of homework and more homework.

Unfortunately, since Margaret was half an hour late to meet Neville, the two of them had just decided to finish Astronomy on Sunday after he had reassured her that he was not upset. They had sat together, along with Ginny and Luna, who had left the Ravenclaw table to sit with them for an early dinner.

It was quite fun, with Ginny telling them all about the shenanigans some of her classmates were up to, whilst Luna mentioned how someone had grown little plants in jars on the terrace of the Ravenclaw tower; Neville, after much pestering from Ginny, had finally opened up about how he thought he'd be doing well in Herbology O.W.L. and then quickly added how he was probably going to fail the rest of the subjects.

Margaret promised him that she'd help him whenever she could and that it was always nice to do homework together. Neville had generously thanked her.

Ginny and Hermione, as promised, came to Margaret's dorm room later that night.

"Have I told you that I love your hair?" Ginny asks.

"A couple hundred times, yes," Margaret laughs from where she was sitting cross-legged on the ground.

Ginny giggled at her words as she brushed Margaret's straight hair from where she was sat on the bed. She wanted to braid it into a fishtail and wanted to make sure that her medium-length dark locks ended up in waves when they were let down.

"So the house-elves have been taking all the hats?" Ginny asks after a moment, causing Hermione to look up from the windowsill seat where she was knitting.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. All the hats and socks are gone, which is why I'm making more. I was wondering about asking some students from other houses to hide some in their common rooms too," she replies thoughtfully.

Margaret bites her tongue before she could tell her who exactly was taking all the hats. She just pursed her lips and looked back down at her potions textbook that she had chosen to read to learn the ingredients for healing potions.

"Would you like to learn how to knit?" Hermione offers.

"Oh, mum has been begging me for years to do it," Ginny says. "I tried once, but it was so bad, mum thought Fred and George had set something off inside the yarn ball."

Margaret snorted at the thought, imagining a young Ginny covered in long woolly threads of yarn and an evidently horror-struck Mrs Weasley standing over her while the twins laughed.

"You laugh, but mum gave up hope after that," Ginny tells her, laughter in her voice.

Hermione pursed her lips at the thought and turned to Margaret, who backed up immediately.

"You know, I would love to; if I wasn't trying to save the world," she says, half-sarcastically, and flashes her a cheeky grin.

The frizzy-haired witch sighed, going back to making patterns. "Honestly, you two; it's not as hard as duelling."

Margaret turned her head to share an amused look with Ginny.

"Speaking of duelling," Ginny attempts to change to the topic, "it seems like we aren't going to be learning that anytime soon."

"That... that horrid, pink gorgon," Hermione mutters in distress, pausing her knitting for a moment, and Margaret took a mental note of that brilliant insult. "At this rate, we'd... never learn anything; we'd never be able to defeat You-Know-Who..."

"How's Harry been doing?" Ginny questions casually. Margaret caught the knowing look that Hermione shot towards the young Weasley.

"He has been having his detentions with Umbridge this past week," Margaret replies. "I'm just hoping he won't end up having more rows with her."

"He has been rather quiet about his punishment," Hermione says, frowning.

Margaret shrugs nonchalantly, "I'm sure he's just glad to be out of it."

Not long after, Ginny finished Margaret's fishtail braid and told her to put a soft towel on her pillow so that the hairstyle won't be ruined. Hermione finished her knitting, showing them to the two, who complimented genuinely on her improved skills.

The two girls soon bid Margaret a good night before returning to their respective dorms.

Exhausted from the day, Margaret fell asleep the second her head hit the towel-clad pillow.

helping Ron and Harry with their homework in the common room. Margaret had given her notes to them to expand it and fill the parchments with essays on their own whilst she and Neville worked on Astronomy.

Hermione had wished them a good morning before saying something about reading in the courtyard and disappearing for most of the day, Crookshanks following behind her.

The early morning's blooming sunlight had turned into the brighter afternoon's daylight when Margaret and Neville left the Gryffindor common room to go grab some lunch. They offered Harry and Ron to join but the two declined without even raising their heads.

"You know, they should really get some work done during the week," Margaret comments as they enter the Great Hall.

"I suppose what with, uh, Harry's detentions and Ron's Quidditch practise, they wouldn't have been able to," Neville tries to reason as they take a seat in front of each other.

"You noticed Ron sneaking out to get some extra practise too?" Margaret asks, slightly surprised.

"Oh, uh- I think everyone did? It's not a bad thing..."

"No, it isn't. I just hope they get their work done on time," Margaret replies.

"You know, maybe we could bring some lunch back for them," Neville suggests.

They did just that.

Once they finished eating, the two of them grabbed two plates and filled them with as much food as they could possibly carry - sausages, mashed potato, roasted meat, Yorkshire pudding, Shepherd's Pie - then covered it with two other plates before walking, very carefully, back to the Gryffindor tower.

"Merlin's pants, you two are angels," Ron cries, almost drooling as he takes the plate full of food from Neville's hands. Harry quickly shifts all the books and parchments before Ron could accidentally spill something on their hard work.

