Harry Potter and the Undead Alliance

"He played the first game," Ginny quickly corrected her brother. "And he was kicked off for defending our family."

"Actually guys," Harry said, waiting until Ginny quit glaring at her brother. "It looks like I'm captain. McGonagall told me when I came here over the summer. I just forgot," he added with an apologetic look.

"You forgot!" Ron and Ginny said together. "How can you forget something like that?" Ginny asked.

"He probably couldn't remember his name that night," Hermione joked, causing Ginny to laugh out loud. Ron didn't seem to join in the joke.

"Well congratulations Harry," Ginny cheerfully said. "Are you going to make me tryout?"

"Don't see why? We know you're a great flier," Harry said, noticing Hermione elbow Ron and nod to Harry.

"What....Oh...Good job mate," Ron said, trying to be enthused. Harry had worried about his friend being jealous but a small part of him was glad since Ron was already a Prefect and was on his way to having an official girlfriend.

"Thanks. I'll find out when we can have tryouts," Harry said, continuing to eat.

The Gryffindor common room was a sea of activity and noise with everyone talking about their summers and what was going to happen with the war. Harry had moved a chair as far into the corner as possible and tried to read his book on shields. "Is that a good book Harry? You've been reading it ever since you came to the Burrow," Hermione asked as she sat on the arm of the chair.

"It's really good," Harry said, handing it to her. "Lupin gave it to me early this summer. That what I practiced when he brought me here."

"Did the practice help?" she asked, thumbing through the pages.

"Yeah. At first I kept using Protego, but once I got used to the others, they are really different and work better sometimes," he admitted.

"Couldn't you figure that out from the book?" she asked, looking slightly confused.

"We don't all pick things up from books as easy as you do Hermione," he said with a smile. "It helped to use them in real situations. You know what I mean?"

Hermione smiled triumphantly and said, "Yes I do Harry and that's why I think it's important to continue the D.A." Harry groaned at how he fell into her trap. "I'll organize it again. All you have to do is teach us. You have to admit that it made a difference last year."

"But we'll have a real Defense teacher this year," Harry quickly replied.

"But we'll only be learning what she thinks is important," Hermione said. "In the D.A., we can learn what you think is important. What you think will help in real situations. The students trust you. They know what you've done." She paused and said, "Well they don't really know. Maybe they know a little but still."

"Fine," Harry conceded. "I don't want a bunch more people than last year."

"Thank you Harry," she said, sounding very excited. "This will be great, you'll see. We won't let anyone under fifth year in. Marietta is out and we lost the seventh years. I think a lot of people will ask to join but we'll keep it small."

"Whatever you say," Harry said, taking his book back.

"Will you teach us some of these?" Hermione asked.

"If I say no you'll just trick me into agreeing later so I may as well say yes now. I could use all the practice I can get with shields," he admitted.

Just then Ron came over and said, "I think that prat Dean is being a little to 'handsy' with my sister."

"He's like that with all the girls Ron," Hermione said.

"Even with you?"

"Just leave Ginny alone," Hermione said, shaking her head.

On the way to class the next morning Ron groaned, "Potions, first thing. He's going to be worse on us, I just know it."

"I suppose he will," Hermione admitted. "He only wanted to let Outstanding in."

"And Harry basically said he couldn't be trusted," Ron said, but Harry couldn't tell if he was trying to be funny or not.

Ron grabbed the seat next to Hermione causing Harry to sit next to Parvati. All of the houses were together since not that many made it into the advanced class. Harry saw that Malfoy was sitting next to Pansy Parkinson who Harry hadn't expected to make the class. Obviously Crabbe and Goyle didn't make it in. Kari Boslav was sitting next to Hanna Abbot from Hufflepuff. Just then Professor Snape swept into the room. "You are entering NEWT level Potions. Most of you earned your way into this class with hard work. However," he said, looking at Harry. "Some of you were able to circumvent the rules to get in. None the less, your grades will tell the true story. I will tolerate no disruptions as some of the potions you will brew are highly poisonous and even deadly." Snape studied the class and asked, "Who can tell me what occurs when you mix dung of a crape with the stinger of a scorpion?....Anyone..." Hermione's hand shot up but Snape said, "Mr. Potter?"

This was just a replay to Harry and he promised Professor Lupin that he would not lose his temper in this class so he calmly answered, "I don't know sir."

