Dance of Fates

chapter 11

Chapter 11

The weeks continued to fly. After that night in the Chamber of Secrets, neither Daphne nor Harry had talked about it and preferred to forget it. 

Umbridge had passed a decree to stop all the extracurricular activities in the school, which made Harry and his friends start wondering if there was a snitch amongst them. Hermione denied it, saying she had charmed the signing parchment just in case, but Harry couldn't believe it.

Hermione was a clever witch, but there must have been a mistake. He made sure to not worry his friends, though, with his speculations as to who this traitor might be, but decided to keep things under his hat and instead try to avoid being the centre of attention and think of a place to train the thirty students—not just that but also his own training took a lot of thinking and plotting.

The next weeks were exhausting ones for him. Snape was tutoring the fifth years rigorously for their OWLs, so the Ministry's pet was spying on him more than ever. Wherever he went, he stumbled upon Filch, which meant he must be more careful than ever. 

"—There is no other person but her, Harry," Sirius said to him through the floo call as he was filling him in on the Ministry’s latest activities. 

"You mean she was the one who attacked Hedwig?"

Harry's owl had been attacked by an unknown creature en route from delivering a letter. Hedwig returned with an injured wing, and thankfully, the substitute teacher of magical creatures had healed her.

"B-but why?" Harry asked. 

"Probably to read your letters in case she found something interesting," Hermione replied as she appeared behind him. 

Sirius agreed with her, and she joined the two in the discussion. 

"How are you, Sirius?" 

"Good, you?" 

She nodded, 'Good'. 

"Well, she won't find anything," Harry said, shrugging,

"And in my opinion, I don't think Filch is her only guy in this school," Sirius claimed.

Hermione raised her right eyebrow, "Sirius! You're surprising me tonight." She was amazed, frankly, by Sirius, who was rarely right, but this was one of those moments when he was. 

Harry only glanced between the two, surprised. His godfather and Hermione were not exactly famous for their cooperative skills, and usually every time they entered a dialogue, they wound up in an intense debate that required Remus’s intervention.

Hermione turned to Harry with troubled emotions drawing on her face. 

"I caught Umbridge talking with Parkinson and Malfoy a few hours ago when I was patrolling, and they were extremely chummy with each other. At first, I thought it was because of the influence their parents have in the Ministry, or their social status, but after I listened in for a bit, it wasn't like that. Umbridge is desperate to get you out of here by any means."

Harry ran his fingers through his hair as he remembered his last encounters with Malfoy and the toad. This was a problem he would have to fill his wife in on, he reckoned. 

After a short silence, Harry cleared his throat. 

"Thank you, Hermione, you just helped me a lot," he said, smiling at his best friend. 

Hermione's brows knitted in confusion as she looked to Sirius for an explanation, but the latter only shook his head.

Sirius excused himself and disappeared, leaving them alone.