Beta: Cloudy

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

The very first Quidditch match of the season was looking absolutely dismal. It was originally supposed to be Slytherin v Gryffindor, but Draco asked me to break his arm so he could get Slytherin out of the match due to the foul weather.

For the sake of my Housemates I broke Draco's arm in the common room. There was much cheering to be done and the Slytherin Quidditch team hoisted Draco up like a hero and carried him valiantly to Madam Pomfrey's office.

The raging storm was impressive. Even in the dungeons, we could hear the howling winds and clattering thunder.

I did come better prepared that year than last. Sirius bought me a lovely umbrella with warming charms. It was big enough to easily fit three, and Daphne had also bought one of her own in the same size.

Draco and Pansy shared the umbrella with me, while Tracey and Theodore shared Daphne's. To my elated surprise Millie and Vincent wanted to practice their umbrella charms, so they opted out of sharing any umbrella. Gregory simply didn't care, and Blaise had his own umbrella that he was reluctant to share with any of us.

It was a testament to how dedicated the magical community was to Quidditch that everyone still showed up in such horrendous weather. No one could even hear the commentary over the wind.

The match wasn't a quick one, either. It dragged on for over an hour. I could barely make out what was happening under the curtain of rain. I couldn't imagine how uncomfortable the players must have been.

Poor Harry, I thought.

Even with his specially enchanted warming robes and water-repellent glasses he had to be miserable. I had to admit that Draco had the right idea about it being better to have a broken arm than play in that kind of weather.

Then the air went from chilly to bitterly cold. A sense of tranquility washed over me, a relief of unknown pain making me sigh contently.

"Dementors so close to the school?"

I quickly looked around and gasped when I saw at least a hundred dementors above the stadium and swarming to Harry and Cedric.

"HARRY!" I dropped my umbrella. "IRIS, LET'S GO!"

Iris surged out of my pocket and transformed into a version of herself that would be big enough to carry both of us. As an animal, she wouldn't feel the wrath of the dementor's depression aura, but she wouldn't be immune to the cold.

We'd have to be quick.

"Go," I hissed out and Iris shot up into the crowd of the dementors like a fired bullet. I raised my wand and whipped out a powered up, "Lumos!"

I didn't know the Patronus spell, but it would at least help me find Harry quicker amongst their hoard and the pouring rain.

There!

Harry had fallen off his broom, tumbling down into the air. Iris and I surged forward to grab him. I used Accio to pull him to me, grabbing him in my arms and urging Iris to take us straight to Madam Pompfrey.

If he had fainted from the dementor attack, he'd need treatment right away.

Iris flew with speed and grace that would make even pegasuses burn with envy. Within a minute she had soared into Hogwarts, and within ten seconds she reached Madam Pomfrey's office.

"Good heavens!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed.

"My brother was attacked by at least a hundred dementors during the match," I hurriedly explained, sliding off Iris and pulling Harry with me. He was a heavy to hold, but not impossible.

Her face darkened upon my explanation. "Those wretched creatures... here, get him into bed. I've got some hot cocoa I've been brewing."

Gently, I lowered Harry into the bed. I pulled out my wand, waved it and said, "Aeris Calidum."

The water quickly seeped out of Harry's clothes, instantly drying them. By the time I was done with that Madam Pomfrey had come over to the bed with a cup of hot chocolate.

"Hold his head up, dear," she instructed. Carefully, I tilted Harry's head up and back. With a wave of her wand, Madam Pomfrey directed a stream of hot chocolate into Harry's mouth and I assumed down his throat. He gulped it down reflexively, color rapidly returning to his face. He was still painfully pale, but not corpse-like anymore.

"He'll be okay?" I asked her.

"Should be," said Madam Pomfrey, clicking her tongue. "Horrible things."

"Then I should probably go hunt down his broom," I said, then looked over at a shivering Iris. "Um, would you be able to—"

Madam Pomfrey noticed Iris who was curling around me and her expression softened. "Yes. Here, place her next to your brother. I've got plenty of warming blankets.

