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Given the unpleasantness from Umbridge over the situation with the Article, Sirius had come to worry that any day now Harry would be expelled. She would find somehow, someway, and it could happen at any time.
His expulsion is clearly her ultimate goal between taking away his rights to letters, to see Hagrid, to go to Hogsmeade, and having him in detention every night for the last month. He’s sure that she’s just waiting for another game or something to happen in practice to get him kicked off the team as well. As it is, she attends every practice just waiting for the precious moment.
Luckily, Harry could talk to him, and Sirius could keep him calm enough not to do something stupid that would give her a reason.
He just hopes his worries are in vain, unfortunately, his gut is right.
“Pads!”
“Hey kid,” Sirius grins until he sees his face. “Oh no, what happened?”
“As if it wasn’t bad enough that she’s been stalking me and having her own minions attempt to get me into trouble – she finally found a way to get me kicked off the team.”
Sirius frowns. “How’d she manage that?”
“Well, the Slytherins show up at practice trying to wind me up by mocking me for the usual and then, I don’t even know what happened. One minute I’m telling the team to just ignore them and the next I started fighting Malfoy – my anger was like ten times what it should’ve been considering.”
Sirius frowns. It’s possible that Voldemort might’ve also been angry, and it amplified Harry’s anger. “Did your scar hurt?”
Harry frowns. “Yeah, it was aching afterward – not helped by the yelling of my teammates, the Slytherins, and Umbridge. She berated me in front of everyone and took my broom. I’ve been given a life-long ban and two weeks detention.”
“We’re lucky she didn’t expel you,” Sirius states. “Although, considering that you just finished the month of detention for the article, it’s not good news. But she has no control of over your life outside of school, so you could still do quidditch someday – once she’s gone.”
“Certainly seems like she has control outside of school. I literally have no rights or privacy right now. And she knows where the Dursleys live – who’s to say she doesn’t just attack me there? What if she’s the one who sent the dementors? I just – I don’t know how much more I can take of this.”
Sirius’ heart breaks for Harry. It seems that even with some things going right, that most of his life is just circling the drain. “It’s only a few more months.”
“And then what? They find some way to charge me for Cedric?”
Sirius’ surprise shows on his face, no doubt, because he absolutely had not considered that Umbridge or Fudge would go so far as to charge his kid with killing Cedric.
“You – you think that’s what they’re going to do?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. I mean, I – I have literally been tortured all year – Fudge tried to get me expelled in a hearing that was like a Death Eater trial after what I can only assume was an attempt on my life because not many fifteen year olds can product a Patronus and Umbridge seemed in utter disbelief that I managed it and – and with everything that’s happened, it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Sirius takes a deep breath. He couldn’t let Harry see his worries that he makes a good point. “Kid, if they were going to do that, they would’ve hauled you in before the Dementors this summer. So, I need you to take a breath and realize that that isn’t going to happen. They’ve declared his death an accident and with the article and Amos Diggory taking up your cause afterwards, they wouldn’t be able to do that.”
Harry takes a calming breath. “I guess that does make sense with everything else to factor in – I just… I’m worried about how far this is going to go.”
“Well,” Sirius pauses. “I can’t honestly say that I know how far they’ll go, but you’ll be coming straight here this summer anyway. I don’t care for Dumbledore’s reasonings, the fact that you were in danger there last summer is enough of a reason to bring you here.”
“Really?” Harry asks, hopefully.
“Yes, as long as I’m here offering you a home, you’ll never have to go back,” Sirius smiles. “I will protect you and give you the home you deserve.”
“You’re the best, Pads,” Harry smiles. “I’m still upset that I can’t play anymore and that I lost your second first present to me.”
“Well, at least Dobby can steal your broom back and leave a replica in its place,” Sirius offers. “There’s no way I’m letting her get away with stealing from you.”
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Harry offers. “That does make me feel better. I’ll have Dobby take care of it in the morning.”
“Good. Do you want to talk about everything else?”
Harry shrugs, “Not at the moment. I’m just exhausted by everything. I’d rather just listen to you tell me stories or something. You know – maybe about you, mum and dad?”
Sirius smiles. “I’d love to tell you all about your parents if it helps.”
“Then I’m ready to listen.”
Sirius spends the next hour or so talking about Harry’s parents, which appears to make him feel better.
