The thought of You-Know-Who's return and Death Eaters never came back to Rosie's mind. She let schoolwork take over her brain, trying to fill it up with all the knowledge she could. It was the distraction she needed from what happened between her, Adam, and Greer. While things were resolved weeks ago, it still seemed like the tension never went away. When she mentioned it to Gavin, all he did was deflect her questions regarding the situation. Maybe to her, that was a sign to let it go and move on from it, so she did just that, and with only school to worry about, she didn't feel a huge weight on her shoulders.

One morning, during breakfast, Rosie was ready to take on the day, expecting it to be another normal one. So far, everything had been going as usual, with students walking in and out of the Great Hall, along with groups of friends talking to one another. Rosie was working on some eggs and toast when she spotted Harry strolling in the Great Hall and down the Gryffindor table towards Ron and Hermione, who were only sitting a few seats away from her.

When they saw Harry approaching them, it took the two by surprise.

"Harry," was all that came out of Hermione's mouth.

"Can I join you?" he asked, as if it was an embarrassment for anyone to be seen with him.

But Hermione, being the kind and loyal friend she was, gave him a sympathetic look, about to offer him the seat next to her, when the sound of bickering came from the corridor. The Great Hall went silent as students headed out to see who was arguing. To everyone's surprise, it was Professor McGonagall and Professor Umbridge who were having a row.

"Pardon me, Professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?" Umbridge asked.

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices," McGonagall responded.

She let out a scoff. "So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, Minerva."

"Not at all, Dolores," McGonagall retorted. "Merely your medieval methods,"

Umbridge held a firm look, clenching her fists. "I am sorry, dear, but to question my practices is to question the Ministry, and by extension, the Minister himself. I am a tolerant woman, but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty."

McGonagall took a step down, a shocked look falling upon her face. "Disloyalty?" she repeated.

The woman in pink inhaled, glancing at the students watching them from behind. "Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared. Cornelius will want to take immediate action."

Students began to murmur around Rosie, curious as to what Umbridge was going on about in terms of Hogwarts and the Ministry. She wasn't sure what was to happen next within the castle walls, but she had a feeling that things were going to change around here, and they would be nothing short of drastic.

*******

As the next couple of weeks went by, Rosie and her friends noticed how it felt when someone was watching them as Umbridge attended their classes for observation. It only got worse when the eyes of the professor also scanned the corridors in between classes. There were times where a spell was cast towards Adam and Greer for them to stay apart whenever they were caught holding hands or giving each other a short kiss.

Greer seemed to be the most annoyed about it. "That woman is really getting way out of control with these rules," she said as the four friends sat along the shore of the Black Lake one day.

"Imagine how the other professors feel, always having her looking over their shoulder," Gavin added. "It's like she's waiting for them to mess up."

"Do you think they're scared of her?" Rosie asked.

"It sure seems like they are," Adam spoke up. "To be fair, she really is intimidating."

Greer playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. There's no way anyone can intimidate Adam Lewis." She took a hold of his hand as she gave him a smirk.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Try having her ask you questions right on the spot during a lesson. It feels like an interrogation, really."

"How long do you guys think she'll keep doing it?" Rosie spoke up again.

Gavin shrugged his shoulders. "As long as she wants to, I suppose, which probably means we'll have to endure her unexpected presence during other lessons for a while."

Rosie almost groaned at the thought of seeing Umbridge anywhere else besides Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she knew her friends, along with the rest of the school, clearly felt the same way. Everything at Hogwarts was slowly starting to change, heading for what potentially could cause it to go downhill, which would only lead to the uncertain fate of the school.

The walk back towards the castle was filled with small talks of deadlines for essays and how the rest of their classes were going. As they joined the other students in the corridor, Rosie noticed how everyone was heading towards one of the courtyards, which she found odd. If it wasn't one thing, it was always another to pop up.

"What the hell is going on now?" Greer asked.

"You didn't hear? Umbridge sacked that dim-witted Divination professor," Adrian Pucey, a Slytherin in Adam's year, explained as he walked by the four.

"Why does Umbridge want to get rid of Trelawney?" Gavin inquired in a confused tone.

"Isn't it obvious?" Greer retorted. "You've been in her class before, Gav."

Gavin rolled his eyes. "You don't like any professor at this school."

"Trelawney's not that bad," Rosie spoke up.

Greer scoffed. "Divination is all bullocks, if you ask me."

"Is that the reason why you received a Poor on it during your O.W.L.s last year?" Adam pointed out, raising his eyebrows, along with a smirk forming across his mouth.

"Shut up," was all Greer said in response.

Adam looked over at Rosie, to which couldn't help but grin alongside him at his teasing comment.

With the suspense building up, it seemed like the majority of the school watched as Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the courtyard with her bags and trunks placed around her, letting out soft whimpers as everyone else remained quiet. After a moment, that silence was broken by the doors opening up as Professor Umbridge strolled outside and stopped in front of the Divination professor, to which students began to murmur.

"Sixteen...sixteen years, I've lived and taught here," Trelawney stated. "Hogwarts is my home! You can't do this!"

Umbridge, with an expression that didn't seem to be sympathetic, held up a piece of parchment. "Actually, I can."

What does she mean by that? Rosie thought.

Professor McGonagall intervened as she wrapped her arms around Trelawney in a comforting way, trying to calm her down.

"Something you'd like to say, dear?" Umbridge spoke up, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, there are several things I would like to say," McGonagall retorted.

All of a sudden, the doors opened again, and Dumbledore was the one to come outside this time. "Professor McGonagall, may I ask you to escort Sybil back inside?"

With gratitude, Trelawney cried happy tears as McGonagall led her back inside the castle.