"Yes well we can tell who didn't use hard work to get into this class," Snape said, causing Malfoy to chuckle.

"Tell me Mr. Potter. Do you believe you deserve to be in this class?" Snape, who had now moved directly in front of him, asked. Parvati started scooting away from Harry.

"No sir I don't," Harry again calmly replied.

This wasn't the answer Snape or anyone appeared to expect. Quickly the teacher recovered and asked, "Then why, do tell are you here?"

"This class is required to get into Auror training," Harry said.

"If you don't have the talent to get acceptable grade in OWL potions, how can you expect to have any hope of getting through Auror training? Going to count on your fame no doubt." Snape coldly said, but didn't wait for a reply as he swirled around and began barking instructions about the potion that was on the board. At least three more times, Snape had singled out little things Harry had done wrong, even though more than half the class had done the same thing. In the end, he had lost Gryffindor twenty points but none of the other houses had lost any.

After class Hermione said, "Harry, you've got to try harder. You're going to lose us all our points."

Harry kind of waited for Ron to say something since he knew Ron thought Snape was unfair, but no comment came. "I don't care about house points Hermione. You know Snape is being unfair. There were a lot of people who had worse potions than me but I'm the only one he took points from, so I don't care. There are things more important than house points," Harry angrily said, before storming off to the next class.

Even though Charms went well, Harry was still really annoyed at how Snape had treated him and slipped from supper while Ron and Hermione were talking to each other. He grabbed his Invisibility Cloak and map, and then made his way to the Room of Requirement. Making sure no one was around, he paced back and forth three times concentrating on something he really wanted and then when he opened the door he found the room completely empty except for a mannequin in the center. He set his cloak and map down then walked toward the middle of the room. He had concentrated on needing a room where he could practice his shield spells but didn't understand how to make it work. He decided to fire a stunning curse at the dummy but it just went right through. After a few moments, the dummy said in a cold, toneless voice, "Just say go."

Harry backed up, raised his wand and said, "Go!" Instantly curses started coming from the dummy and Harry barely got a shield up to block the curse. After a few minutes of non-stop curses, Harry had to yell, "Stop!" The curses stopped coming instantly. 'This was too much,' Harry thought. "Slower" Harry said, and then next time he said, "Go", it was at a more reasonable pace. Harry didn't know how long he stayed in the room, he only knew that it was fun and kept his mind off of any depressing thoughts.

When he finally checked the map, he saw that the halls were mostly deserted and he realized he was out later than he expected. Throwing on the cloak, he made his way back to the common room without incident. He saw on the map that there was still quite a bit of activity in the common room so he removed his cloak and stuffed it into his pocket before entering.

"Where have you been?" Ron asked, sounding annoyed. "Hermione's been going spare."

"You're all sweaty," Hermione added.

"Maybe he's been with a girl," Seamus teased.

"Oooh Harry," Parvati said. "You can't go after a girl from another house."

"I wasn't with anyone," Harry said, following Hermione and Ron to 'their' corner.

"So, where were you?" Hermione harshly asked.

"I was practicing shield charms," Harry said. "In the Room of Requirement."

"You should really tell us where you'll be," Hermione said. "Everyone's so worried about you."

"Not everyone Hermione," Harry snapped. "I don't see anyone else here jumping on me and telling me what I need to do."

"Can't you just tell us where you're going when you go off on your own?" Ron asked.

Now Harry was really starting to get irritated and he said, "Ok, as long as you two tell me every time you two go off somewhere. As long as we all agree to do it, I don't have a problem." Actually Harry did have a problem with this but he felt sure there is no way they would both agree to it.

Hermione seemed to be considering it but Ron said, "Well you know maybe it's not a big deal." Hermione gave him a strange look but didn't say anything. "Did you schedule tryouts yet?" Ron asked.

"Not yet," Harry admitted. "I'll talk to Madame Hooch. I'm going for a shower and then to bed."

Harry was up early, not having slept well at all. The images of Sirius begging for help woke him up multiple times. Seeing that all the other sixth year boys were still asleep, he got dressed and made his way down to schedule Quidditch tryouts before going to breakfast.

The trio anxiously made their way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and waited for the new professor to arrive. "I thought Umbridge was just what this school needed," Malfoy said to Crabbe and Goyle, making sure to speak loud enough that Harry could hear. "She had the right ideas on how to deal with unworthy students," the blonde boy said with a smirk.

