𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗢𝗬

ACT ONE, CHAPTER NINE
sirius black, still in the fire.

VENUS, NOT QUITE able to get the prospect of her and Harry holding hands this morning out of her head, went through the rest of her day as normal. Arithmancy went well, and Defense was awful as always (they had to read chapter three, The Case for Non-Offensive Responses to Magical Attack, with no need for talking — ew.) Before she knew it, it was dinner time.

After dinner and bidding goodbye to Charlotte and Elijah (with Ron giving Penelope a small wave as well), they went back to the common room. Venus was just in the middle of telling them about New York City and everything she loved about it, Hermione often jumping in to ask questions since she had always wanted to visit. She didn't notice the way how Harry was staring at her adoringly as she rambled, his heart beating against his chest.

However, once they entered the common room, Angelina instantly descended upon them. "No Quidditch practice."

"But I kept my temper!" Harry insisted, the smiling slipping off his face and a horrified expression appearing. "I didn't say anything to her, Angelina, I swear, I—"

"I know, I know. She just said she needed a bit of time to consider."

"Consider what?" Ron demanded angrily. "She's given the Slytherins permission, why not us?"

"Because they're Slytherins," Venus replied. "Plus, Harry's on the Quidditch team. She's probably enjoying holding the threat of no team over his heads." She then winced slightly. "Uh, no offense, Harry."

Harry shook his head, a dark look on his face. "No, you're right, Star."

"Well, look on the bright side — at least now you'll have time to do Snape's essay!" Hermione announced.

Venus blinked in surprise. That definitely was not the right thing to say.

"That's a bright side, is it?" Harry snapped while Ron stared incredulously at Hermione. "No Quidditch practice and extra Potions?"

Harry slumped down into a chair by one of the tables. Venus took the seat next to him while Ron and Hermione sat across from them. She pulled out a No-Maj (sorry, Muggle) book out from her bag that her parents had given her — One for the Money — and began to read while Harry worked on his extra essay Snape had given him.

However, Venus found it was very hard to concentrate. The room was extremely noisy since Fred and George appeared to have perfected one of their Skiving Snackboxes. They were taking turns to demonstrate it to a cheering and whooping crowd.

First, Fred would take a bite out of the orange end of a chew and instantly vomit spectacularly into a bucket that was placed in front of him. Then he would eat the purple end of the chew, and the vomiting would immediately cease. Lee — who was assisting with the whole demonstration — was lazily vanishing the vomit at regular intervals with the Vanishing Spell like Snape with Harry's potions.

With the combination of retching, cheering, and the Weasley twins taking advance orders from the crowd, Venus couldn't even read anymore. She had shut her book a long time ago and was now staring at the table, her chin placed in the palm of her hand. Venus could see Harry was also getting distracted by all the noise by the amount of crossing out he was doing. Hermione probably was no help, since she kept sniffing disapprovingly after the cheers and the sound of vomit hitting the bottom of the bucket.

Harry apparently had enough of Hermione, since his head snapped up in an irritable manner. "Just go and stop them, then!"

"I can't, they're not technically doing anything wrong," Hermione replied through gritted teeth. "They're quite within their rights to eat the foul things themselves, and I can't find a rule that says the other idiots aren't entitled to buy them, not unless they're proven to be dangerous in some way, and it doesn't look as though they are . . ."

The four of them watched as George projectile vomited into the bucket, force down the purple end of the chew, and straightened up with his arms extended wide, beaming at the applause around him.

Venus tilted her head, watching as Fred, George, and Lee collected gold from the eager crowd. "You said Fred and George only got three O.W.L.'s each?"

"Yeah, why?" Ron replied.

She crossed her arms and leaned her elbows on the table. "They're really good at magic. Like, they figured out how to make candy that allows you to be sick. I've never heard of that before."

"Oh, they only know flashy stuff that's no real use to anyone," Hermione countered.

"No real use?" Ron repeated in a strained voice. "Hermione, they've got about twenty-six Galleons already . . ."

It was a very long time before the crowd around the Weasleys and Lee began to disperse. Fred, George, and Lee sat up counting their takings even longer, so it was already past midnight when Venus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally had the common room to themselves. Finally, Fred closed the doorway to the boys' dormitories behind him, rattling his box of Galleons to show off to Hermione, who scowled.

