• Serena Black •

„She hated him,

February was coming to an end and with it, winter. Although the weather remained icy, the slow onset of spring brought the students one sunny day after another. The sky was already a clear blue as they entered the Great Hall in the morning, giving the deceptive impression that it was warm enough to leave the thick jumpers in the wardrobe.

The fifth-graders were now inundated with brochures and leaflets about a wide variety of professions. Serena read most of them, but they didn't help her make a decision, so she preferred to focus on Fred and George, who had sat down at their table with a broad grin on their faces. "Ginny talked to us," Fred said in a lowered voice, addressing Harry. "She said you wanted to talk to Sirius."

"Yeah, I thought that would be helpful," he confirmed quietly, seeming to completely ignore Hermione's indignant gasp. "Don't make a fool of yourself. What about Umbridge poking around in the fireplaces and frisking all the owls?" she interjected incredulously and, for once, Serena had to agree with her. This complete isolation and uncertainty was also beginning to grate on her nerves. But it was necessary.

"Well, we think we can get round this problem easily," George said with a meaningful grin. "It's simply a matter of starting a diversionary manoeuvre."

"And if we're going to cause a bit of a commotion, why not do it in such a way that Harry can have a chat with Sirius in Umbridge's office?" his twin brother added with a wink.

"Yes, but it's still pretty risky. Especially in her office. What if she can track it somehow?" Serena interjected sceptically. "Why do you want to talk to him at all? It must be something important."

"I can't tell you that," Harry replied gruffly, leaving Serena to turn back to her breakfast in a huff. Apparently, the bespectacled boy was once again in an extremely mild mood, as he had been so often recently. She only noticed in passing how the twins were discussing the best way to lure Umbridge out of her office the very next day, "We'll let it go in the east wing, I reckon we can guarantee you twenty minutes. Serena, you'd best keep watch outside."

The girl almost choked on her pumpkin juice. "Oh, now I'm being dragged into this too?"

"You wanted to help us, remember?" George grinned, making Serena roll her eyes, "Well, someone has to make sure that this doesn't go completely to shit," she remarked snappishly to Harry and gave him a dirty look, as the clearly stated rule of no contact didn't seem to apply to him once again.

At five o'clock on the afternoon of the following day, Serena arrived at the scene of the incident together with Harry. Fred and George had promised to pull out all the stops and she didn't want to miss out. The two waited impatiently for the aforementioned diversionary manoeuvre, while Serena nibbled on her lower lip with a queasy feeling in her stomach. She didn't have a good feeling about this.

"Are you sure about this, Harry?" she asked quietly. "What if Umbridge was just waiting for us to lead her to the secret hideout?"

He let out a short sigh, but the excitement was written all over his face. Determination definitely looked different and for a moment Serena hoped that he would let it go after all. "It's just..." he began slowly. "I'm sorry I blew you off like that yesterday, but I've learnt things about my father that I just need to talk about."

The Gryffindor remained silent, actually she had assumed that he actually had an important reason. An emergency, like with Arthur Weasley, but surely a conversation like that could wait a few months? Or could it? She wanted to say something in reply, to dissuade him from his idea, but Harry had already started talking about what he had apparently seen in Snape's memory. "They just left him hanging in the air for no reason, who does that?" Harry finally finished his story.

Serena felt her cheeks getting hot and cold at the same time as she thought back to the thing with Hall in the library, "Er... Yeah... who does that..."

"I always thought my father was something of a hero when he saved Snape's life back then. But it was his and Sirius's fault that he wanted to go to the Shrieking Shack in the first place," he said dejectedly, looking down at the floor.

She began to pat his shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sure they didn't expect his rotten brain to actually be so stupid and crawl in there," she tried to cheer him up, but the opposite seemed to be the case.

"They bullied him, Serena!" Harry snapped at her angrily, his green eyes flashing at her from behind his round glasses, "You weren't there, you didn't see..."

The first loud explosions sounded at the other end of the castle, interrupting his diatribe. Curious students began to crowd the corridors and some looked as if they had bathed in stink juice. Which they probably had.

Harry, meanwhile, had grabbed a still-doubting Serena by the cloak and dragged her to Umbridge's office, which was deserted as promised by the two troublemakers. He pulled his cloak out of his pocket, threw it on hastily and before he disappeared into the office, she could still hear him muttering, "Sirius always says, what's life without a little risk?"