And they'll both enjoy the comfort cuddles, I thought, kissing Iris on her nose before placing her on Harry's chest. Madam Pomfrey returned with heavy blankets which she draped over the two of them. Iris immediately sighed in relief.

"Let's go hunt a broom. How much do you wanna bet that it landed on the Whomping Willow?"

"Out of all the land in Hogwarts? There's no way."

"I bet that's where it landed exactly and it's all destroyed now."

"Fine. If you're wrong, you have to tell me who exactly gave you my diary."

"Fine. If I'm right you have to tell me three of your favorites."

"Deal."

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

It was indeed in the Whomping Willow. She graciously handed over the splinters of Harry's broom when I asked her nicely to.

Tom wasn't happy about it, but he begrudgingly admitted to me, "Favorite color is gray, favorite drink is Irish Breakfast black tea, and favorite class was alchemy."

"Gray is my favorite color, too! Blue is second, though. Never had Irish tea before, kinda want to try it now."

"There was a small tea shop in Hogsmeade that was comfortable to relax in when I attended Hogwarts."

"Next trip I'll see if I can find it!"

"Good luck. It's out of the way."

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

I and Remus were the only ones Madam Pomfrey allowed to visit Harry over the weekend. Remus and I sat beside him. I held his hand as he stared forlornly at the remnants of his broom.

"I'm sure Paddy will get you a Firebolt," I comforted Harry.

"She was my first Hogwarts broom," Harry murmured sadly.

"Do you want—do you want to bury her at home?" I asked.

Harry nodded. "Yes... under the treehouse. She'd like that."

"Of course, dear."

"Uncle Moony, why were the dementors at the game?" Harry turned to Remus with a furrowed brow.

"The dementors have been growing restless for some time," Remus admitted privately to us. "They were furious at Professor Dumbledore's refusal to let them inside the ground."

Harry shifted uncomfortably, leaning further into me. I placed a comforting arm around him. In a small voice he asked, "Why? Why do they affect me like that? Am I just—?"

"It has nothing to do with weakness," said Remus sharply before Harry could finish that. "The dementors affect you worse than the others because there are horrors in your past that the others don't have. Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life. And the worst that happened to you is enough to make anyone fall off their broom. You have nothing to feel ashamed of."

"When they get near me—" Harry looked away, his throat tight. "I can hear Voldemort murdering Mum."

Remus moved to sit on Harry's other side on the bed and he pulled him into a tight hug.

"Why did they have to come to the match?" said Harry bitterly.

"They're getting hungry," said Remus coolly, plain annoyance on his face as he thought about the dementors. "Dumbledore won't let them into the school, so their supply of human prey has dried up. I don't think they could resist the large crowd around the Quidditch field. All that excitement... emotions running high... it was their idea of a feast."

"Azkaban must be terrible," Harry muttered. Remus nodded grimly.

"Are you not going to tell them about how they affect you?"

"Not unless they ask. Kreacher already sings praises about how much of a Dark Lady I am."

"The fortress is set on a tiny island, way out to sea, but they don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're all trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most of them go mad within weeks."

Harry sat up suddenly, as a thought occurred to him. "You made that dementor on the train back off."

"There are—certain defenses one can use," said Remus. "But there was only one dementor on the train. The more there are, the more difficult it becomes to resist."

"What defenses?" said Harry at once. "Can you teach us?"

"I don't pretend to be an expert at fighting dementors, Harry... quite the contrary..."

"But if the dementors come to another Quidditch match, I need to be able to fight them—"

Remus sized Harry up, then glanced over at me.

"It would have been nice to get to Harry easier," I admitted.

"Well... all right. We'll get started on it after the holidays."

"Thanks, Uncle," said Harry softly.

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

Another Hogsmeade weekend was right before Christmas break, which made it super easy to get all my Christmas shopping out of the way.

The Hogsmeade visits were almost every weekend since they started up, but there had been a couple odd ones where they didn't happen so it was hard to predict when it would happen.

