☤ Pseudonym ☤

~Chapter Sixteen~

It was clear that it had been Umbridge who had attacked Hedwig and read Harry's mail. How else would she have known about our meeting with Sirius. 

It rattled all of us to think how close she had been to catching us, and to catching Sirius. It would be devastating for Harry to have Sirius put back in Azkaban. 

We sat inside during our break because of a heavy downpour outside. We were not the only ones though, as the classroom was full of noisy students. It didn't help that Peeves was floating above us, occasionally firing an ink pellet at the top of somebody's head.

Angelina came in, struggling towards us through the groups of gossiping students.

"I've got permission!" she yelled excitedly. "To re-form the Quidditch team!"

"Fantastic!" Harry and I exclaimed.

"Yeah," said Angelina, beaming. "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 realise we're only three weeks away from our first match?"

She squeezed away from us, narrowly dodging an ink pellet from Peeves, which hit a nearby first-year instead, and vanished from sight.

We were all smiles at the news. I missed playing Quidditch, despite the hammering rain I could see out the window.

Hermione though had a thoughtful expression painted on her face.

"I was just wondering," she announced, "whether we're doing the right thing, starting this Defence Against the Dark Arts group."

"What?" said Harry, Ron and I together.

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

"I know," said Hermione, twisting her fingers together. "But after talking to Snuffles ..."

"But he's all for it," I said.

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

Peeves floated over us on his stomach, peashooter at the ready; automatically all four of us lifted our bags to cover our heads until he had passed.

"Let's get this straight," said Harry angrily, as we put our bags back on the floor, "Sirius agrees with us, so you don't think we should do it any more?"

Hermione looked tense and rather miserable. Now staring at her own hands, she said, "Do you honestly trust his judgement?"

"Yes, I do!" said Harry at once. "He's always given us great advice!"

An ink pellet whizzed past them, striking Katie Bell squarely in the ear. I watched Katie leap to her feet and start throwing things at Peeves; it was a few moments before Hermione spoke again and it sounded as though she was choosing her words very carefully.

"You don't think he has become ... sort of ... reckless ... since he's been cooped up in Grimmauld Place? You don't think he's ... kind of ... living through us?"

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

"I mean ... well, I think he'd love to be forming secret Defence 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." 

I could kind of see her point there.

Ron looked utterly perplexed.

"Sirius is right," he said, "you do sound just like my mother."