***
“What’s with the frown?” Bill asks, after the next meeting.
Given that Harry’s spent most of the last week being upset that he’s not allowed to fly and still getting his hand split open every night, has made Sirius more and more upset for his kid. Harry might be right about Fudge’s end goal for him (likely, Azkaban or dead), and although they obviously won’t be able to charge him for Cedric, they could manufacture some way or something that would land him out of the picture.
Hell, he might even let Malfoy kidnap Harry or something. The fact is, even with the article supporting Harry’s claims and the public questioning everything, Fudge has had the power and obsession to shut Harry up permanently and he could do it. He’s definitely still thinking about it and Sirius isn’t sure what they could do to stop him (aside from hold him hostage at home) and that’s not fair to his kid.
He’s just worried with Umbridge’s stronghold at Hogwarts that it wouldn’t be long before she does something illegal and gets rid of him herself. All those detentions alone would give her the ability and even if she just hurt him like she’s been doing, he could never speak up because most of the public thinks he’s a liar.
“Sirius,” Remus prompts. “You alright?”
“Oh, yeah,” Sirius offers.
“Really, because you don’t seem like it,” Bill offers.
Sirius shrugs. “It’s just – I’m worried about Harry. He’s pretty much captive at Hogwarts, getting tortured by Umbridge every night, and he’s worried that they’ll find some way to charge him for Cedric or something else.”
Both Bill and Remus frown uncertainly.
“You don’t really think that’s possible, do you?” Bill questions. “I mean, they wouldn’t do that to a fifteen-year-old kid, right?”
“They forced him into a deadly tournament last year,” Sirius counters. “Umbridge has had free access to take away every personal freedom he has and has been torturing him in detention every night with that quill. What are they going to do next?”
“Maybe after O.W.L.s we don’t send him back to Hogwarts,” Remus says. “At least if nothing changes. As long as Dumbledore’s there, he should be fine.”
Sirius gives him a look, “You think what’s going on now with him there is fine?”
“Er – no. Guess not,” Remus frowns. “But technically, you aren’t required to continue on passed O.W.L.s, you just can’t use your wand until you’re seventeen. So, he just has to make it a few more months.”
Sirius sighs and puts his face in his hands. “How is this worse than the tournament?”
“Because with the tournament, it wasn’t an everyday thing,” Remus offers. “He was pretty safe – aside from the bullying – most of that year. It was just not knowing what the tasks were and if he might get attacked there. That’s three days compared to every day.”
“Plus, you-know-who was just a spirit then, not a full being,” Bill offers.
“And the Ministry wasn’t after him, just annoyed by him. Which wasn’t his fault,” Remus finishes.
“Thanks,” Sirius groans.
“You asked.”
“I didn’t actually need you to caption why it’s so much worse this year,” Sirius explains. “It was rhetorical. I’m well aware that one night can make things so much worse.”
“I know you wish that you could just take him away, and he deserves that – you both do,” Remus states. “Let’s just hold off for now and get him through O.W.L.s, if things haven’t changed by then, I’ll help you take him away.”
Sirius smiles, “Thank you for the assurance. And if something happens to me…”
“We’ll do whatever you want,” Remus offers. “I promise.”
“Good.”
***
Feeling slightly better, Sirius is actually smiling when Harry calls him that night.
“You know, the twins were trying to make me feel better about the sheer number of detentions I’ve gotten this year and they seem to think that I might’ve broken a record, what do you think?”
Sirius laughs. At least his kid was trying to find the silver lining.
“Well, I think James and I or the twins might still hold the record. We did spend a lot of time in detention. Sometimes for things that weren’t actually our fault, like the time that the Slytherin quidditch team miraculously began to turn green and were unable to leave the bathroom on the day of a big match against Ravenclaw – had they won, they could’ve surpassed Gryffindor, although James wasn’t worried whatsoever because we had a better team. Somehow, we got blamed (may or may not be because I got in a fight with my brother the day before), but we never made anyone ill during our pranks.”
Harry tilts his head in confusion. “Why blame you if the match wasn’t a Gryffindor/Slytherin match?”
Sirius shrugs, “I suppose it’s because there was often a lot of fighting between the two houses and the other two just stayed out of it. We ended up with a week’s worth of detention, but at least that one was together.”
“Hardly seems fair.”
