𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

𝟐.𝟏𝟎 - 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭

You had never stepped foot into the Gryffindor common room until today. It was much brighter than the Slytherin common room and the air didn't smell half as strongly of wet stone and moss. Instead, your nose was greeted with the faint lingering scent of cinnamon and woodsmoke.

Hermione sat beside you in front of the fireplace. She was changing the wrappings on your hand. After the last few detentions, you found it was best to just keep the bandage on. There wasn't enough time between your punishments for the cuts to scab over. The bleeding was continuous unless you left the bandage on and so that's exactly what you did.

Her hands were precise and gentle as they grazed over your wound. Occasionally you would wince and she would apologize quietly. As she worked, you looked around the room some more. There were long red and golden tapestries hanging from the walls that depicted images of lions and unicorns.

You could see clouds rolling by outside of the tall windows. They were thick and heavy, issuing the promise of another rain. You thought about how nice it would be to look out of your dorm room window and see the sky rather than the darkness of the Black Lake.

"That foul, evil, gargoyle!" Hermione spat as she knotted the bandage. She was referring to Umbridge, obviously. You had just gotten done telling her and the boys about your most recent detention. This time, she had made you write just over a hundred lines.

Every so often, Gryffindor students would walk by and sneer at you as they eyed your green Slytherin robes. It had become known to them, somehow, that Umbridge was once a student of Slytherin house. This morphed into the idea that she favored Slytherins above the other houses. This, obviously, was not true. At least, not in your case.

You didn't have to worry much about it, thankfully. Harry and Ron were stationed at the table behind you and shot equally dirty looks back at them. "Got a problem?" Ron snivelled as a pudgy looking third-year boy stopped to glare at you. The little boy's eyes widened and he shook his head before running up to his dorms.

Once he was gone, Hermione stood up and began to pace in front of the fire. "I can't believe she's getting away with this. It's absolutely barbaric."

"The only thing I can't believe is that you haven't gotten a single detention, Hermione," Ron looked between you and her with a smile creeping onto his freckled face. "I mean, out of the four of us, you're the one most likely to speak out of turn."

Hermione glared at Ron and he cowered backward in his seat. She sighed and continued to pace, counting off on her fingers as she spoke. "We're not learning how to defend ourselves, we're not learning how to pass our OWLs. She's taking over the entire school!"

 You nodded along with her, playing with the frayed ends of your wrapped bandage. The OWL exams were fast approaching and you still hadn't learned nearly enough to pass the Defense Against the Dark Arts portion. Back at Ilvermorny, you couldn't care less about your grades in that class but something happened over the course of last year that made you reconsider. 

 Now, you had motivation to learn how to protect yourself and your friends.

A cloud of smoke exploded from the fireplace and you jolted. Hermione stepped back and you could hear chair legs scraping against the floor as the boys rose to their feet. As the dust cleared, a face appeared amongst the red embers. Harry rounded the sofa and got down onto his knees in front of the fire. "Sirius?" He spoke into the flames. "What are you doing here?"

Your mouth fell open and you joined him down on the floor. The more you inspected the face, the more it became clear to you that it was in fact Sirius Black appearing through the flames. 

"No way," you breathed.

Sirius looked between you and Harry. "Answering your letter," he spoke, sending puffs of ashes in Harry's direction. "You said you were worried about your friend."

You blinked up at Harry who was staring intensely into the fire. A blush was growing onto his cheeks, but it could have just been the heat of the fire. Had he really reached out to Sirius on your behalf?

"It's Umbridge," he stuttered after a moment. "She's torturing students for speaking out against the Ministry."

"I'm not surprised," tsked Sirius, sending another cloud of hot ashes out onto the smooth stone floor. "The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"Combat?" You asked with a snort, shifting your weight so you could balance comfortably on your knees. "What, does he think we're forming a child army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks; that Dumbledore is assembling his own forces to take on the Ministry. He's becoming more paranoid by the minute," Sirius explained. Your eyes began to water from sitting so close to the heat but you didn't dare to move, too invested in his words. 

 Sirius licked his lips and turned away for a moment. "The others wouldn't want me to tell you children this but things aren't going at all well with the Order. Fudge is blocking the truth at every turn and with more and more families turning away from the light..."

 His eyes flickered over to you and your gaze fell. You knew exactly what he was referring to. Harry put a comforting hand over yours and squeezed. "What can we do?" You asked, voice nearly cracking. As you leaned in closer to the short flames, Harry moved his hand to wrap around your middle and pull you back from the fire. His expression was stern as he stared at Sirius. You could tell that he had also been thinking of that question.

He opened his mouth to speak but once again turned away from you. It was a moment later that he reappeared, expression frantic. "Someone is coming. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. But for now, at least, it looks as though you are on your own."

 Without any warning, the flames encircled Sirius's face and he disappeared. The four of you fell silent. From outside the window, thunder crashed down and rumbled underneath your feet. You and Harry stood back up and turned to Ron and Hermione who both looked equally puzzled.

With a short sigh, you brushed the ashes off the front of your skirt and walked over to one of the tall arched windows. Rain was beating down heavily against the pictured glass panes. You could feel the eyes of the others on you and without turning around, you crossed your arms. "He's really out there, isn't he?"

Voldemort. You remembered a time when the name meant nothing to you, a time when you didn't know the name at all. You closed your eyes and pinched the bridge of your nose. It seemed to you that your entire life suddenly revolved around this man and his horrible deeds. "Hermione's right, we need to be able to defend ourselves."

Turning back to the other three, you looked to Hermione who nodded. "If Umbridge refuses to teach us how, we need to find someone who will."

One by one, the three of you turned to Harry who took a cautious step back. A flash of lightning lit up the round lenses of his glasses and he gulped. 

 (A/N: Definitely will be coming back to edit this one more. I'm really glad you guys are enjoying this story! Might not be able to update as often when school comes back around in like a week but until then I'm going to be cramming as many updates in as possible).