Every trip to Hogsmeade I always went out of my way to find Booboo and chat with him. It had become such a routine that the other dementors were entirely unbothered by me when I searched through them for Booboo.

I had to get a lot of gifts last weekend, so I made sure to bring my expandable messenger bag. I needed more clothes for Fenrir, along with a broom, and broom care kit—he was finally willing to try to learn how to fly. He could have never afforded his own broom prior, after all.

Anyo and his family wanted to try some wizard candies—vampires could eat other food, but blood was essentially water to them and they needed it to survive regardless.

Draco was hard to shop for since he literally bought whatever he wanted, so for the past years I'd only given him school-related stuff like quills, notebooks and so on. Daphne, Tracey, and Theodore were the easiest to shop for since they told me exactly what they wanted from me. I noticed Millie had started to read up about dragon care in her free time, so I got her a collection about dragon biology. Vincent and Gregory didn't care much on what they got, so I got them new workout clothes as they were rapidly growing out of their older ones. Blaise was rather vain so expensive skin care stuff was right up his alley.

Dumbledore always got wool socks and a matching jumper. Sirius had been buying Remus clothes for as long as I can remember, so Harry and I have been purchasing him books instead. Sirius was, by far, the hardest one to shop for because he literally did not care. He wouldn't bat an eye if he got nothing for Christmas, or if he was given a million galleons.

The only thing I could think of was something ward-related since Sirius had been extensively studying wards for several years. He mentioned something about no one besides Dumbledore being very good about warding and ward breaking in the Order.

Part of me wondered if he hoped to create a ward stronger than Fidelius.

Or maybe he had something else in mind entirely?

Harry liked Quidditch, or Tolkien related stuff.

Boy, when the movies come out in 2001 he was gonna lose his mind.

Fred and George liked jokes, but since I knew about their desire to open a joke shop I figured a sack of galleons would make them happier.

It took a little under half my time at Hogsmeade to get everything on my list. I spent the other time browsing the newspaper stand.

Despite the fact that I had performed over a dozen successful robberies, none of them were reported in the press. I could only conclude that they either hadn't checked their Gringotts vault yet, or they didn't want to come clean about their lack of wealth.

The Wizarding World didn't have insurance, after all. Shit got stolen? Sucks to suck.

But that wasn't good. I needed to push them out of the Wizengamot, which means they needed to be seen as weak and driven away.

I need a scandal now, I thought.

I couldn't pull the "they're Death Eaters!" card since not all of them were Death Eaters. At least half of them were simply politicians I needed out of the way. Their wealth was gone, so they couldn't bribe their way out of trouble.

Now I needed to come up with trouble.

"What do you think the odds are of them updating their wards against Muggle thieves now?" I mused.

Tom let out a pained sigh. "I would hope they would have done so. From what I have seen... I doubt it."

"That's what I thought. 'Tis the season for scandals."

"A scandal would be enough to drive them out?"

"One by one, yes. They won't have the money to keep the media quiet, and once their "allies" see how vulnerable they are they won't help. Downside of aligning with the Dark is that you don't get the most loyal members."

"Evidently."

An idea came to me. "A fair few of them are married.... I think it's time to pay the brothels a visit. Everyone loves reading about a good affair. Or orgy."

"That's—that's disgusting."

"Which is why it'll work great as a scandal. Good thing I snagged some of their hair. Put it in a polyjuice, hire some lovely prostitutes, take a few pics, send it to the Prophet... easy."

"Have you no shame?"

"Ever had to put a catheter inside someone and it broke?"

"What?"

"I've lost my shame since that day."

"When did you—why did you—?"

"You're pretty when you're confused."

"What would you do with the single ones, then?"

"Plant illegal artifacts in their home and alert Bones."

"For all of them?"

"No. Just a couple. I'll only target half of my victims with the scandals this time around, otherwise it'll be too obvious. The rest will get to panic. Who knows, they might fall into a scandal all on their own in their haste to find money to cover their butts. Won't that be fun to see?"

