3rd Person's POV

For a week, Professor Umbridge stalked around the school, stopping students at random and demanding that they turn out their books and pockets. Everyone knew she was looking for copies of The Quibbler, but the students were several steps ahead of her. The pages carrying Harry's interview had been bewitched to resemble extracts from textbooks if anyone but themselves read it, or else wiped magically blank until they wanted to peruse it again. Soon it seemed that every single person in the school had read it.

The teachers were, of course, forbidden from mentioning the interview by Educational Decree Number Twenty-six, but they found ways to express their feelings about it all the same.

.....

Karina sits beside Draco in the library as her and her friends all study together. She looks up and chuckles to herself seeing an awkward Cho kissing Harry on the cheek.

Draco looks at Karina and follows her gaze before scoffing at the scene, "Does he always have everything handed to him?"

Shrugging with a sad smile Karina nods, "Mostly... Cho talked about him the other day. I thought about him. Like what if he was still here... what if Potter was gone instead. How would life be right now? But then I come back to reality and realize that everything happens for a reason."

Draco frowns, "That's deep... you alright."

Karina nods.

She wasn't.

She had another nightmare. She had once again seen the mark that ruined Draco's perfect skin. And she had woken up wondering if the right thing to do was tell him or keep it a secret.

Karina peeks over at Draco and stares at him with a soft smile. Her eyes run over his face as he glances over at her.

"You sure you're okay?"

Shaking her head, Karina looks down at her hands as they wring together in her lap, "Uh you know what... no I don't think I am... I saw... another disturbing nightmare, vision, whatever you want to call it. And it scared me to no end."

"What happened?"

Karina takes a deep breathe then sighs, "Nothing really happened. It was more along the lines of what I saw."

Draco nods reassuringly, encouraging her to continue.

"I-I... Dray I know something bad is going to happen to us..."

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Draco stares at her, "Us as in? Relationship wise?"

"No I mean like... um like... how do I say this... you know-"

Before she can say another word, Theodore slams his book on the table and lets out a loud groan. Karina shakes her head and mouths 'later' to Draco who sits wondering what was so important that she wanted to tell him.

"I officially hate homework."

A chair on the left of Karina moves out from under the table, as someone sits beside her.

"You didn't before?"

Theodore looks at Aubrey and shakes his head, "I was okay with it before. Now I'm starting to get pissed off."

Pansy sighs, "You can thank Umbridge for that. Ever since all the decrees she has been making, all the teachers have been giving double homework."

Layla huffs bringing her knees to her chest, "It's literally torture. I'm surprised she hasn't made any more decrees."

"Well minus the obvious No reading Potter's article," Blaise rolls his eyes, "By the way Karina... how in the world did you guys manage to pull that off?"

Karina's head snaps to the Blaise as she stares at him in awe, "Excuse me? Why do you think I had something to do with that?"

"Oh come on... that screams you. The whole idea is something little Gryffindork Granger would think of but only you would have enough balls to take action."

Daphne snorts, "And not going to lie but if it involves making Umbridge brighter than her sweater than I would believe you would be all for it."

Karina frowns crossing her arms over her chest, "Well then..."

Draco looks at Karina and frowns seeing Aubrey looking at her with an emotion he couldn't quite decipher. It wasn't like his usual annoying flirty stare, but more like an intrigued look like he was listening and wanted more information.

"Don't worry Karina, we can all keep a secret."

"Wow thanks." she smiles replying sarcastically.

"It does suck though..." Aubrey says with a light shrug glancing at the Gryffindors, "He outed most of the death eaters. Most of our fathers and mothers."

Everyone suddenly goes quiet and thinks about that. They had forgotten about that small yet very important piece of information. Sure it was great for Potter to get the story out to the world, but I'm doing so he put a few people at risk... especially families that were only death eaters because it was like some family tradition. Or even kids of death eaters who hadn't quite known yet that they would be one soon too.

"Yeah I'm really sorry about that guys. I tried to veto that part but I was outvoted. There was nothing I could do."