Margaret set down another plate in front of Harry before taking a seat next to him, watching as his face lit up at the sight of food before he turned to her and Neville.

"Thank you," he tells them.

"Bon appétit," she says, smiling back.

After the lunch was scuffed down, Margaret helped Ron in sketching diagrams for Jupiter's moons as the room filled up again. Someone had started the radio on the side and Weird Sisters were singing something about Hippogriffs with rock guitar, while some boys from different years were playing poker - betting sweets, some sickles and even some of Weasley products.

The sky outside got steadily darker and Neville went back to his dorm after sunset, having finished all his schoolwork.

An hour later, Harry poked Ron in the arm to gesture at Margaret who had fallen asleep on the squashy armchair where she had found comfort in. The two boys exchanged looks of amusement before going back to their work.

At quarter-past-nine, the two of them finished all their assignments, too tired to check them. They leaned back where they were sitting, chatting about Quidditch and sharing a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans that Dean had thrown at them gleefully after winning two in the game of poker.

Margaret jerked awake when she nearly slipped sideways off the armchair.

"Shit, who fell asleep?" she asks groggily, rubbing her face that was starting to turn red from embarrassment.

"By the looks of it, you did," Ron replies before cringing and spitting out whatever he was chewing in a spare piece of parchment. "Bloody 'ell, I am not about to suffer earwax after that load of work."

Harry laughs, taking another jellybean before holding out the box to Margaret. "Want some?"

"Hell no," she scrunches up her face, turning away from it. She had tried them once during the summer and had instantly regretted it when she had had the misfortune of tasting earthworm.

In the corner of her eye, something in the fire shifted. She narrowed her eyes at the odd-looking log; however, she near-about jumped out of her skin when the log blinked and flashed her a grin.

Margaret wasn't sure if her sleep-lidded mind was playing tricks on her; before she realised a second too late that the odd-looking log wasn't a log at all, it was the head of Sirius Black, who had disappeared again.

She sighed, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. At that moment, Hermione wandered over to them, yawning. Crookshanks followed behind, rubbing against the side of the sofa.

"Nearly done?" she asks, gesturing to the coffee table filled with references books, quills, ink pots and parchment.

"All done," Ron replies proudly, causing Hermione to straighten up in surprise.

"Really - oh, well done!" Hermione praises before noticing Margaret and her brows furrow in thought, "Wait... did you help them?"

Margaret looked up at the ceiling, whistling Hedwig's Theme. Not that they would know that...

"Margaret!" Hermione gasps in realisation. "You- Oh, come on-"

"Hey, I just gave them my notes, they did the rest on their own," Margaret interrupts, holding her hands up in surrender.

"It's true," Harry says, "And besides, without her, we would've been here till sunrise."

"Exactly," Ron adds.

Before Hermione could say something, she noticed something fluttering on the side and turned to the window quickly.

"Ron- is that... is that Hermes?" she asks, sounding amazed.

"What? Percy's owl? Why in Merlin..." he pauses to gape at the handsome screech owl perched on the windowsill, gazing into the room at Ron. "Blimey, it is Hermes!"

Ron stumbled up to full height - one of his feet had fallen asleep - and crossed the room to open the window. Hermes flew inside, landing upon Ron's essay and held out a leg to which a letter was attached. Ron took it off and Hermes departed a once, leaving inky footprints on Ron's drawing of the moon Io. He sat down next to Hermione on the sofa and Harry got up to sit on his other side.

Margaret yawned and fixed her fishtail hair, tucking back some stray strands behind her ears. She rubbed the scar under her left ear which had fully healed by now but still itched sometimes. She gazed into the fire as the three read Percy's letter.

When they were done, Ron, who had a strong scowl etched to his face, held out the letter to Margaret who leaned forward to take it. Her eyes flew over the text she had read so many times before, but the bitterness she felt towards Mr Perfect Percy only magnified.

Basically, the letter stated how he had found out from the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge himself, who had found out from Umbridge, that Ron had become a Hogwarts Prefect. He first presented his congratulations, then went on to insult him, saying how he always thought Ron would take the notorious 'Fred and George' route. Percy was under the misconception that Ron was trying to follow, as Percy obviously believed, his golden footsteps.

Then he had the nerve to call Harry 'unbalanced and violent' and advised Ron to cut his friendship with him as he could be 'damaging' to Ron's future 'even after school.' According to him, Ron would be better off being Umbridge's pet since Dumbledore would not be having much power left at Hogwarts for long.

He had ended the letter by clearly stating that he was well aware of what criminals and lunatics their parents were rubbing shoulders with and how he would be ready to accept a 'full-length apology letter' from them when they realised that he had been right and they had been wrong all along.

Margaret took a deep breath, trying to control the urge to find Percy Weasley right this moment and show him where exactly this behaviour of his leads his family in the future. However, she could not do this, and she could only imagine how much it pained Ron to have a brother like Percy.

"Well, uh," Harry looks up at Ron, trying to sound like he thought of the whole thing as a joke, "if you want to - what was it?"

"Sever ties?" Margaret offers, looking down at the letter.

"Oh, yeah, 'sever ties' with me, I promise I won't get violent."