Just as Ron was about to say something back the teacher walked in and said, "There will be no talking in class." She surveyed the room and said, "You are here to learn and after being briefed on what you covered last year, I'd say you are woefully behind." Harry breathed a sigh of relief. If the instructor thought last year was a waste, then maybe they'd really learn something this year. "Normally I would like to cover some advanced dark creatures but times being what they are, we will focus on defense and distraction charms. Buying yourself some time can often mean the difference between getting away and not."

At the end of class, the trio was pleased with how the class seemed to go. "See Hermione, we won't need the D.A., she seems pretty good," Harry said.

"It's not the same Harry and you already agreed," she said, looking at her schedule. "She does seem like she'll teach us a lot though. I'm off to Arithmacy, see you in Transfiguration," Hermione added turning to head off in another direction.

"I'm off to Divination," Ron said. "I can just make up things there."

"I hope Muggle Studies will be easy," Harry said. "Transfiguration later..."

Harry was happy that he wasn't behind in Muggle Studies and found the way the Professor explained things to be somewhat interesting. It provided a different way to look at things he had come to take for granted growing up. He felt pleased with his choice for his fifth N.E.W.T.

The three students met up in Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class later that afternoon. "Welcome class," McGonagall said. "We will begin by studying conjuring. This is an extremely useful branch of magic." The Professor muttered something; waved her wand and some bread appeared on the table. The large bird in the corner swooped in and began nibbling at the offering.

Near the end of class, everyone was practicing the wand movements and McGonagall walked to the table where Neville and Seamus were sitting and said, "Now you two, kindly demonstrate the proper movements."

They both shrugged and gave their wand the slight movement necessary for the spell. "Very good you two, that will be ten points to each of you. Class dismissed," she said, before turning back to her desk leaving the students who overheard her award the points stunned.

"What'd she give us points for?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, any bloke could wave his wand around," Seamus added.

"That was peculiar," Hermione said, as she seemed to be considering something.

"So, tryouts Saturday," Dean said, changing the subject. "It'd be great to be a Chaser," he added.

"You just want to chase the other Chaser," Seamus joked, drawing a growl from Ron, which caused the two boys to move off slightly.

"Ron," Hermione soothingly said.

"He doesn't need to be talking like that," Ron snapped back.

"You didn't even notice her seeing Michael all last year so you shouldn't get involved now," Hermione reminded him.

"I have to get involved, I'm her brother. As long as I don't notice them together, or hear about them being together, they'll be no problem," Ron added. "Right Harry?"

"Hey don't look at me," Harry said. "I was clueless last year and am staying out of it this year. I don't want Ginny hexing me."

The rest of the week went quickly. Snape didn't let up on Harry and he lost another twenty points. However, McGonagall awarded twenty points to Gryffindor for seemingly trivial actions.

Saturday morning at breakfast people were reading when the trio came to breakfast and Harry noticed there were a lot more conversations than normal. He also saw Ginny give him a pained expression and call the three over. "Did you see the Prophet?" she asked apprehensively.

Harry shook his head and Hermione said, "No, what have they done now?"

Ministry's Travesty of Justice! Twelve years in Azkaban for Innocent Man!

Anonymous tip leads to discovery of Secret Decree from Minister of Magic:

Sirius Black, once the most hated Wizard in the community was in fact innocent and sentenced to life in Azkaban without a trial. In the Minister's haste to show he had done anything at all after the first fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Cornelius Fudge personally decreed that Sirius Black spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement at Azkaban.

Sirius Black played a major role against Death Eaters in the Battle at the Ministry and was in fact killed during the battle. This is the same battle where Harry Potter led a group of elite students, along with Albus Dumbledore and his group of Wizards and Witches in an effort to finally expose the return of The Dark Lord. It has further been discovered that Sirius Black has been working for at least a year for the side of Light against the return of You-Know-Who. The return that our Minister refused to believe.

When confronted with this information, a representative from the Minister's office said, "The estate of Mr. Black has been compensated for his wrongful imprisonment." This reporter cannot help but feel that compensation can never be enough for the wrong a good man has suffered.

We must not allow our leaders to freely circumvent the laws others work so hard to uphold.