Karina feeling eyes on her, turns to peek over her shoulder. She catches eyes with Harry before turning back to her friends without a care.

They weren't friends. They weren't as close as before and honestly Karina was okay with that. She felt like she had grown apart from Potter and his friends anyways. Which was good because with everything that would be coming up soon, Karina knew she would have to choose sides eventually and this was helping the decision to be crystal clear.

At Harry's table, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all joyfully talk about the good things that would happen with the story from Harry.

The Slytherins' reactions made his day. He saw them with their heads together. Maybe they were plotting on how to get their families out the limelight.

Goyle cracked his knuckles threateningly as Malfoy whispered something undoubtedly malevolent to Crabbe. Harry knew perfectly well why they were acting like this: He had named all of their fathers as Death Eaters. The world knew exactly who was on what side. The only problem with that was Karina Grey.

Harry glances over at Karina and frowns as she continuously looks ahead. The girl had helped them with DA training some more a few times. Everyone was surprised to see her strut back in, but they needed her. And as soon as Da training was over, she disappeared. She didn't talk to any one of them, sometimes here and there the twins and definitely Luna, but that was it.

"And the best bit is," whispered Hermione gleefully as the Slytherins all leave the library, "they can't contradict you, because they can't admit they've read the article!"

To cap it all, Luna told him over dinner that no copy of The Quibbler had ever sold out faster.

"Dad's reprinting!" she told Harry, her eyes popping excitedly. "He can't believe it, he says people seem even more interested in this than the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!"

.....

"Get up, Potter."

Harry kneels on the floor of Snape's office, trying to clear his head as Snape hovers over him and Karina sits nearby with crossed legs, playing with her wand.

He had just been forced, yet again, to relive a stream of very early memories he had not even realized he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.

"That last memory," said Snape. "What was it?"

"I don't know," said Harry, getting wearily to his feet.

He was finding it increasingly difficult to disentangle separate memories from the rush of images and sound that Snape kept calling forth.

"You mean the one where my cousin tried to make me stand in the toilet?"

"No," said Snape softly. "I mean the one concerning a man kneeling in the middle of a darkened room..."

Karina peps up and listens to the conversation. She wondered what the heck Harry was seeing. And if that was true that he saw that, it meant he dreamt it. And that meant that he was keeping a huge secret. He was still seeing things that had to do with You Know Who.

"It's... nothing," Harry says as he glances over seeing a spark in Karina's eyes.

Snape's dark eyes bore into Harry's. Remembering what Snape had said about eye contact being crucial to Legilimency, Harry blinked and looked away.

"How do that man and that room come to be inside your head, Potter?" said Snape.

"It —" said Harry, looking everywhere but at Snape.

"The truth Harold."

Harry rolls his eyes at Karina, "Nothing it was — just a dream I had."

"A dream," Snape scoffs.

There was a pause during which Harry stared fixedly at a large dead frog suspended in a purple liquid in its jar.

"You do know why we are here, don't you, Potter?" said Snape in a low, dangerous voice. "You do know why I am giving up my evenings to this tedious job?"

"Yes," said Harry stiffly.

"Remind me why we are here, Potter."

"So I can learn Occlumency," said Harry, now glaring at a dead eel.

"Correct, Potter. And dim though you may be" — Harry looked back at Snape, hating him — "I would have thought that after two months' worth of lessons you might have made some progress. How many other dreams about the Dark Lord have you had?"

"Just that one," lied Harry.

"Liar liar pants on fire." Karina mocks as she stands up and goes to the dungeon door, "I'll be back, Professor."

Snape chuckles shaking his head before his dark, cold narrow eyes, "Perhaps you actually enjoy having these visions and dreams, Potter. Maybe they make you feel special — important?"

"No, they don't," said Harry, his jaw set and his fingers clenched tightly around the handle of his wand.

"That is just as well, Potter," said Snape coldly, "because you are neither special nor important, and it is not up to you to find out what the Dark Lord is saying to his Death Eaters."

"No — that's your job, isn't it?" Harry shot at him.