"Give it back," demands Ron, holding out a hand. Margaret handed the letter back to him, watching as he tore it with force.

"He is" — he tears it into two's — "the world's" — he tears it into four's — "biggest" — he tears it into eight's — "git!"

He threw the pieces into the fire.

Margaret brought her hands together to clap silently, looking impressed. Hermione looked at Ron with an expression that seemed to be of genuine admiration, then turned to their essays.

"I'll look them through and correct them for you," she declares.

"What? Oh, Hermione, you're a lifesaver," says Ron, "What can I-"

"What you can say is 'We promise not to leave out homework this late again," she grabs the quill Harry passes her, looking amused.

Crookshanks, who was lounging near the fire till now, got up and strutted over to Margaret, looking up straight at her, obviously demanding to be picked up. Margaret shifted in her seat to get comfortable before picking up the half-kneezle, who instantly curled up in her lap. She ran her hand through his orange fur as she wondered about Percy.

Percy was blinded by his own faith and ambition to become great in the eyes of the Ministry, and he was in the process of entirely losing his sight of what was right and what was not. Not standing with his family when they needed him the most brought even more pain to them in these dark times.

She knew all about thinking that what parents were doing was crazy, before realising that they were right all along and were only trying to protect their children from harm... It was too late when she learnt that and it would be too late when Percy learns it too.

Margaret snapped out of her thoughts when Harry slid off the sofa and onto his knees on the singed hearthrug in front of the fire.

"Er, Harry... why are you down there?" Ron asks uncertainly.

Margaret picks up Crookshanks in her arms to get on the floor as well. "Howdy Sirius?"

"Sirius? I don't think he'd actually show up in the fire again, it would be too- Sirius!" Hermione gasps.

Ron dived forward to get to the fire quickly, ramming his elbow hard on the side of the coffee table, causing him to yell in pain.

There, in the middle of dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long hair falling around his grinning face.

"I was beginning to think you lot would go to bed before everyone else disappeared. I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry asks, half-laughing.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear."

"But what if someone had seen you?" Hermione questions, looking awfully stressed. She had looked over her shoulder twice to see if there were any remaining students around them.

"Margaret here got a glimpse earlier," Sirius chuckles.

"Scared me half to death," she mutters in reply, "but I only thought you were an oddly shaped log or something before you grinned creepily."

"See? Everything is fine. And my smile is not creepy, mind you, Margie."

"Urgh, not you too!" Margaret whines, slumping down on the carpet grumpily, referring to his use of the terrible nickname that the twins had come up with.

"But Sirius, this is taking an awful risk-" Hermione begins but Sirius interrupts.

"You sound like Molly... This was the only way I could think of to answer Harry's letter without resorting to code - and codes are breakable. Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed; your scar-"

"What about-?" Ron begins, but Hermione speaks over him quickly.

"We'll tell you afterwards; go on, Sirius."

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?"

"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion," says Harry. Margaret noticed Ron and Hermione wincing at the name. Harry ignores them and continues, "So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention."

"Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often," Sirius says solemnly.

"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asks.

"I doubt it," Sirius says. "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater."

"She's foul enough to be one," Harry mutters darkly and Ron and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," Sirius says with a wry smile.

"There are those famous words," Margaret remarks.

"It's something to live by," Sirius tells her and she agrees silently. "I know Umbridge's a nasty piece of work, though; you should hear Remus talk about her."

"Does Lupin know her?" Harry asks, remembering Umbridge's comments about dangerous half-breeds during their first lesson.

"No, but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf act two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job."

"What's she got against werewolves?" Hermione asks angrily.

"Scared of them, I expect," Sirius guesses, smiling at her annoyance.

"Apparently she loathes part-humans," Margaret says. "The Ministry has started troubling Centaurs too at this point, haven't they?"

Sirius frowns in thought, "I did read something about that in the Prophet... but that newspaper's been spouting a load of rubbish lately."

That reminds Harry of Percy's letter.

"Do you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow? Ron's brother Percy mentioned there will be-"

"I don't know. I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here..." Sirius says, a definite tone of bitterness in his voice. "Anyway, so what are Umbridge's lessons like? Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?"

"No," Harry says, deflating at the thought of the horrible lessons, "she's not letting us use magic at all!"

"All we do is read the stupid textbook," Ron adds irately.

"Ah, well, that figures," Sirius nods. "The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"Trained in combat?" Ron repeats incredulously. "What does he think we're doing, forming some sort of a wizard army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks we're doing," Sirius replies.

"He's afraid Dumbledore wants to overthrow him," Margaret adds.

"And take on the Ministry of Magic," Sirius finishes.

There was a pause at this, then Harry says, "But that's stupid – no one in their right mind would-"

"Exactly; Fudge is not in his right mind. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge," Sirius tells them.

"He's also turning a blind eye You-Know-Who being back. More than he's worried about Dumbledore, he's scared about the fact that Dumbledore hasn't ever been wrong," Margaret says, noticing the stricken faces of her friends at the mention of Dumbledore being arrested.

Sirius's brows furrow in thought. "D'you reckon so, Margie?"