When Sybil got to the library, she went straight to where newspaper clippings were kept and lugged the whole lot to a concealed desk in the back, eager to get her mind focused on something other than her family's problems. The library was virtually empty, most students were eating lunch, and Madame Pince hadn't seen Sybil sneak into the library, as she had been eating her lunch at her desk, and Sybil had been as silent as possible.

She had decided before entering that she would research Nicholas's family tree, or any connections to Professor Umbridge, a subject which she had postponed when the letter from her aunt had come two days ago. It felt like ages had passed since then, but in reality it had not even been half of the week since the heart-jolting news.

Sybil was curious to find out any relations to the Selwyn family, and she desperately wanted to know why her professor treated Nicholas so much better than everyone else, even the Slytherins, who were in Umbridge's own house. When she had brought up the topic with her fellow Prefect he had viciously shut down the conversation, leaving Sybil hungry for and explanation.

She sifted through many Daily Prophet clippings looking for anything related to either family, but with barely any luck. It was a very tedious job, and she gave up some where through the clippings from October 1956. The only things she had found were marriage dates for a Barindon Selwyn and Fatima Droens in the 1910s, and the death of Amora Selwyn in 1954, and she only determined that Amora was most likely a sibling of Barindon. There was no way she could figure anything important out by reading through every single newspaper from the last fifty years, it'd take her ages. She had already spent at least two hours looking through those.

Resorting to getting information from actual books, she left the newspapers on the table and went to gather information from texts on wizarding families in general.

The first few books she gathered focused mostly on the dynamic between pure-blooded family and those who were not. They were dreadfully old books which were written in very old language and held no recent information on any subject.

Sybil huffed and grabbed what was now her sixth book, named The Sacred Twenty-Eight and the History of Pure-Blooded Families, because it seemed to be the most used book on the shelf, but still newer than the others. Flipping to the table of contents, she scanned over the various last names, recognizing almost every single one from a student at Hogwarts. In her year alone there were Carrows (twins Flora and Hestia), Oba Shafiq, Baden Burke, and Nicholas who were all part of families that were in the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

In the book, there were chapters on each of the families, and family trees for each name as well. Unfortunately though, the book must have been a couple of decades old, because all the trees stopped after 1923.

At the bottom of the Selwyn tree however, there was a line of marriage between Amora, the sister of Barindon, and a person named, Brames Umbridge in 1914, and a line depicting their son's name, Orford.

This, was very interesting. She had discovered that the Selwyns were in fact related to the Umbriges. It was a very distant relation, but she assumed that Barindon and Fatima were Nicholas's great-grandparents or something, due to their marriage in 1917.

The newfound information made Sybil feel impressed that she had figured it out, but also a little bit repulsed that her classmate was actually related to their absolutely horrid Defense Professor. It did however explain why Umbridge treated Nicholas so differently than everyone else, even though they were not that closely related.

But now, Sybil had to decide what to do with her discovery. It would be hard to keep it to herself, but she hadn't spoken to anyone in two days, and her friends would feel betrayed if the first thing she told them wasn't an explanation. She had a feeling that Nicholas wouldn't really appreciate her digging into his family's past, so she would have to decide a correct time to reveal what she knew.

Like many of her other problems in her life, Sybil decided to ignore the question of who'd she'd tell, until later.

Instead she decided to look into more about the Umbridge side of the family, so that she could understand why her professor is such a terrible person. She moved back to the Daily Prophet clippings and did her digging for a little while longer.

Apparently, Orford Umbridge had married a muggle named Ellen, and had Umbridge and her brother, who was a Squib. She had also unfortunately revealed to herself Umbridge's name, which was Dolores, and to Sybil it seemed like perfectly fitting name for the slimy person that Umbridge really was.

Umbridge and her father hated her mother and brother, so eventually Ellen and her son fled to the Muggle world forever. It was a quite sad story, and to think that someone would hate their own mother and brother enough to banish them away because of what they were, made Sybil sick in the stomach.

By that time, students had started to file into the library, as lunch had long ended, and so had classes. Not wanting to be seen by others, Sybil cleaned up her mess and replaced the books on the shelf as quickly as possible. She hurried out of the library and then towards the common room, where she would hide herself in her dorm room.

