Hermione panted as she leant against the stairwell, clutching her books. Draco Malfoy had just attempted to perform a curse on her, so she had ran for her life.

  "Hermione!" Fred Weasley clapped her back, closely followed by George Weasley.

  "Up to mischief, are we?" She mumbled, glaring down at her feet.

  "God, you sound like Filch." George gawked, bumping his brothers arm.

  "Oh, shut up." Hermione said, a small smile forming on her lips.

  "You forgot this when you were rushing off from Transfiguration for some unknown reason." Fred handed her homework planner back to its rightful owner.

  "Oh, thank you boys. I, have some really important things to do. Yes..." she mumbled, heading down the stairs very briskly.

  "Oi! Not so fast!" But before they knew it, she had gone.

  "Hm. Tricky move." Hermione smirked as she faced Harry at Wizard Chess.

  "Umbridge is gone!" Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas chorused, bursting through the doors with other Gryffindors.

  "How?!" Harry exclaimed, knocking his chair over as he stood up so abruptly.

  "Look!" Ron pointed, staring up out of the window. Umbridge was being pulled along by Fred and George, who were mounted onto broomsticks. They heard cheering from the dormitories. "George told me that they stole her wand." Ron and Harry stole grins from each other.

"Awesome," Seamus beamed, his head moving as he watched the scene. A loud bang suddenly alerted them that Umbridge had been Apparated.

  "Must be a long way if they're outside the grounds and we can hear it," Hermione giggled, holding her hands to her mouth.

Ron skirted down the stairs, clutching onto the rail and smiling to himself. He was holding his Cleansweep tightly to his side as he strode. It was a breezy day outside, he'd just decided to spend some time in the library.

    A tall, muscular boy he recognised as a new student joined him on his way down. Ron tried to make small talk about classes and such, but all the boy wanted to talk about was Quidditch and the reason he was 'new'.

  "Yeah, Professor Snape got me expelled in my second year; my parents got me back in, especially my dad, you know the Winged Lions Keeper? Yeah, that's him. I hope to be just like him when I grow up." Ron's self esteem fell and he just nodded and smiled for the remaining of the conversation.

   The Library was particularly noisy when Ron and Edward entered. A group of notorious unisex robes were huddled on the largest desk there, and people were giving them looks as if to say 'can I join you?' It seemed that nobody was bothered by the disturbance and Ron wondered where the librarian *cough* dragon *cough* was.

   A girl with an inhumanly perfect face turned around and smiled at them, her black hood up over her head. Ron could tell that Edward was flexing his muscles nearby to impress her. The girl giggled and turned back to her group.

   "Come on, let's find a table." Ron tugged at Edward's fawn jumper. Reluctantly he followed. They settled themselves at a table of four, two bookcases either side of them. Ron slowly made to take a book, but his mind was still kept on the group. He peeped behind the bookshelf to see the group slowly deteriorating, some had picked their things up and headed to lessons. Obviously the rest couldn't be bothered.

  "Who are they?" Ron's voice was hoarse from not using it for a while. He glanced around at the threesome.

  "Oh, that's Selina and Robin Oak. And Alisha- oh, her friend left. But yeah," Edward leant forward in a secretive fashion, "they're the most popular people in our year."

  "What year are you in?" Ron said under his breath.

  "Sixth. I'd tell you the answers for the O.W.Ls, but I can't remember, wait- maybe one..."

  "Look, I'm sorry Edward, but I don't really care. Could you do me a quick favour?" He gave a brisk nod. "Could you get that Selina to talk to me?"

  "Yeah, sure dude." Edward stood up and sauntered towards the group. As they giggled, Ron had the bitter feeling that Edward wasn't very close with them.