Juniper Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Dancing around the truth

June collapsed onto the big armchair near the fireplace that she and Hermione both favored. The flames flickered a vibrant orange and a mesmerizing scarlet. "How am i going to be able to get into Umbridge's office?" June grunted as she slipped away in the chair, her eyelids heavy and droopy. Once again, it seemed the three of them were fresh out of ideas and were left with silence (besides for Free and George selling their new inventions).
  "You could use the invisibility cloak." Ron offered, but June and Hermione both glared at him when June said, "Ron, I need to talk to Sirius, not just stick my face in the fire and give a jolly good smile. Umbridge'll be right there. She'll hear the whole conversation."
   "And you know that toad is dying to know where Sirius has been hiding." Hermione pointed out as the three of them thought back to when Professor Umbridge's wide ring infested hand came snatching out of the fire right after Sirius's face dissolved into flames. Ron, Hermione, and June sat in the common
room silent as they pondered on how they could contact Sirius without being caught.
"Juney, you promise me you won't hurt me if I offer you free Fainting Fancies? I saw the Transfiguration homework you were stumped on, and thought that maybe you'd like to get out of class." Fred timidly asked as he approached her. June glanced at Fred and beamed, "I would never hurt you, Fred...I was just really irritated, and I guess it was quite rude of me how I ignored you and George earlier." Fred grinned widely and shuffled closer, his chocolate eyes glimmering from the flames. "Thanks, Juney."
As Fred began to rotate around, June quickly said, "actually can I ask you something?" Fred hastily turned back around and kneeled down on one knee as he said, "whatever you'd like Juney." June glanced at Ron and Hermione as she whispered, "I need to talk to Sirius as soon as possible and Umbridge's fireplace isn't being monitored. Do you think you and George could create a distraction while I sneak in and talk to Sirius?" Fred's face glowed as he shot up in the air saying, "of course, Juney. Anything for you, Juney," then sprinting to his twin and telling him about the idea. Within seconds George looked over his shoulder and nodded his head with a smile as he gave her a thumbs up.
Their plan was simple. At five o'clock the next day Fred and George would set off zillions of their inventions all over Hogwarts (anywhere but near Umbridge's office) so June could sneak into the only room with an unmonitored fireplace. The Weasley twins seemed rather prepared, like they had been waiting for something like this to come up, for they knew exactly what to do.
"You ready, Juney?" Fred asked June as they both strolled out of Gryffindor Tower and down the corridor. June stopped in her tracks and expressed, "I can't mess up." Fred chuckled and said, "you won't mess up--you might get caught, but," he shot a fizzle with his wand then continued, "not with my help you won't." He gleamed and June felt much more confident in the plan. She knew Fred and George would never let her down. Not in a million years.

  It was 4:52, and June was hidden in the girls toilet room counting down the minutes before she heard shrieks and laughter. She was nervous about if Fred and George were caught, or if Sirius wasn't there. What if something happened  to Sirius? June thought as her knees began to wobble. Calm down, calm down, she coaxed herself when a loud scream followed by a shuffle of feet was heard from the dungeons. June slipped the invisibility cloak over herself and sprinted out of the toilet room. As she approached Umbridge's office, she held her breath as the toad herself came panicking down the walk way. June couldn't help but smile.
   "Alohomora," June whispered before the door  unlocked. She quickly ran in then shed the cloak. She bent down to her knees and grabbed a handful of floopowder  and threw it into the fireplace then announced, "12 Grimmauled Place." Within seconds Sirius's kitchen appeared and a shaggy looking man holding the Prophet and a cup of tea looked up startled.
  "June?" It was Lupin. He got up from his seat and timidly stepped closer to June's inflamed face. "Shall I fetch Sirius?" June nodded her head and Lupin disappeared upstairs at once. Only seconds later did he had a scruffy man with wavy locks and a ruggish face come treading down to the fire.
  "Juniper, did something happen?" Sirius asked concerned as he kneeled down so close to the fire that the flames almost gulped him whole. June opened her mouth prepared to speak when she heard a creek and hastily blurted, "I haven't much time, but I need to ask you something--well, both of you." Lupin nodded his head waiting for her to go on. "I may have done Ligilimens on Snape last night," Sirius cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't mean to...but he's just so irritating that I couldn't resist it." Sirius broke into a laugh and gleaned, "so much like your father, yet the spitting image of your mother." June didn't smile back, instead she croaked, "actually that's what I need to ask about. When I preformed the Legilimens spell on Snape I saw a few memories--one of those memories happened to have my father in it. He was using a spell to dangle Snape in the air while everyone laughed...I guess what I'm trying to ask is whether Snape deserved it, or if my father was as arrogant as I am told." Lupin and Sirius both glanced at each other like they were deciding how to go about the matter of James and Snape.
  "What we did to Professor Snape was not right," Lupin began. "We were a bunch of stupid teenagers who didn't know what we were doing." June peered at Sirius who said, "You're father was a great man, Juniper, don't let anyone tell you different. He may have been a bit arrogant at times, but we all were. Anyways, don't mind Snape," Sirius winked then whispered, "he's still stuck in the past." As June was prepared to interrogate them further, the door began to creak open. She flung out of the fire and grabbed her cloak right before Filtch stomped in.
  "Rotten kids," he muttered under his breath in an angry rage. He obviously had been dealing with the Weasley's soaring fireworks and other inventions jumping around the castle. After Filtch stormed out of Umbridge's office, June stumbled to her feet and sprinted to the corridor. She ran to the Great Hall where she witnessed Professor Umbridge attempting to tame the situation. Fred snuck up behind her and whispered, "consider the deed is done." June swiveled around and saw his grinning face and cooed, "thank you times a million!" She wanted to wrap her arms around Fred and hug him tight, but thought it would be strange since he was an icky smelling teenage boy, but decided to rather watch Umbridge with him instead. June was glowing with excitement and joy, but not because of her talk with Sirius. She was glowing because Dolores Umbridge got a hint of what it was like being Headmaster. June was rather disappointed with the answer she received from Lupin and Sirius. They wouldn't give her a straight answer and really just danced around the topic. June decided to shake it off and enjoy the show like everyone else did.