"You're devious."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Now with my shopping done, I must hunt down Booboo again."

Tom sighed.

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

Booboo was at the same spot as last time. He drifted down to meet me, and I began a one-sided conversation with him. I told him about everything that happened since last we met, and that today I would do my best to teach him to do spirit fingers.

I passed the rest of my time at Hogsmeade like that until Draco came and found me.

I stared intently at Booboo, my fingers wiggling furiously in front of him.

From a distance, I could hear Draco shout at me, "What are you doing now?"

"I'm trying to teach Booboo spirit fingers!" I yelled back. "Come on, Booboo, I know you can do it."

Booboo continued to float in front of me, staring at me.

"C'mon. You got this. Wiggle those fingers!"

He only stared. He only ever stared. Sometimes it was a menacing stare, but most of the time it felt indifferent.

"Time to go back!"

"Damn it. You'll learn spirit fingers one day, Booboo. I believe in you."

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

I visited Lunar's Orchid on my first night back. I hugged Fenrir tightly, and he returned it just as fiercely.

"I'm afraid I can't stay long my friend," I apologized as I began to pull out his wrapped Christmas gifts. "This break I'll be dealing some final blows to a few of our enemies."

"On'y a few?" Fenrir jokingly asked.

"Gotta move slowly," I said with a shrug. "I can't risk drawing attention to my movements, or worse, anyone connecting me to Lunar's Orchard before our enemies are disposed of."

"Need any 'elp?"

"I don't suppose you know a brothel run by someone we can trust to keep a secret?"

"Ahh..." Fenrir stared at me. "Actually, yeah. Madam Lewl. 'Er daugh'er's one of us. She been keen teh wantin' teh help out Lunar's Orchard and keen teh wantin' a stronger leadership position 'ere."

"Can we trust her?"

"She'd do anything fer her daugh'er. You wanna 'spose of people who are a threat teh 'er daugh'er, yeah?"

"Yep."

"Then yeah."

"Can you introduce us now?"

Fenrir cocked his head in thought. "Yeah. Stay 'ere, I'll bring 'er to yeh."

"Have I told you recently how much I love you?"

"In e'ry letter fer teh past five years," Fenrir laughed.

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

Christmas was warm and cuddly. Harry and I huddled under a blanket by a fire while Remus and Sirius regaled us with tales of their youth. We drank eggnog, enjoyed the feast prepared by Dobby and Kreacher, then went to bed with happy spirits.

In the morning we exchanged gifts. The first gifts passed on to us were little white notebooks with a bouquet of flowers drawn on them.

"Lily prepared these for you both," said Remuse with a kind smile.

Harry and I carefully opened the books, finding they were mostly identical with a few differences. Lily had hand-written a notebook of spells and little passages for each of us. There were a lot of shared spells—she wrote down housework spells, spells she personally loved, and every spell she had crafted herself. In Harry's notebook she prepared more passages that she would want to pass on to her son, and in mine she prepared passages for a daughter.

"When did she write this?" I asked quietly as I rubbed at my eyes.

"Before you were born," answered Sirius.

"Did Dad write in this, too?"

"Near the end."

Harry and I marveled over the notebook for another hour or so until it was time to open the other presents.

I glared at Sirius for giving me three new unicorn plushies.

"Stop giving me these unicorns," I grumbled as I cradled the silver and blue one he gave me.

"But a princess needs her unicorns."

"I am an evil queen, not a princess."

"Sure you are," Sirius placated me.

"Curse you," I muttered rebelliously.

"I got you a unicorn too sis," Harry cheekily added as he held out another stuffed unicorn toy.

I threw it at his face.

ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

Third year's pretty short in comparison to the other years because I removed the plot haha. Just means we're moving faster to the next year where the horrors of Dating™ and Courting™ and Crushes™ become a thing!

Answer: Flash-bang.

Question: What would you bring to Hogwarts?

Reviews are love!