He had not meant to say it; it had burst out of him in temper. For a long moment they stared at each other, Harry convinced he had gone too far. But there was a curious, almost satisfied expression on Snape's face when he answered.

"Yes, Potter," Snape said, his eyes glinting, "That is my job. Now, if you are ready, we will start again..."

He raises his wand.

"One — two — three — Legilimens!"

Karina stands in the bathroom, gripping onto the sink as she breathes in and out. She was sure a vision was coming in. Professor Trewlaney had helped her try to control her visions a little more. Now she could remember.

As she glances up at the reflection in the mirror, it slowly starts to fade as she is pulled into a vision.

A hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner. . . . Next the black haired teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling, shoot-ing down flies. . . . A girl was laughing as a scrawny boy tried to mount a bucking broomstick —

Karina gasps as she comes back to. She frowns thinking about how everyone treated her godfather when he was younger. It wasn't anything like now, mainly because Karina wasn't bullied. But obviously it still hurt because even as adults the constant judgment was a thing.

Minutes later Karina walks back to Snape's office. She quickly hurries inside and steps over Harry as he sits on the ground holding his head.

"Still at it?"

"Of course we are. Potter is failing miserably. Let's try again, shall we?" Snape asks as Karina hurries back to her chair.

Harry felt a thrill of dread: He was about to pay for what had just happened, he was sure of it. He didn't mean to look Snape's memories... it just happened.

They moved back into position with the desk between them, Harry feeling he was going to find it much harder to empty his mind this time...

"On the count of three, then," said Snape, raising his wand once more. "One — two —"

Harry did not have time to gather himself together and attempt to clear his mind, for Snape had already cried "Legilimens!"

He was hurtling along the corridor toward the Department of Mysteries, past the blank stone walls, past the torches — the plain black door was growing ever larger; he was moving so fast he was going to collide with it, he was feet from it and he could see that chink of faint blue light again —

The door had flown open! He was through it at last, inside a black- walled, black-floored circular room lit with blue-flamed candles, and there were more doors all around him — he needed to go on — but which door ought he to take — ?

"POTTER!"

Harry opened his eyes. He was flat on his back again with no memory of having gotten there; he was also panting as though he really had run the length of the Department of Mysteries corridor, really had sprinted through the black door and found the circular room. . . .

"Explain yourself!" said Snape, who was standing over him, looking furious.

"I . . . dunno what happened," said Harry truthfully, standing up.

There was a lump on the back of his head from where he had hit the ground and he felt feverish.

"I've never seen that before. I mean, I told you, I've dreamed about the door... but it's never opened before..."

Karina rolls her eyes.

Harry was keeping secrets.

And she would find out what real soon.

"You are not working hard enough!"

For some reason, Snape seemed even angrier than he had done two minutes before, when Harry had seen into his own memories.

"You are lazy and sloppy, Potter, it is small wonder that the Dark Lord —"

"Can you tell me something, sir?" said Harry, firing up again. "Why do you call Voldemort the Dark Lord, I've only ever heard Death Eaters call him that —"

Snape opened his mouth in a snarl as Karina gasps looking at Harry in disbelief.

"Says the one who is so afraid of him yet calls out his name every chance he gets." Karina glares.

She was over him first of all, being judgmental. He was in the same predicament as everyone else. Worse even... the Dark Lord wanted him dead.

Second of all, she was one hundred percent over him acting like a drama queen. He had so many people behind him and so many people who fought for him. Yet here he was focused on the wrong thing. He was more anal about what the Dark Lord was being called by who instead of worrying about the Dark Lord being in his mind.

Just as Harry opens his mouth to reply, a woman screams from somewhere outside the room.

Snape's head jerked upward as he gazes at the ceiling.

"What the — ?" he muttered.

They could hear a muffled commotion coming from what seemed be the entrance hall.

Snape looked around at Harry, frowning.
"Did you see anything unusual on your way down here, Potter?"

Harry shook his head.

"Karina?"

"No... but that voice does sound somewhat a familiar."

Somewhere above them, the woman screamed again. Without another word, Karina leaves the office with Snape on her heels. Harry hesitated for a moment, then followed.

