze had settled over Hermione's face. "What's wrong?" she asked anxiously.

"I just... next week is the Hogsmeade weekend and Nathan asked me if we could go together," Hermione mumbled sheepishly.

"Well, that's great," Serena agreed, smirking. She wouldn't have thought in her life that Nate would actually work up the courage to ask her. "What did you say?"

"That I'd think about it," Hermione replied, abruptly changing the subject. "Did you know Ron was going with Hailey?"

Serena opened her mouth to reply something, but immediately closed it again. She actually hadn't known that and inwardly she cursed her best friend for it. "Really?"

"Mhhhm," she made and stared into the fire again.

Then Serena gradually began to understand why Hermione was delaying giving Nate an answer. "You're hung up on someone else, aren't you?" she whispered, and Hermione stared at her, startled. "You're still hung up on Krum."

"I... I... I don't know, but he wrote me a letter last week," she stammered, looking into the fireplace again.

"What did he write?" asked Serena curiously, grinning.

She sighed heavily. "That he missed me."

"Do you miss him too?"

Hermione didn't answer immediately, but stared silently into the dying embers for a few seconds. "Yes, I do..."

"How was your date during the holidays, by the way?", Serena inquired, eyeing her suspiciously. Her friend didn't seem to be very happy. Had something happened?

"Quite nice," Hermione confirmed, however, smiling slightly. "We met in London because he had an appointment there.... Something about Quidditch. We had ice cream." She was silent, growing calmer by the minute since the subject of Hogsmeade had been brought up. "Didn't it go well?" inquired Serena worriedly as a result.

"Of course it did!" contradicted Hermione, repeating, "It was wonderful."

"But?"

"He's much older than me. He's Bulgarian and a famous Quidditch player," she enumerated.

Serena sighed, "We've already had this conversation, Hermione. If you're sure you like him, then it doesn't matter if you're different. What belongs together..."

"Will also find together," Hermione finished her sentence, smiling sadly, and Serena liked the idea that someone, somewhere out there for all time, was meant for her.