The dorms were already cleaned by the House Elves and Sybil sunk into her bed and pulled the curtains in front of it shut, so that no one would notice she was there. Leaning against her wall, she took out her journal and began to write the information of the afternoon.

Her journal was a small leather bound book, where she wrote anything that seemed interesting, or strange. She often wrote nonsense in it with Caroline, such as silly conversations between prominent historical wizarding figures. There were also many lists and doodles from when she was bored.

~~~~~

It was pretty much inevitable that Sybil would fall asleep in those silent hours on her bed. After a long, restless night, and a tiring, eventful day, Sybil was bound to fall into a slumber during her note taking session.

When she awoke from her nap, the sun was shining through the bottom of the window, casting looming shadows over Sybil's sleeping face, signifying the hours of the early evening. She must have been asleep for at least two hours, because checking her watch, dinner was going to start in five minutes.

Sybil sat up straight and yawned. She probably ought to go to dinner, after barely anything at breakfast, the hunger was catching up on her and making her belly rumble. Besides it was a Friday evening and she should celebrate, well she didn't know exactly what she should be celebrating for, since her father was in Azkaban, but she could congratulate herself on the fact she had gotten through the somewhat rocky first week of school. In only six days she had gone to the Hospital Wing for being trampled and had delt with her father's trail.

She stretched her arms and made her way down to the Great Hall.

Upon entering, she sat next to Caroline without thinking about the fact they hadn't talked (well Sybil hadn't really) in two days. Realizing what she had done, Sybil's eyes widened and she pressed her lips into a firm line while removing her hands from the table to clasp them in her lap. She avoided Caroline's surprised look and stared ahead, but then realized that Alithea's was in her usual seat in front of Sybil, and had a suspicious frown on her face. Sybil quickly ducked her head and started staring at her plate, waiting for the food the appear.

She could imagine Caroline's disappointment when Sybil hadn't shown up to help her for her Quidditch trials, despite all that had occurred.

The rest of dinner was a solemn affair. Sybil furthermore refused to speak, but Caroline and Alithea definitely noticed something was different, she didn't have the spaced-out look from the past few days, and solely the fact she had sat next to them, even if by accident, meant something had changed.

Saorsie, who was sitting at her place at the Slytherin table had also noticed Sybil sitting by their friends, as well as Armina, who had pointed it out to Natalie.

Afterwords, Sybil was the first to leave the Great Hall, but before she could actually walk out of the doorway, she noticed Professor Flitwick standing in front of her, with his arms crossed.

"Excuse me Miss Podmore, but I need to ask you—" he started, but Sybil quickly side-stepped him and tried to give her professor an apologetic look, but wasn't so sure the message got across very easily.

Flitwick was far too surprised by his student, who usually took the time to listen, to follow her and by the time he turned around, Sybil had already disappeared.

In her dorm, Sybil snatched her pajamas from her bed and then ran out again before she could get cornered by her classmates. During dinner she had decided she'd like to take a long bath in the Prefect's Bathroom before going to sleep.

The Prefect's Bathroom was on the same floor as the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower, so thankfully Sybil could get there without having to worry.

As Sybil left the tower, she saw Alithea and Caroline bringing up the rear of the group of Ravenclaws along with some other students.

She passed them without looking and continued to make her way down the corridor with her head held down.

Suddenly Sybil smacked straight into someone in front of her. She stumbled backwards, clutching onto her pajamas, and noticed that it was Nicholas whom she bumped into. She stood with her mouth open, not sure if to speak and say sorry or stay silent.

"An apology would be nice?" Nicholas stated matter-o-factly.

"Umm... ah, well uh..." Sybil struggled to get the words out of her mouth, after so much silence it was strange to vocalize words. "S-sorry." she said finally.

"Where are you going?" replied Nicholas, questioning her direction.

"The uh-Prefect's Bathroom." stuttered Sybil.

"Oh, well, go ahead." he gestured on.

"Yeah," Sybil said, "I'm sorry again." She wasn't sure if to mention what she had read in the library, or to leave it be.