The screams were indeed coming from the entrance hall; they grew louder as Karina ran toward the stone steps leading up from the dungeons. When she reached the top she found the entrance hall packed.

Students had come flooding out of the Great Hall, where dinner was still in progress, to see what was going on. Others had crammed themselves onto the marble staircase.

Karina pushes forward through a knot of her house and saw that the onlookers had formed a great ring, some of them looking shocked, others even frightened.

Professor McGonagall was directly opposite on the other side of the hall; she looked as though what she was watching made her feel faintly sick.

There Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the entrance hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other, looking utterly mad. Her hair was sticking up on end, her glasses were lopsided so that one eye was magnified more than the other; her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly from her shoulders, giving the impression that she was falling apart at the seams.

Two large trunks lay on the floor beside her, one of them upside down; it looked very much as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her. Professor Trelawney was staring, apparently terri- fied, at something at the foot of the stairs.

"No!" she shrieked. "NO! This cannot be happening. . . . It cannot . . . I refuse to accept it!"

"You didn't realize this was coming?" said a high girlish voice, sounding callously amused.

Karina makes her way to the front of the crowd, in the middle of the scene to see Trewlaney looking at Umbridge. Rolling her eyes at the small lady, Karina crosses her arms over her chest.

This woman was indeed an annoying needle in a haystack.

"Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable you would be sacked?"

Karina glares at the smiling pink sweater wearing lady, "Are you truly insane? Predict the weather? Seer abilities aren't for your amusement. What is wrong with you? Who hurt you-"

A hand quickly covers her mouth making her glare at the person ad Umbridge smiles in success.

"You're going to get detention again..." Draco murmurs as he stands behind her with his hand over her mouth.

"I don't care." She mumbles through his hand.

Umbridge nods before turning back to Trewlaney, "Are you quite done?"

"You c-can't!" howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my h-home!"

"It was your home."

Glaring as hard as she could, Karina hoped the woman could feel the heat coming from her eyes.

Karina was revolted and furious. She couldn't believe how much enjoyment stretched across Umbridge's toadlike face. Here the short lady with an ugly soul, was celebrating while Trelawney sobbing uncontrollably on the ground while holding onto one of her trunks.

"Until an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic countersigned the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."

But she stood and watched, with an expression of gloating enjoyment, as Professor Trelawney shuddered and moaned, rocking backward and forward on her trunk in paroxysms of grief.

Harry who was nearby Karina heard a sob to his left and looked around. Lavender and Parvati were both crying silently, their arms around each other.

Professor McGonagall had finally broken away from the spectators, marched straight up to Professor Trelawney and was patting her firmly on the back while withdrawing a large handkerchief from within her robes.

"There, there, Sibyll . . . Calm down. . . . Blow your nose on this. . . . It's not as bad as you think, now. . . . You are not going to have to leave Hogwarts. . . ."

"Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" said Umbridge in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward. "And your authority for that statement is . . . ?"

"That would be mine," said a deep voice.

The oak front doors had swung open. Students beside them scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance. What he had been doing out in the grounds Karina could not imagine, but there was something impressive about the sight of him framed in the doorway against an oddly misty night. Leaving the doors wide behind him, he strode forward through the circle of onlookers toward the place where Professor Trelawney sat, tearstained and trembling, upon her trunk, Professor McGonagall alongside her.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge with a singularly unpleasant little laugh. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here" — she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robes — "an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister of Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher she — that is to say, I — feel is not performing up to the standard required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."

"Oh of course you decide..." Karina utters.

To her very great surprise, Dumbledore continued to smile. He looked down at Professor Trelawney, who was still sobbing and choking on her trunk, and says, "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid," he went on, with a courteous little bow, "that the power to do that still resides with the headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts."
At this, Professor Trelawney gave a wild little laugh in which a hic- cup was barely hidden.

"No — no, I'll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall l-leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortune elsewhere —"

"No," said Dumbledore sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sibyll."

He turned to Professor McGonagall, "Might I ask you to escort Sibyll back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?"