Venus had moved to her regular place on the floor in front of the armchair by the fire. Finally, when the common room had calmed down, she had moved over here to read again. It was always a way for her to sort of unwind before bed — if she could actually put it down. Ron was in the chair next to her, dozing off.

"Hey, Venus," a voice suddenly greeted.

She jumped in surprise, snapping her book shut and looking into the fire to see Sirius' head there before grinning. "Oh hey, Sirius."

Harry was instantly by Venus' side with a smile that made her heart race. She stared at him for a second before realizing that was a little weird and turned back to the fire. This apparently didn't go unnoticed by Sirius, since he smirked at her. Venus felt her face get hot and she averted her gaze to the carpet.

"Hi," Sirius responded with a grin as well.

"Hi," the four chorused back, Harry, Ron, and Hermione joining Venus on the carpet.

Crookshanks purred loudly and approached the fire to try and put his face closer to Sirius' despite the heat.

"How're things?" Sirius asked.

"Not that good," Harry admitted as Hermione pulled Crookshanks back to stop him from lighting his whiskers on fire. "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?" Sirius finished.

There was a very short pause.

Venus froze. "Uh . . . that's, um, oddly specific."

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," Sirius revealed, his grin widening. "The Hog's Head, I ask you . . ."

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

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

"Who overheard us?" Harry questioned.

"Mundungus, of course," Sirius answered.

Venus shook her head. "Here I go again."

"Member of the Order," Harry explained quietly. "Kind of dodgy, steals a lot of things."

Sirius laughed. "He was the witch under the veil."

"That was Mundungus?" Harry inquired, obviously stunned. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

Sirius looked a little impatient. "What do you think he was doing? Keeping an eye on you, of course."

Harry seemed to get angry again. "I'm still being followed?"

"Yeah, you are, and 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."

However, Sirius didn't look angry or worried. Instead, he looked like he was filled with pride.

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" Ron asked in disappointment. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago, and that barman's got a long memory," Sirius responded. "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."

"Oh 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—" Sirius' eyes settled on the other three "—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. Venus, she also — probably regretfully — wants me to pass on that your parents have said they're okay with it, because they despise Umbridge, unlike the rest of the Ministry."

Venus perked up. "She's heard from my parents?"

"Mary and Atlas? Yeah, they've swung around Headquarters a couple times. Also, Molly 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?" Ron quickly questioned.

"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order," Sirius reassured him. "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."

There was another pause. Crookshanks meowed and attempted to paw at Sirius' head while Ron fiddled with a hole in the rug. Venus absentmindedly ran the pages of her book through her thumb.

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

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

"You do?" Harry voiced.

"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 wastrying to kill you, Harry!" Sirius insisted impatiently. "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!"

"And if we do get expelled?" Hermione inquired, a quizzical look on her face.

Harry blinked at her. "Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!"

Hermione shrugged. "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," Sirius said.

"Hear, hear," Harry and Ron said together.

British people and their weird hear hear's, Venus thought to herself. I've been here for months and I still don't understand.

"So, how are you organizing this group?" Sirius continued. "Where are you meeting?"

"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," Harry admitted. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go . . ."

"How about the Shrieking Shack?" Sirius suggested.

"Hey, that's an idea!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione, however, made a skeptical noise. "Well, Sirius, it's just that there were only four of you meeting in the Shrieking Shack when you were at school, and all of you could transform into animals and I suppose you could all havesqueezed under a single Invisibility Cloak if you'd wanted to."

Venus blinked. "Huh?"

"Tell you later, Venus. But there are thirty-two of us and none of us is an Animagus, so we wouldn't need so much an Invisibility Cloak as an Invisibility Marquee—"

"Fair point," Sirius cut in, looking slightly crestfallen. "Well, I'm sure you'll come up with somewhere . . . there used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind that big mirror on the fourth floor, you might have enough space to practice jinxes in there—"

Harry shook his head. "Fred and George told me it's blocked. Caved in or something."

Sirius frowned. "Oh . . . well, I'll have a think and get back to—"

He broke off. Venus stared at him in concern as Sirius' face became tense and alarmed. Sirius turned sideways, seemingly only looking into the solid brick wall of the fireplace.