As Nicholas started walking away, Sybil turned around hugging her clothes and called out, "I, um, figured out, well I-I know your family's relationship to U-Umbridge."

Nicholas stopped dead in his tracks, "What? I'm sorry how?" he pursed his lips

"I spent the afternoon in the library."

"Wha-wait that's why you weren't in class?" his face scrunched up in confusion.

"Well yes, but it was also something else..."

"Is that something else why you haven't spoken to anyone in two days?"

He had noticed her silence? Why did Sybil's heart start to beat slightly faster?

"I-I'd rather not talk about it." she replied.

"Well then how much did you figure out?"

"About what?"

"My family." he stated as if it were obvious.

"Well uh how your great-grandfather was Umbridge's grandfather." This was a good distraction, talking about other people's lives instead of her own.

"What else?"

"Well not much really..."

"Hm, I suppose you can ask me some questions if you'd like." he said, "you found out anyway."

"Did your great-grandparents pass away?"

"No, they're still alive."

"I don't know what else to ask. I mean, I guess how do you feel about Umbridge? Had you ever met her?"

"I've met her once or twice."

"What about my first question?"

"That's not important."

"Oh well, I guess I'll leave you then." Sybil said cutting the conversation short. It seemed like she never really got anywhere when she talked with Nicholas.

"Good night."

"Night."

Nicholas had shoved his hands into his pockets and begun to make his way towards the common room, as Sybil started in the opposite direction to the Bathroom.

Sybil could just not figure Nicholas out. He would make an effort to have a conversation but then cut off his answers and end the conversation within a couple of minutes.

Nevertheless, speaking to him did prove a distraction, and speaking in general made Sybil feel better overall.

"Soap Suds." Sybil said when she got in front of the statue of Boris the Bewildered, the entrance to the Prefect's Bathroom.

Once inside, Sybil immediately relaxed her muscles, placing her pajamas on a bench and grabbing a bath robe from the hangar. Inside was a marvelous sight. The ceilings stretched high and large open windows let the moon's light stream in like a current. Numbers of candles hung in chandeliers above, and the mirrors reflected the light, both of the flames and of the sky. The humongous pool in the middle shone and the hundreds of faucets winkled in the moonlight.

Sybil turned multiple taps to the bath settings she most liked to use, which were purple-lavender soapy water with golden honey bubbles and rose oils. She also added a hint of wildflower foam to change it up. Sybil hadn't tried every single tap since becoming a prefect, but had a few favorites which she had memorized.

As the bath filled at an alarmingly high speed like always, Sybil undressed and then sunk into the lush bubbles and warm water. She really needed this, an unwind after her painfully long day.

And closed her eyes and submerged herself in the luscious concoction. When above the water once again, the sickingly-sweet smells filled her lungs.

Sybil released her anxiousness by doing flips and turns in the water, laughing to herself and letting her emotions soar. But fun never lasts, and the invading thoughts of Azkaban eventually snuck back in.

How would her father be right now? He'd be in a grimy cell already rotting away. Sybil had done all she could all day to forget his situation, but now she had come to terms with the fact that it would probably take weeks, maybe months for the feeling to go away.

Her aunt hadn't sent anything else that day since the first letter, most likely because of her grief. Other than Sturgis, Emmeline had no one else left I her family apart from Sybil, who was at school. Emmeline had frequently told Sybil how much she enlightened her life and how happy she was to have such an amazing niece, though since Miranda had passed, Emmeline's and Sybil's relationship had become more like a mother-and-child than an aunt-and-niece one.

Staring into the disappearing bubbles, Sybil envisioned the next time she would see her father. If they had really given him six months in Azkaban, then he'd be getting out in early March, near Sybil's birthday. She wondered if in March she would have been able to forgive Sturgis or not, or if anything new appeared on his case to better explain the imprisonment.

Or even more intriguing, what would Sybil be like in six months? Will she have changed? Will Alithea have forgiven her? What would the whole deal with You-Know-Who be like? Oh, if only Sybil could tell the future...

~~~~~
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please vote and comment! Sorry again these updates are taking so long.

Peace Out,
WitchElm <3