"Dumbledore," Umbridge spoke up. "May I remind you that under the terms of Educational Decree Number 23, as enacted by the Minister--"

"You have the right to dismiss my teachers," Dumbledore cut her off. "You do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds. That power remains with the headmaster."

A smirk crawled upon Umbridge's face. "For now."

In response, all Dumbledore could do was stare back at the woman. After a brief moment, he looked around at the students watching, then turned around to head back inside the castle. "Don't you all have studying to do?"

As the crowd scattered, Rosie could hear Harry Potter's voice echoing in the corridors as he called out the headmaster's name.

"Of course, The-Boy-Who-Lived always needs something from Dumbledore," Greer commented.

Rosie was trying to figure out why Greer even cared in the first place, but didn't press on as they walked inside the castle. She knew there were more important things to worry about, and Harry Potter wasn't one of them.

"You alright, Rosebud?" Adam asked.

She quickly turned her head, nodding. "Yeah. I'm actually going to head to the library and get some homework done. I'll see you guys at dinner." With that, she hurried off before her friends could say another word, biting her tongue until she was out of their sight.

The walk was very quick as Rosie dashed down the corridor. A feeling of relief came over her as she entered the library. Everywhere around her was loud, so she was grateful to be in a quiet place like here, a place where she could be alone with her own thoughts. Finding an empty table in the back, she went ahead and grabbed some books out and got to work on her distraction, which happened to be an essay for Charms.

It didn't take long for Rosie to forget everything else as she researched and scribbled her way through the essay. Her mind never strayed from her schoolwork, nor did she leave her spot from the table for anything. The last thing she wanted was for her concentration to break. She remained at the table for a couple of hours, finally stopping when she thought her brain was about to explode from all of the reading and writing she had done. Still, she was proud of the progress she had made, along with having some time to herself.

When she decided to call it quits on homework, Rosie packed up her things and headed for the Great Hall just in time for dinner. She mostly kept to herself as she ate her soup in silence, not even glancing at the Slytherin table. It crossed her mind that they were staring at her while she was eating, with the feeling of them having eyes on her. She resisted the urge to look their way, paying attention to anything else. Of course, it only made her look suspicious as to why she wasn't acknowledging them, but she figured she could deal with an interrogation another time.

By the time dinner was over, Rosie was ready to head towards the Gryffindor Tower for the night. She joined with a few other Gryffindors back to the tower, heading towards her dorm and getting her things for a shower. Fortunately, not many of the girls were back from dinner yet, so the bathroom was empty once she got in there. It didn't take long for her to get her body washed and refreshed as other girls piled in the bathroom by the time she was in her pajamas and going back to her dorm, pulling out her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook and opening the last page she was on.

Confused was all she could be as she re-read the same paragraphs, trying to grasp what the text was saying. It was different from what she was used to reading for the class. Everything she was taught in class over the years, with the majority of it through practicing in and out of the class, didn't seem to matter with Professor Umbridge and the Ministry. Overall, things were spiraling out of control at Hogwarts, and there wasn't much that was being done about it.

After a while, Rosie stopped reading, and before she knew it, the lights were going out in her dorm, not realizing how much time had gone by. Lying in bed, all she could do was look up at the ceiling, finding it hard to fall asleep as her brain kept turning. It was nothing but anxiety getting to her, bothering her enough to get out of bed and head out of the dorm and towards the stairs. To her, maybe walking around might help ease her mind.

However, before she could make it down to the common room, she heard voices, causing her to halt halfway down the steps.

"Sirius!" she heard Harry Potter exclaim. "What are you doing here?"

Sirius? Sirius Black is here?

"Answering your letters. You said you were worried about Umbridge. What's she doing? Training you to kill half-breeds?" he asked.

"She's not letting us use magic at all," Harry explained.

Rosie carefully took a couple of steps down, making sure no one heard her.

"Well, I'm not surprised," Sirius replied. "The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"Combat?" Ron repeated. "Does he think we're forming some sort of wizard army?" Ron Weasley injured.

"That's exactly what he thinks," Sirius answered. "He thinks that Dumbledore is assembling his own forces to take on the Ministry. He's becoming more paranoid by the minute." There was a pause, then he continued on. "The others wouldn't want me telling you this to you, or to anyone, really, but things aren't going well with the Order. Fudge is blocking the truth at every turn and these disappearances are just how it started before. Voldemort is on the move."

"Well, what can we do?" Harry spoke up.

"I'm sorry, but I can't be of more help. For now, it looks like you're on your own."

All Rosie could hear next was the fire crackling for a brief moment, followed by silence. The sound of rain came next, to which she jumped a little when thunder boomed and made the castle rumble.

"He really is out there, isn't he?" Hermione Granger spoke up. "We've got to be able to defend ourselves, and if Umbridge refuses to teach us how, then we need someone who will."

With wide eyes and a confused mind, Rosie crept back up the stairs and into her dorm, slipping under the covers again. She was more anxious than ever, and it didn't help that the trio's conversation with Sirius Black kept replaying in her head. Suspicion was what came to her mind when going over everything that was going on, along with the event in the courtyard earlier today.

Now, Rosie had to look at the bigger picture, and given the abuse of power that was taking place in the castle, it became obvious that it was coming from the Ministry, which all came back to You-Know-Who's return and the one thing that was being spread all around the Wizarding world: Fear.

As of now, Rosie thought it would be best if she started watching her back and being careful who she trusted, for she had no idea what was about to transpire.

A/N: Well, finally got this chapter done! Sorry it took so long, but I do plan for this story to be a top priority to finish this year. :)

Anyway, what did you think?

Comment, vote, more soon!

-A