"Sirius?" Harry inquired anxiously. However, Sirius vanished, and Harry looked over to Venus after gaping at the flames. "Why did he—?"

Venus gasped in horror and got to her feet, instinctively grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him up as well. He gave her a concerned glance, but she merely pointed to the fire. A hand was in the flames, groping as if it wanted to catch hold of something. The hand was very familiar, though — it was stubby and had short fingers covered in ugly old-fashioned rings.

The four of them ran for it. Venus let go of Harry and glanced back for a moment before hurrying up the stairs. Umbridge's hand was still trying to snatch something in the flames, as if she had known where Sirius' hair had been exactly moments before and was determined to seize it.

╞════════ ༺ ༻ ════════╡

"UMBRIDGE HAS BEEN reading your mail, Harry," Hermione announced. "There's no other explanation."

It was the next day, now. Venus (who had learned about the Marauders, thanks to Hermione), Elijah (apparently knowing everything about the Marauders as well, and who they filled in on what had happened last night), Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together in Charms. Right now, they were practicing Silencing Charms. With a room full of croaking bullfrogs and cawing ravens combined with a heavy downpour of rain pounding against the classroom windows, their discussion about Umbridge nearly catching Sirius was basically unnoticed.

"You think Umbridge attacked Hedwig?" Harry questioned, clearly outraged.

"I'm almost certain of it," Hermione replied grimly. "Watch your frog, it's escaping."

Harry pointed his wand at the bullfrog that had been hopping hopefully towards the other side of the table. "Accio!" It zoomed gloomily back to his hand.

"I've been suspecting this ever since Filch accused you of ordering Dungbombs, because it seemed such a stupid lie," Hermione whispered. "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 away 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?"

"Release your frog, Harry," Venus cut in. "Let the poor thing breathe."

Harry looked down. He was squeezing the bullfrog so tightly that its eyes were popping. Harry placed it hastily upon the desk and sent a gracious look to Venus. She nodded in response.

"It was a very, very close call last night," Hermione continued. "I just wonder if Umbridge knows how close it was. Silencio!" The bullfrog she was practicing her Silencing Charm on was struck dumb mid-croak and glared at her reproachfully. "If she'd caught Snuffles . . ."

Harry finished the sentence for her. "He'd probably be back in Azkaban this morning."

He waved his waved aimlessly. However, that made his bullfrog swell like a green balloon and emit a high-pitched whistle.

Venus pointed her wand at Harry's frog. "Silencio!" It deflated slightly, and she turned to Harry. "What'd that frog ever due to you?"

Harry nudged her with his elbow, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Shut up, Star."

Hermione was apparently still on the topic. "Well, he mustn't do it again, that's all. I just don't know how we're going to let him know. We can't send him an owl."

"I don't reckon he'll risk it again," Ron voiced. "He's not stupid, he knows she nearly got him. Silencio!" The large and ugly raven let out a mocking caw. "Silencio! SILENCIO!" However, the raven only cawed more loudly.

"You're moving your wand wrong," Elijah interrupted, speaking for the first time this lesson — he had been lost in thought for a while. "It's more of a sharp jab than a wave."

"Ravens are harder than frogs," Ron complained.

"Let's swap, then." He took Ron's raven and replaced it with his bullfrog. "Silencio!" The raven continued to open and close its sharp beak, but no sound came out.

"Very good, Mr. Rogers!" Flitwick's squeaky little voice praised, and the five all jumped. "Now, let me seeyou try, Mr. Weasley!"

"Wha—?" Ron began, very flustered. "Oh — oh, right. Er — Silencio!"

He jabbed his wand at the bullfrog so hard that he poked it in the eye. The frog gave out a deafening croak and leapt off the desk.

Harry and Ron — unsurprisingly — were given additional practice of the Silencing Charm for homework.

Due to the downpour outside, the students were allowed to remain inside over the break. Venus, Elijah, Harry, Ron, and Hermione met up with Charlotte — whom they filled in about everything as well — and found seats in a noisy and overcrowded classroom on the first floor. Peeves — this was the first time Venus was meeting him, how exciting — was floating dreamily up near the chandelier, occasionally throwing ink pellets at people's heads. The six of them had barely sat down when Angelina came struggling towards them through the groups of students.