Harry didn't know what to feel. Just thinking about Sirius depressed him but at least the world would know he wasn't a criminal. More than anything, it just made him angrier at the way things happen in the Ministry. He felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Hermione ask, "Are you going to be ok? This is a good thing."

"Yeah Harry," Ginny softly said. "Now everyone knows he didn't deserve to be sent away."

Harry glanced around and noticed Kari Boslav looking at him intently but then he saw Draco Malfoy laughing as he held up the paper. Harry turned back and tried to eat without thinking about Malfoy or the Ministry. Part of him was genuinely happy that the truth about Sirius had finally come out, even though it was too late for his godfather.

Harry got up before Ron and Hermione were done eating and said, "I'm going to go read for a bit."

"Are you sure you're ok Harry?" Hermione asked. "Want us to come with you?"

"He'll be ok Hermione," Ron quickly said, putting a hand on her arm. "Don't forget about Quidditch tryouts," Ron added. Usually, Harry was thankful for Ron's ability to put off thinking about anything other than Quidditch but how quickly his friend could just forget about Sirius rubbed him the wrong way and he walked off without further comment.

After retrieving Moody's journal, Harry went to the Owlery without seeing any more of his friends. Searching, he finally found Hedwig and called her to him. Lightly stroking the bird behind her ear he said, "How have you been girl? I haven't had much work for you this year. I don't know where Remus is and there's no one else to write to." The large owl hooted softly and lightly nibbled on Harry's fingers. "You know you can go fly anytime you want. You don't have to stay around all the time waiting for me to write someone. Go have fun." The bird seemed to hoot a little more firmly and the next nibble was much harder than normal. "Ok, I'm not trying to send you off or anything," Harry said, shaking his head.

After getting comfortable on the floor with Hedwig on his shoulder, Harry focused on the spells in the old journal both anxious to try them and hoping he never had cause to use them. Some time later, he heard the door open and saw someone walk in that used to make his stomach lurch, but now did absolutely nothing to him. Cho Chang had just come in and called an owl down to her. He heard the girl tell the owl to take the note to her parents and Harry considered staying silent in the hopes of not being seen but decided instead to be polite. "Hello Cho," he said, trying not to startle her but failing horribly.

"Harry!" Cho exclaimed. "You scared the dickens out of me." Harry made a face to say he was sorry. "What are you doing up here?" she asked.

"Just finding a quiet place to read," Harry replied, and then after an awkward pause said, "How have you been?"

"I've been ok," she replied, and then seemed to think hard about something before continuing, "I want to apologize for how things went with us last year. I think it was just bad timing and everything."

"That's ok Cho," Harry said, now standing. "I've been told that I did nearly everything I could possibly do wrong as well."

Cho chuckled and said, "I had always assumed you'd gone out with loads of girls. So I think I expected you to understand everything." The girl smiled and asked, "Want to start over?"

Harry didn't think he'd want to try to date her but would like to be her friend so he smiled brightly and said, "That'd be great."

"I see you're back to being the Prophet's favorite celebrity again," Cho said teasingly.

Harry knew she didn't realize how much all that bothered him so he faked a smile and said, "I guess. Everybody says how great that is but so far I can't figure out anything good that's come from it."

"Yes well I'm sure that if you wanted to use it you could easily," she smiled and added, "I've got to go. See you later Harry."

"Bye Cho," Harry said, and let her get well ahead before he gathered his things and decided to go to Quidditch tryouts.

When Harry finally got down to the Pitch, he was surprised to find ten people hoping to tryout for the two chaser spots. "Where've you been?" Ron grumbled. "We've been here for a half-hour."

Harry checked his watch and said, "I'm still early. Tryouts start at eleven."

"They've been warming up though," Ron said. "You can see what they're like."

"You two still plan on being beaters?" Harry asked Sloper and Kirke, the two from last year. They both nodded in a way that reminded Harry of Crabbe and Goyle. He turned to the people wanting to tryout and asked, "All of you for the Chaser spots?"

"Not me," said Dennis Creevy, holding an old Cleansweep broom. "I'm trying for seeker."

There was a lot of mumbling and laughing when he said this and Ginny said, "Harry's our seeker."

"I know but I want to try for it anyway," Dennis said, seeming to shrink a bit.

"No problem Dennis," Harry said. "Even if you don't beat me, you may be able to be a reserve." The small boy brightened noticeably. "Everybody else Chasers?"

