Sirius's son

Dumbledore's flight

'll bet you wish you hadn't given up Divination now, don't you, Hermione?" asked Parvati, smirking. It was breakfast time a few days after the sacking of ProfessorTrelawney and Parvati was curling her eyelashes around her wand and examining the effect in the back of her spoon. They were to have their first lesson with Firenze that morning.

"Not really," said Hermione indifferently, who was reading the Daily Prophet. "I've never really liked horses."

"He's not a horse, he's a centaur!" said Lavender, sounding shocked.

"A gorgeous centaur . . ." sighed Parvati.

"I prefer dark hair," Eliza said taking a bite of her toast.

"Either way, he's still got four legs," said Hermione coolly. "Anyway, I thought you two were all upset that Trelawney had gone?"

"We are!" Lavender assured her. "We went up to her office to see her, we took her some daffodils — not the honking ones that Sprout'sgot, nice ones. . . ."

"How is she?" asked Harry.

"Not very good, poor thing," said Lavender sympathetically. "She was crying and saying she'd rather leave the castle forever than stay here if Umbridge is still here, and I don't blame her. Umbridge was horrible to her, wasn't she?"

"I've got a feeling Umbridge has only just started being horrible," said Hermione darkly.

"Impossible," Eliza murmured.

"She can't get any worse than she's been already," said Ron tucking into a large plate of eggs and bacon.

"You mark my words, she's going to want revenge on Dumbledorefor appointing a new teacher without consulting her," said Hermione, closing the newspaper. "Especially another part-human. You saw the look on her face when she saw Firenze. . . ."

After breakfast, Hermione and Rigel departed for Arithmancy class, and Harry, Eliza, and Ron followed Parvati and Lavender into the entrance hall, heading for Divination. 

Rigel's birthday also came and went on. He was sixteen now, one more year and he would be an adult. Eliza had basically barged into his room levitating a large ice cream cake. The party was rather dull but Rigel did like spending his birthday with hs girlfriend.

Presents came next. The usual goodies and sweets from Ron, He Flew Like a Madman by Kennilworthy Whisp which was the biography of welsh quidditch player Dai Llewellyn from Eliza,  a new brromstic care kit from Sirius, new prank merhcnadie from the Weasley twins, English trifle from Andromeda and Ted. A leather jacket from Tonks (his one was made out of leather but Rigel still thought it was cool) and a pair of new boots from Harry. 

Meanwhile, in the D.A, they had started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practice. But since Rigel had already mastered the charm, he decided to help those who couldn't master it.

"Think of the most positive memory you know!" Rigel said passing by Neville. "Keep trying Nev. Think of that Boggart incident back in our third year."

Neville grinned and when he said expect patronum, much to Rigel's surprise as a lion burst out of his wand pranced around.

"Blood hell Nev," Rigel said wide-eyed at an equally shocked Neville. "A lion!

The door of the Room of Requirement opened and then closed again; Rigel looked around to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. The next thing he knew, something was tugging Harry at his robes somewhere near the knee.

"Hi, Dobby!" Harry said. "What are you — what's wrong?"

The elf's eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the D.A. closest to Harry had fallen silent now: Everybody in the room was watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silver mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.