Serena rolled her eyes and pulled the wooden door shut behind her friend. Standing still, she waited nervously for him to finally reappear, but what seemed like an eternity passed. She could still clearly hear the explosions, which probably wouldn't stop any time soon. It was a sickening feeling to know that they could be caught at any moment and that they wouldn't be the only ones in trouble. But she didn't even want to think about that.

Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest when she heard footsteps approaching. She desperately tried to come up with a plausible excuse, but she had never been good at thinking under pressure. Silently she muttered prayers, but the ominous sound of shoe on stone grew louder with every step.

From a distance, light-coloured hair almost jumped out at her and she could see the stupid grin on Edmund Hall's face. Good, she would be able to deal with him, as it had turned out.

"Fancy losing more points, Black?" he called out to her from the other end of the corridor. His voice echoed off the stone walls and mingled with the sound of his loud footsteps.

"What, is it forbidden to stand around now too?" Serena remarked, crossing both arms provocatively in front of her chest as the Slytherin stood in front of her, looking suspicious, his eyes darting to the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting."

His grin deepened as he leaned casually against the wall. "Good, then I'll wait with you."

"No, you're not," she hissed, knowing in an instant that she'd given herself away. She bit her lip and hoped that she could somehow talk her way out of it.

"I see." He grinned broadly, as if he had just received a fat trophy for his realisation. "So something forbidden after all."

Serena rolled her eyes, but remained silent. She would rather throw a tea party with Trelawney than reveal her true reason for being there. Fortunately, Hall seemed as uninterested in this as she was in what he had eaten for breakfast. "Don't worry, I won't give you away," he said, his turquoise eyes glittering treacherously. "I don't have to, though, because Filch is on his way here."

"W-what?" she stammered worriedly, giving the door behind her a panicked look, which the Slytherin didn't seem to miss. "You and the person you're covering for have a few more minutes."

Desperation began to overtake Serena as she frantically thought of what to do. Get Harry out of the office as quickly as possible or prevent Filch from entering the room? Both would be equally risky and could take her father away from her immediately.

"My year's having a party next weekend, do you want to come?" Hall suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts and acted as if he hadn't just warned her about the impending end of the world, "There'll be alcohol, I know you like it."

She stared at him thunderstruck and could hardly believe that he had just changed the subject like that. What's more, he was indirectly reminding her of one of her faults and teasing her about it. Defiantly, she crossed both arms in front of her chest. "I was just drunk to wash your drool off my lips."

"Ouch," he replied, pretending for a split second that her words had actually hurt him before he grinned again and took two steps towards her. "That means if I kiss you now, you'll come to the party."

"Wrong conclusion, Hall," she hissed and took a precautionary step back. Once again, the menacing thought of Filch began to burn itself into her mind like a brand, when she suddenly had an idea. "Okay, I'll come on three conditions."

"Who would have thought it?"

"I'll go to the office for a moment and you'll stop Filch or anyone else from going in. Also, you won't tell anyone about this and I'm allowed to bring friends to the party." When the Gryffindor had listed her demands, she waited with a pounding heart for an answer. "Deal."

"Good." She breathed a sigh of relief and squeezed through a small gap between the door and the frame so that Hall couldn't see Harry by the fire. After all, she didn't want anyone to find out about her actions. Behind Serena, the lock fell on its hinges again and from there she caught sight of the figure crouching in front of the fireplace.

She approached Harry slowly so as not to startle him. But that hadn't been necessary, because he didn't take the slightest notice of her anyway. Not even when she jerked him quite hard and called his name. Serena cursed briefly because she had to let him know somehow!

Without further ado, she finally did the same and sat down in front of the fire. From a distance, she could feel the heat tickling her face, but the closer the distance between the tip of her nose and the embers, the more pleasant the warmth seemed to her. But before Serena could think about it, she was overcome by a very strange feeling. As if she was spinning round and round at high speed, while her body was still on solid ground. She felt dizzy and nauseous, so she closed her eyes and hoped she wouldn't throw up.

The feeling was over quicker than it had come and when she blinked again, she found herself looking into two highly confused yet familiar faces. "Serena, what are you doing here?" Harry asked beside her, completely dumbfounded.

"Saving your arse," Serena replied dryly, "Filch is on his way here."

"But the door!" he shouted excitedly, whereupon she quickly calmed him down. "I've sorted that out, everything's fine."

Clearing her throat, she finally turned away from Harry and turned her attention to what was happening outside the fireplace. "Don't I even get a hello now?" her father asked reproachfully.

"I wouldn't dare," Serena grinned, noticing how his gaze, like those of her classmates before him, promptly slid to her neck and lingered there. "Can I tell you that you have terrible taste when it comes to boys?"