"I'm going for Keeper," a large fourth-year named Bill Shurman said.

"They don't normally let them tryout for filled spots," Ron said with a menacing glance at the boy.

"It won't hurt anything," Harry said. "Let them have some fun."

Harry saw Ginny give a squeeze to Dean's arm before she joined the existing members in their group. "Ok, after the tryouts, the team members will vote for who they want on the team. I won't vote for the seeker and Ron won't vote for the keeper. If there's a tie, I'll decide which way we go. Any problems?" Harry asked. When there weren't any, Harry split up the new players and put one of the beaters on each team. With someone trying out for keeper and beater, it meant they could field almost two complete teams for the tryouts.

After nearly two hours of tryouts, in which some of the newcomers were eliminated quickly it was time to vote. Harry gathered the existing team members together. Ginny quickly spoke up, "That worked out really well. Some of them are good."

"Yeah, and some of them were bloody worthless," Ron joked.

"Ok, Seeker first," Harry said, hoping it went his way. "Who wants Dennis?" No one raised their hands. "Who thinks he should stay on as reserve?" Everyone raised their hands. "Good. He wasn't half bad," Harry said.

"Ok, Keeper. Who wants Shurman?" Harry asked, and was surprised when Sloper's hand went up. They all looked at the lone hand.

"He's a family friend and wasn't bad," Sloper snapped.

"Ok, Shurman can be on the reserve squad as well," Harry said, but noticed Ron was looking angrily at the beater.

"Now Chasers," Harry said. The vote went until they had it down to three. Dean, Colin Creevy, and Sally Neigh. They all tied with three votes for and two against. "Does anyone want to change their votes on any of them?" Harry asked, and everyone kept to their original choices. Harry dreaded this but he said, "Ok, I think they were all good but I stick to my votes of Colin and Sally."

Harry heard Ron say, "Yes" and then saw Ginny give him and Ron evil glares before storming over to Dean. When Harry told everyone, Dean didn't seem too bothered by the news and actually didn't even want to be on the reserve squad. Glad that was out of the way, Harry told them when the first practice would be and that he would post the full schedule soon.

After getting cleaned up and returning to the common room, Hermione came up all excited and said, "I've scheduled our first D.A. meeting tonight."

"Tonight!" both Harry and Ron exclaimed. "I need to prepare," Harry said.

"And I thought we could...you know study," Ron said, seeming to go red and Harry thought it odd that Ron would want to study.

"Yes well you are prepared Harry and Ron you'll have to study some other time," Hermione calmly said. "It's at seven and we will have less than last year. A couple new people are coming but they seem ok." She quickly turned and caught up to another girl who had walked by.

"One track mind that one," Ron said. "How will she last once school's done?"

"She'll probably go on to some University or something," Harry said, thinking about it. "She just can't get enough."

"You think she'd do that? Just go off and leave us?" Ron asked, seeming to have never considered it before.

"I don't know. Ask her," Harry said, and dug around for his current Defense book to see if there was anything in the later chapters that would be good for the meeting.

Harry was reading alone in the corner after supper but before the meeting when Ginny came to him with a strange look. Harry looked up and said, "Hi Ginny." When she didn't say anything right away he asked, "Is something wrong?"

Her face hardened and she asked, "Why did you vote against Dean?"

Harry hadn't expected this and said, "Well I think Colin was faster and Sally seemed to have more control over the Quaffle. Why?"

"Did my brother tell you not to vote for him?" she asked, still not looking happy. "He's been giving us a hard time."

"No he didn't tell me not to and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I want the best team," he said, causing her to relax a bit. "Besides, Ron's your brother, not me. I'm not going to act like one and interfere with your relationships."

Ginny brightened noticeably and said, "Thank you Harry." She looked a bit embarrassed and said, "I thought you just saw me as a little sister."

"I can honestly say I've never thought of you as my little sister," Harry said, still not sure why she brought that up.

"Good," Ginny said. "Well I'll see you at the meeting."

Harry entered the Room of Requirement with Ron and Hermione a few minutes before the scheduled meeting. "This room is just brilliant," Ron said looking around.

"I wish you could take things out of here," Hermione said as she thumbed through a book.