“And the detentions that you’ve been getting are fair?” Sirius questions.
“Well, no, not really. Most of my detentions have been terribly unfair, but … guess it just is what it is,” Harry shrugs. “Hermione felt bad about the article detentions and offered to try and take them on herself, but I told her Umbridge would only punish her, too, and might even take it as some sort of affront and give me more detentions. At least, they’re winding down, again. It’s just impossible to avoid her.”
Sirius frowns, “Well, maybe she needs a distraction or something? Someone else to target her anger or thoughts on.”
“That’s what Ginny said, and the twins’ offered to distract her. I wasn’t sure that I should take them up on it. What if they expelled before N.E.W.T.s?”
“They’ll be fine,” Sirius counters. “You don’t have to finish passed O.W.L.s and they already have the money you gave them and pretty great business idea. You, on the other hand, well, you have to finish O.W.L.s or they could snap your wand.”
Harry frowns. “So, it would be better if I – I let them?”
“I mean, I shouldn’t encourage you to ask them to risk themselves, so I won’t, but if that’s what they want or if they happen to help you out – I’ll deal with the fallout of Molly yelling at me because I know she will.”
“Hmm-mm, I’ll think about it. It would be nice if she wasn’t so focused on me all the time.”
“I can’t say I disagree.” He pauses, “So how’re things with Cho and Hermione?”
“Oddly enough, I think they’re on a mission together to do something, but I can’t figure out what it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, see, I’ve noticed that they’ve suddenly started spending my detention time together. I always find them in some area of the castle (generally the library), but they’re never working on homework. They seem to be planning something that always disappears when I show up. And sometimes, I even see them working with the twins after DA meetings. I am very confused – they literally got in several fights just a bit over a month ago.”
Sirius narrows his eyes. He knows that Hermione can be quite vindictive when she wants to be (Skeeter can attest to that), and he’s sure when she’s fired up Cho can be, too. Combined that with the way Umbridge has been going after Harry and the way Hermione and Cho both want to protect him, he’s sure their plotting has something to do with her.
“Well, if I had to guess, they’re probably doing something that they figure it’s better if you have plausible deniability,” Sirius offers.
“Something to do with making Umbridge pay, then?”
“Yes, and it’s best to just let them do it and focus on school.”
Harry frowns. “I can’t imagine Cho would actively seek to make someone pay.”
Sirius laughs, “You mean the girl whose first reaction to the article was to rip Hermione to shreds? Yeah, can’t see that at all.”
“Words are one thing, knowing what Hermione’s capable of is a little out of mental picture I have for Cho. She’s so sweet and innocent.”
“Yes, well, I imagine that because you’re her boyfriend, and have been for over seven months by this point.”
Harry shrugs. “I guess – does that mean I shouldn’t worry about it?”
“Yes. Just relax, focus on school, and try to stay out of Umbridge’s way.”
Harry nods. “Alright, I guess. I’ve got a DA meeting planned so…”
Sirius coughs, thinking that the DA is a huge issue that is just teasing Umbridge. If Umbridge found out…
“Er – Harry, before you go, I think that we need to re-discuss the decision to lead the DA.”
Harry frowns. “What do you mean? Everyone’s a lot more focused ever since the Death Eater’s escape from Azkaban and the article. They’re clearly preparing for the war rather than just school, so I feel like it’s even more important now, especially since there hasn’t been that many meetings with all of the detentions I’ve been getting.”
“I understand that it’s rather important, kid, I just also feel that you’re playing with some serious fire, here. It was fine before, but she’s getting more and more desperate, and I just don’t think you should continue risking it because who knows what she might do to you.”
“Oh, come on, we’ve kept it a secret this long – so I think we’re doing just fine.”
Of course Harry’s blowing off the worry, he’s gotten a bit complacent, he’s gotten away with it for six months, and Sirius hasn’t expressed any worry since the start of the second term.
“Seriously, Kid. I think you should deeply consider just ending the DA. You’ve got enough to be worried about and I don’t think you should continue it given that she’s trying her best to get rid of and silence you. If she finds out…”
“It’ll be fine. I promise. Talk later.”
“Bye kid,” Sirius says before Harry shuts the mirror off. He’s got this awful feeling, and he’s not sure this is a good idea anymore, but his kid’s a stubborn one and he could only hope for the best.