She fell silent and couldn't stop herself from thinking about Hall, who was standing outside the door at that very moment and would hopefully not betray her. Her father's look became increasingly confused alongside his visible amusement. "What, no contradictions? No offended grumbling?"

"Maybe you're right," Serena whispered quietly. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself yet, but perhaps she really was a little naive. She couldn't trust Hall. "I think we should go now."

She received a sad smile, but also a short nod in return and after a quick "Bye" she found herself and Harry back in the meowing office of her headmistress. Alone and behind a closed door. Serena breathed a sigh of relief, but the voices outside the four walls immediately set her pulse racing again.

"I told you I'm from the Inquisitorial Squad and I'm supposed to make sure no one enters this office."

"I'm authorised to enter this office, you snotty brat!"

The door was pushed open, but Harry had already reacted. Even before their unpopular caretaker could get a look at them, he had wrapped his cloak around them protectively. The fact that there was apparently no one in the office didn't seem to amaze anyone as much as it did Edmund Hall.

Serena then had to suppress a small grin and didn't even notice the look Harry gave her. Apparently, he had imagined something else when she said 'I've sorted it out'.

In the meantime, Filch had begun to feverishly rummage through the papers on the desk. "Whip permit... Whip permit... I'm finally allowed to do it... they've deserved it for years..."

Serena had the uneasy feeling that he was referring to Fred and George. She hurriedly pulled Harry out of the room and past Hall. She couldn't resist stepping on his foot and probably giving him the fright of his life. Smugly, she disappeared round the corner with Harry before they were both visible again. "I'll be right behind you," she mumbled and hurriedly walked back with quiet steps.

The Slytherin had turned his back on her and was still staring into the pink-decorated room. But her steps seemed to be more interesting, so he turned to her with a tense lower jaw. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me how you did that?"

"Everyone has their secrets," she returned smugly and thought she recognised something like mute approval in his bright eyes. "Thanks, by the way."

"No problem."

The silence that followed made Serena aware of the loud explosions that were still raging through the castle, mixed with the enthusiastic shrieks of some of the students. "Shouldn't we go and see what's so funny down there?" Serena asked hesitantly into the silence, only to receive a brief nod of the head in reply.

A few stairs down, an unpleasant odour began to tickle Serena's nose, reminding her strongly of the polyjuice potion that had turned Ron into Crabbe.

"Do you see what I see?" Hall asked in amazement, staring into one of the corridors, the floor of which seemed to be nothing but dirt and mud. Apparently the twins hadn't promised too much, the swamp looked completely authentic and took up the entire corridor, so the lesson there would probably be cancelled.

"Not only can I see it, I can smell it too," laughed Serena, finding it hard to take her eyes off this masterpiece.

Most of the students had gathered in the entrance hall and in the middle of the crowd stood Fred and George, smugly looking at the chaos they had created.

George seemed to have caught her gaze and fought his way over to her with his brother, "Did it work?" he whispered to her so quietly that Hall or any of the other students standing around couldn't make out a word. Serena nodded and whispered in a hushed voice, "You're leaving now, aren't you?"

"I guess we have to," Fred replied with a scowl. "Heard Filch got the whipping licence."

"But first..." said George meaningfully, spreading both arms out invitingly, "Do you still fancy breaking rule number whatever it is that says girls and boys can only come within twenty centimetres of each other?"

"Nothing better than that." she grinned and let the two redheads embrace her before Fred addressed the whole school in a loud voice, "You know what? I think we're getting too old for this all-day school!"

"Yes, I have that feeling too," George confirmed and gave Umbridge, who had also appeared in the hall with a bright red and angry face, a provocative look. But without waiting for a reply from her, they both raised their arms. "Accio broom!"

Serena was not the only student who had to duck as the two brooms shot through the air at a crazy speed and fell into the hands of their owners.

"Stop them!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was long too late. Fred and George mounted their brooms and took one last look at the growing crowd of students before pushing themselves off the ground.

"Peeves, make her life hell on our behalf!" was their parting salute before they both flew out of the open portal into the glorious sunset, cancelling their school and leaving Umbridge with a swamp corridor as a gift.

The poltergeist didn't need to be told twice and saluted in the air with a nasty grin on his translucent face while the students cheered. Serena shook her head with a laugh at this action and could hear Hailey next to her giggling as she watched the action. "Such idiots."

"Complete idiots," she confirmed and couldn't help but think of the oppressive feeling in her chest. However, even she had to admit that their exit had been more than worth it.