The Speaker and His Wraiths

The Floo

Chapter 22

A Floo Call
The second week of sessions after the week of nothing in the middle went much better than the first. About half seventh years had learned how to keep their wands in hand, same with the sixth years. For all the years lower than that, all Harry can say is he's thoroughly taught them how to Disarm someone.

He didn't encounter a problem for a whole week, and then Sirius' head appeared in the fire at ten p.m. one Wednesday night. Figures.

"Sirius!" Harry stage whispered, crouching down by the fire and beckoning Ron and Hermione over. "You're so lucky we're alone right now!"

There were a lot of things he'd tell his Wraiths, but telling them he was keeping in contact with his godfather who was a deranged supposed murderer who broke out of Azkaban was not one of them.

"Oh good, I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared." Sirius said, sighing a little. "I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping in the fire every hour?" Harry asked, astonished.

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

"But what if you'd been seen?" Hermione fretted, frowning.

"Well I think that first year, a girl by the look of her, might've got a glimpse of me earlier but don't worry!" Sirius grinned, "I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she thought I was an oddly shaped log."

"Sirius, this is an awful risk-"

"You sound like Molly." Sirius groaned, interrupting Hermione. "This was the only way I could come up with to answer Harry's letter without resorting to code, and code can be broken."

"Stupid." Hermione muttered, but Sirius ignored her.

"Harry, I have to ask, has your scar been acting up at all?" Sirius sounded grave, and it made Harry blink.

"No, it's been fine." Harry was suddenly glad he never told anyone about the corridors he'd seen in his dreams over the summer that started his little revolution. He didn't have an explanation for why they'd stopped. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, with Voldemort back, I reckoned it might be acting up." Sirius said vaguely, "Nevermind."

Harry and his two friends exchanged quick glances, all thinking the same thing. Sirius must've been trying to gauge whether Harry knew about his new 'enemy'.

"So Umbridge is your new Defense teacher?" Sirius diverted, "She's a nasty piece of work; you should hear Remus talking about her."

"Lupin knows her?" Harry asked.

"Nah, but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job." Sirius friend.

"What's she got against werewolves?" Hermione snapped, nearly as angry as she'd been when Umbridge was nasty to Hagrid.

"Scared of them, I expect." Sirius smiled, "Apparently she loathes all part-humans; she campaigned to have more people rounded up and tagged last year too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting more people when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose-"

"Sirius!" Hermione exclaimed in a scolding tone, making Ron snort. "Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher I'm sure he'd respond, after all, you are the only member of his family he's got left-"

"So what're Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interrupted, clearing his throat. "Is she teaching you all to kill half-breeds yet?"

"No." Harry shook his head, putting a hand on Hermione's knee when she seemed outraged that her rant had been cut short. "She's actually not letting us use magic at all."