"I've got permission!" Angelina exclaimed. "To re-form the Quidditch team!"

"Excellent!" Harry and Ron chorused.

Angelina beamed. "Yeah. I went to McGonagall and I think she might have appealed to Dumbledore — anyway, Umbridge had to give in. Ha! So I want you down at the pitch at seven o'clock tonight, all right, because we've got to make up time, you realize we're only three weeks away from our first match?"

She squeezed away from them. Angelina narrowly dodged an ink pellet from Peeves — that hit a nearby first-year instead — before vanishing from sight.

Ron's smile slipped slightly off of his face as he looked out the window, which was now covered with hammering rain. "Hope this clears up . . . What's up with you, Hermione?"

Hermione was gazing at the window with her eyes unfocused, a frown on her face. "Just thinking . . ."

Charlotte crossed her arms. "'Mione, you're always thinking. You're gonna have to be a little more specific. Is this about Siri— shit, sorry, Snuffles?"

"No . . . not exactly . . . more . . . wondering . . . I suppose we're doing the right thing . . . I think . . . aren't we?"

Venus, Harry, Ron, Elijah, and Charlotte all looked at each other.

"Well, that clears that up," Ron responded. "It would've been really annoying if you hadn't explained yourself properly."

Hermione's voice got stronger. "I was just wondering whether we're doing the right thing, starting this Defense Against the Dark Arts group."

"What!" the other five stated together.

"Hermione, it was your idea in the first place!" Ron insisted.

Hermione twisted her fingers together nervously. "I know. But after talking to Snuffles . . ."

Venus tilted her head in confusion. "But he said he thought it was a great idea."

"Yes," Hermione agreed, staring out at the window again. "Yes, that's what made me think maybe it wasn't a good idea after all . . ."

Peeves floated over them on his stomach, peashooter at the ready. Automatically, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elijah, and Charlotte all lifted their bags to cover their heads. Venus felt somebody tug on her arm to bring her in closer to them. She turned to see Harry very close to her now, his bag lifted over both of their heads. Her eyes widened slightly, her face felt hot, and her heart raced at their close proximity. Harry only let go of her arm once Peeves had passed.

"Let's get this straight," Harry began angrily, putting his bag back on the floor. "Sirius agrees with us, so you don't think we should do it anymore?"

Hermione looked tense as she stared down at her hand. "Do you honestly trust his judgment?"

"Yes, I do! He's always given us great advice!"

An ink pellet whizzed right by them and hit Charlotte right in the ear.

She gasped at the impact. "Peeves, I swear to God—"

"Oh, here she goes," Elijah muttered. "Lottie, come on—"

Charlotte ignored him. She leapt to her feet and began throwing everything she could find at Peeves. Venus watched her in amusement for a couple of moments.

"You don't think he has become . . . sort of . . . reckless . . . since he's been cooped up in Grimmauld Place?" Hermione inquired slowly, like she was choosing her words very carefully. "You don't think he's . . . kind of . . . living through us?"

"What d'you mean, living through us?" Harry repeated.

"I mean . . . well, I think he'd love to be forming secret defense societies right under the nose of someone from the Ministry. . . . I think he's really frustrated at how little he can do where he is . . . so I think he's keen to kind of . . . egg us on."

Ron looked very perplexed. "Sirius is right, you do sound just like my mother."

Hermione bit her lip, but didn't answer. The bell rang just as Peeves swooped swooped down upon Charlotte and emptied a whole ink bottle over her head. Venus and Elijah instantly erupted into laughter — because, after all, in dark times like these, they were eager to laugh at just about anything.

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guys I hit 2k today 🥺🥺🥺 I literally can't wrap my head around it, it's so crazy. thank y'all for getting me to this point and for all the love, it means the world to me <333 my heart is literally so full. and here I go with crying again OKAY KELLY STOP

anyways the ministry is so fucking dumb they just should've used veritaserum on sirius smh

also I got a three on my ap euro exam 🧍🏼‍♀️ my college wanted me to get a FIVE for credit or something and I was like idk who the fuck you think I am but I was sure as hell not getting a five