Harry was pacing nervously and only stopped when Ron said, "Give it a rest mate. I know this room can be anything but you're wearing down the floor." Harry had just started to think that maybe no one was coming when the door opened and a good line of people started flowing in. They all greeted the trio and then got into their more comfortable small groups. Harry was surprised to see Neville standing so close to Susan Bones.

"That looks like it," Hermione said to him and then added, "I'll just start it off then."

Hermione stood next to Harry and confidently said, "Most of you were here last year so you know what to expect. But for those of you that are new see me after the session and I'll explain how we know when meetings are going to be."

"Do we have to sneak around this year?" Ernie McMillian questioned.

Harry hadn't even thought about that. He assumed with Umbridge gone that it would be ok to meet like this but never checked. "We don't need to sneak around this time," Hermione quickly replied getting some mumbling from the crowd. "I asked Professor McGonagall and she was going to inform the other Heads so they know why so many of us get together. But," Hermione said, getting everyone's attention, "we...I still think it's very important that we keep what we do within our group. This will give us more of a team feeling and along those lines; I've drawn up another sign-up sheet." Now there were groans. "And yes it will be like the last one. It just says that by joining our group, you will not talk about things that we say should be kept between us."

"We can't tell people what we're doing? What about our teachers?" a girl in the back asked, drawing some agreement.

"That's fine Kathy," Hermione calmly said. "But, we may talk about things that aren't common knowledge and you can't repeat that. We may teach some charms that aren't taught here and we don't want those passed around. You've all heard about the Battle at the Ministry," she said and everyone got silent. Harry snapped around to stare at her, unsure what she was going to say. "There were a few of us there and we may talk about curses we saw and other things that weren't reported in the Prophet. That stays between us. Any objections?"

There was a lot of mumbling but no complaints so she said, "Good. Just to make sure everything is in the open this time, the effect of breaking the contract will be worse than last year. Everyone will need to sign before they leave. Now Harry can get started."

Harry was amazed at how organized Hermione was and how confidently she ran things. "Ok, thanks Hermione," Harry said. "I'm sure I'll have nightmares about what would happen if I broke the contract." He said this as an honest statement but everyone laughed as if it were a joke. "Even though we seem to have a good Defense teacher this year, we wouldn't have lasted in the Ministry without working together and using the spells differently than we were taught," he said, getting their attention. "It was a lot of simple spells that we used, so we'll focus a lot on those as well as shields."

"You didn't use simple spells against You-Know-Who," Justin announced to a bunch of 'Yeahs'.

Harry had read the article describing that night and often wondered how they had gotten their information. For the most part it was close, while leaving out specific details such as Ron claiming to see 'Uranus'. However, it was entirely speculation from the moment Harry went after Bellatrix Lestrang. The paper printed that he had indeed gone after her but then it went on to say that he dueled her for a long time until Voldemort showed up and that he had held both Bellatrix and Voldemort at bay until Dumbledore showed up to help out. The only thing he had told Ron and Hermione was that it wasn't like the Prophet said at all.

"I didn't use any spells against Voldemort that night," Harry announced firmly, drawing stares from his friends as well as protests from the other students. Harry ignored them and said, "I did chase Bellatrix and managed to hit her with one curse, but it didn't stop her." Harry turned and saw Hermione's pained expression. She knew how he hated talking about this. "I dove on the ground to avoid one of her curses and when I looked up, Voldemort was standing with his wand pointing at me," Harry softly said. There was total silence in the room now; you couldn't even hear their breathing. "He would have killed me right then if Dumbledore hadn't shown up. I didn't even say a single spell against him." Harry breathed in a few times and firmly said, "He would have killed me because I wasn't ready and was unprepared for him to be there. I realized earlier this summer that I can never let that happen again. So, even if you use a simple disarming spell, do something. Don't get into a spot where you're not prepared to do anything."

"Now," Harry said sounding firm again, "that should tell you two things. First, don't believe everything the Prophet writes." People chuckled and agreed. "And second," he continued, "we all can use help. Those of us at the Ministry were holding our own but wouldn't have lasted much longer. If help hadn't come, well I don't want to think about that..." After another pause he said, "Instead of just reviewing, let try the Patronus charm since the Dementors have left Azkaban."

The mood which had started off kind of light had now become deadly serious. Harry explained again how to use the charm. "Remember, the most import thing is to focus on a single thing that makes you the happiest," he reminded them. Harry noticed that some people who had produced a faint Patronus' last year were now not producing any and even Hermione wasn't getting a full, solid otter. He suddenly wished he hadn't started with this since he now wasn't sure if even he could focus on something to lift his mood enough to allow his stag to form.

