Magic? || Years 5-7

Hunter Lamark: Year 5

"Sirius!" Ron exclaimed, his voice raspy with sleep. Amisty jolted, rubbing her eyes and watching with a half-surprised expression as her textbook fell out of her lap and onto the floor.

Sirius's head was floating in the fire, his shaggy hair brushed but still as messy as ever.

"Hi," Sirius grinned.

"Hi," The four of them replied in varying degrees of exhaustion. Harry was wide-awake, of course, but the rest of them were stifling yawns.

"How're things?" He asked.

"Not that good. The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams -- " Harry sighed.

" -- or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" Sirius suggested.

Amisty blinked, barely registering what had just happened.

"How did you know about that?" Harry asked almost sharply.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully. The Hog's Head, I ask you..." Sirius's grin was bordering on a laugh.

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks! That's always packed with people -- " Hermione protested.

" -- which means you'd have been harder to overhear," Sirius broke in, eyes twinkling. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" Harry demanded.

"Mundungus, of course. He was the witch under the veil," Sirius laughed, shaking his head at their bewildered expressions.

Harry paused, pushing up his glasses, "That was Mundungus? What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing?" Sirius rolled his eyes. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"I'm still being followed?" Harry snapped.

"Yes, you are, and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group," Sirius replied patiently.

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" Ron asked, a frown tugging at the corner of his mouth. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago, and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately... Anyway... First of all, Ron -- I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" Ron mumbled, looking away.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also advises Harry, Hermione, and Amisty not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over any of them and simply begs the to remember that she has their best interests at heart," Sirius looked at the other three. "She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"On duty doing what?" Ron asked quickly.

"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order," Sirius countered, deflecting the question. "So it's fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me to."

Silence.

"So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?" Harry asked bitterly.