Daylight || Harry Potter

Chapter Sixteen

All of us were all but certain that Umbridge was now reading Harry's mail and had attacked Hedwig the previous day. Hermione started to wonder if starting the Defense group was really the right thing to do, which annoyed Harry and Ron.

"It was your idea in the first place!" Ron exclaimed indignantly.

"I know," said Hermione, twisting her fingers together. "But after talking to Snuffles..."

"But he's all for it!" said Harry.

"Yes," said Hermione, staring at the window again. "Yes, that's what made me think maybe it wasn't a good idea after all..."

Peeves floated over us on his stomach, peashooter at the ready; automatically all four of us lifted our bags to cover our heads until he had passed.

"Let's get this straight," said Harry angrily, as we put our bags back on the floor, "Sirius agrees with us, so you don't think we should do it anymore?"

Hermione looked tense and rather miserable. I opened my mouth to defend her, but before I could, she asked, "Do you honestly trust his judgment?"

"Yes, I do!" said Harry at once. "He's always given us great advice!"

An ink pellet whizzed past us, striking Katie Bell squarely in the ear. I watched Katie leap to her feet and start throwing things at Peeves; it was a few moments before Hermione spoke again and it sounded like she was choosing her words very carefully.

"You don't think he has become... sort of... reckless... since he's been cooped up in Grimmauld Place? You don't think he's... kind of... living through us?"

"What d'you mean, 'living through us'?" Harry retorted.

I spoke up. "She has a point. Think of all the stuff he used to do at school. Don't you think he'd just love to be forming secret defense societies right under the nose of someone from the Ministry?"

Neither Harry nor Ron spoke.

"Exactly," said Hermione, looking relieved. "I think he's really frustrated at how little he can do where he is... so I think he's keen to kind of... egg us on."

Ron looked utterly perplexed.

"Snuffles is right," he said, "you do sound just like my mother."

Hermione bit her lip and didn't answer.

"Ron," I said, taking her silence as a green light to step up to defend her, "You have to admit Hermione has a point. The last time he called us, he got all huffy with Harry because he wouldn't agree to meet up with him. He was trying to egg us on even then. I think Hermione's right, I think he is trying to live through us."

No one said anything. Peeves swooped down upon Katie and emptied an entire ink bottle over her head. She fumed at him. I picked up a book that had been sitting on the shelf underneath the coffee table for who knew how long, stood up, and nailed Peeves in the head. The Poltergeist cursed and zoomed out of the room, and Katie shot me a grateful look as she performed the Scourgify spell on herself to get all the ink off.

"Nice shot," Ron said grudgingly.

I rolled my eyes at his tone. "Thanks."

Angelina appeared moments later and told us that Umbridge had allowed her to reform the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Next practice is this evening, alright?" she told Harry, Ron, and I. "Seven o'clock sharp."

"Okay," we told her.

I was feeling excited for Quidditch that evening... until it started raining and continued late into the day. When I went with Harry and Ron down to the Quidditch pitch for practice, we were soaked through within minutes. My feet kept slipping and sliding on the sodden grass. I was very relieved when we made it to the changing rooms, even though I knew we'd be right back outside in the terrible weather in a few minutes.