The cause didn't come up for him to attempt a Patronus before the class was over. He was standing around talking to some people before they left when Cho came over and put her hand on his arm and said, "That was really good again Harry."

"Thanks Cho," he said. He had noticed her during the class and also that she wasn't working with Michael Corner. Harry also saw the boy leave just a few minutes earlier. "Things with Michael didn't work out?"

Cho kind of grimaced and said, "No. That was just the wrong thing."

"Oh, well congratulations on getting Quidditch Captain," Harry said, annoyed with himself for even bringing up the subject of Michael.

"Thanks. You too," she said, beaming now.

"I think you'll do great, but I'm not sure about me. I don't know enough about it to come up with plays," he admitted.

"Well, I don't want to give you any pointers, but it would probably help a little to read Quidditch Monthly. I think some of the past issues are in the library," she offered.

"Thanks Cho," Harry said, "I owe you one."

"I'll remember that Harry. Bye," she pleasantly said, before leaving.

"Don't tell me you're after 'hose nose' again," Ron said, rolling his eyes.

Hermione scowled but said, "What he means Harry is that we think you may be better suited with someone else."

Harry laughed and said, "Oh is that what he meant? Doesn't matter because I'm not interested. At all." Harry followed his two friends up to the common room discussing things they should work on during the next meeting.

Except for Potions, school had been going pretty well for Harry. He only needed to use the journal one time, and this was when he felt that Voldemort was very angry. It turned out to be when the evil Wizard had found out that many of the werewolves would be supporting the Light side. He continued to have nightmares about his Godfather but wasn't willing to write these down.

Potions however was another story. No matter how hard Harry tried and he was actually trying harder than usual, Snape would ask questions about things that weren't even in their book. However, no matter how many points he lost in Potions, some Gryffindor would earn it back in Transfiguration. It didn't take long before Harry, and probably everyone figured out what McGonagall was doing.

Sitting in the common room with Hermione and Ron close together on a couch and Harry in a chair trying to ignore them, he asked, "Are you sure you didn't say anything to McGonagall."

"I told you I didn't Harry," Hermione said, sitting up straighter. "I knew you wouldn't want me to tell her about Snape picking on you so I didn't. That doesn't mean that someone else didn't, but I had nothing to do with it."

"Hey, don't look at me," Ron quickly said when Harry looked at him. "I say you can handle yourself with the greasy git!" Harry believed both of his friends but still wasn't comfortable with Professor McGonagall awarding cheap points because he felt Professor Snape would assume he ran to McGonagall for help.

After Quidditch practice, Harry finally made his way back to the common room and thought he was being stared out more than normal but had learned to pretty much ignore other people so he didn't think much of it until he stepped into the common room and everyone looked at him with pained expressions. The Gryffindors usually treated him fairly normally so this was unusual. Ginny motioned him to join her, Ron and Hermione in the corner so Harry quickly made his way to them beginning to get annoyed at the stares.

"What happened? Was it bad?" Harry asked his friends.

"Nothing new happened," Hermione said.

"It just got reported, that's all," Ginny added, handing him the Daily Prophet.

Sirius Black: Minister's Blunder, Another Blow to The Boy Who Lived

This reporter has uncovered the fact that Sirius Black was, in addition to being a wrongfully convicted man, Harry Potter's godfather. That's right readers; the man who our Minister wrongly imprisoned for betraying the Potters was in fact Harry's godfather. Harry grew up without a connection to his parents because Cornelius Fudge sentenced the wrong man to Azakaban without a trial!

The impact to our Harry is even worse because if you'll remember, Sirius Black was with the group battling the Death Eaters in the Ministry and Harry had to watch his godfather die at the hands of one of You-Know-Who's supporters.

Our Minister didn't believe Harry Potter over a year ago when he returned from the encounter with You-Know-Who, clutching the dead body of fellow Hogwarts student and co-Triwizard Tournament Champion Cedric Diggory. And because of this, Harry was in a position of having to watch his godfather be murdered as well.

The Daily Prophet is formally calling for a vote of No-Confidence in Cornelius Fudge. He has misled our community and been directly involved in keeping information from the public. In times like these, the community must be able to believe in their leadership.