"Of course," said McGonagall. "Up you get, Sibyll. . . ."

Professor Sprout came hurrying forward out of the crowd and grabbed Professor Trelawney's other arm. Together they guided her past Umbridge and up the marble stairs. Professor Flitwick went scurrying after them, his wand held out before him; he squeaked, "Locomotor trunks!" and Professor Trelawney's luggage rose into the air and proceeded up the staircase after her, Professor Flitwick bringing up the rear.

Umbridge was standing stock still, staring at Dumbledore, who continued to smile benignly.

"And what," she said in a whisper that nevertheless carried all around the entrance hall, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't be a problem," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

Karina gasps lowly with a wicked smile poking between Umbridge and Dumbledore, "Savage..."

"You've found — ?" said Umbridge shrilly. "You've found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Twenty- two —"

"— the Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if — and only if — the headmaster is unable to find one," said Dumbledore. "And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

He turned to face the open front doors, through which night mist was now drifting. Harry heard hooves. There was a shocked murmur around the hall and those nearest the doors hastily moved even farther backward, some of them tripping over in their haste to clear a path for the newcomer.

Through the mist came a face Harry had seen once before on a dark, dangerous night in the Forbidden Forest: white-blond hair and astonishingly blue eyes, the head and torso of a man joined to the palomino body of a horse.

"This is Firenze," said Dumbledore happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. "I think you'll find him suitable."

Karina laughs clapping slowly, "Now that was a good show."

.....

KNOCK KNOCK

Karina stands waiting for the door to open as she bites her lip and drums her fingers on her thigh.

The door in front of her swings open making her flinch back slightly not expecting the quick reply. Draco stands on the other side smiling at Karina as she looks him up and down.

"Hey..."

"Hi..."

Draco steps back leaning against the door.

"What's up?"

Karina sighs before looking down once more, "Can we go for a walk?"

"Yeah sure. Just let me get my jacket."

Draco quickly goes back inside not paying attention to Blaise who pretends to be Draco and Karina kissing.

"Have so much fun, Draco."

Draco holds his middle finger up as he hurries out the front door. He smiles at Karina who nods to follow her. Together the two go to their old spot... the little grassy area by the Black Lake.

Karina sits on the ground as Draco plops beside her.

"Alright what did you have to tell me? Something important?"

Karina takes a breath then sighs, "I saw... us having the mark..."

Draco frowns not hearing a word she whispers, "Sorry love, say that again?"

"One of my nightmares, the vision I keep seeing is a dark mark... on us. It's been on my mind for the past couple of days. And I didn't know how to tell you, so I chose not to..."

Draco don't reply.

The two sit in silence.

Staring ahead.

"You saw it?"

Karina nods, "I did... and I don't know how to stop it from coming true."

"You can't, I won't let you do anything else that will most likely hurt you in the future. Thank you for telling me. I really do appreciate the communication you continue to try to have with me. I know it can be hard or scary at times. And I'm sure we can try to figure something out... But sadly you can be so stubborn sometimes."

Draco grabs her hand and stares at her in a pleading way as she looks at him sadly.

"Karina I'm telling you, being around the Gryffindorks is gonna one day be a bad idea. And I don't want anything to ha-"

"I know, Dray... but I can't just let them both win. This isn't about the Gryffindorks anymore. It's about them. It's about doing the right thing. They don't deserve to be where they are right now, doing the things that they do."

Draco kisses her hand as he rubs her back lightly seeing she had gotten visibly upset. Everything was starting to put her on the edge. She was no longer depressed about these kind of situations but instead angry.

And Draco knew who she was talking about. The Dark Lord and Umbridge.

The two had something in common.

They both had Karina on edge most of the time. They both pushed her buttons. They both threatened her and her friends as well as family. And they had both would soon do the unthinkable.

This chapter is terrible and I will probably rewrite the whole thing 🤗

I also kept falling asleep while writing it so if there's mistakes and misspellings, let me know 😂

Appreciate y'all!!

Future predictions?

Any special requests...