"Fifty points each, for your efforts in reviving Miss Evans. Should the moment
come for you to prove useful in these dark times, I believe you both to be very capable.
Until you leave Hogwarts, however, I would insist that you focus on enjoying the few
freedoms left to you."
June 7th, 1977Annoyed, Sirius followed Minerva's advice to remain an unburdened teenager for
as long as possible. Not long after the conference, he, James, Peter, and Remus managed
to set off some of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks in the middle of
the fourth-floor corridor. The prank earned all four boys detention.
When they had come to see if Mia had seen their grand display, she rolled her eyes
and said, "I've seen better," thinking fondly of her original fifth year, when the Weasley
twins had so spectacularly escaped from Hogwarts under the suppression of Dolores
Umbridge.
While the boys continued to cause trouble, Mia spent every last effort trying to work
around the loopholes in Dumbledore's spell. She spent hours focusing on Occlumency,
knowing that a skilled Occlumens could overpower Veritaserum—and since the spell was
somehow the opposite of the truth serum, she thought it would help.
Despite all her efforts, she was not even able to say the words "My name is
Hermione Granger" aloud, let alone warn anyone of the things that were to come. Trying
to tailor her efforts to something more specific, Mia found that the Truth Spell prevented
her from even writing the word "Horcrux" down.
Powerless to speak the truth about the future, she decided to work hard at proving
things she suspected but did not yet know, as Dumbledore had advised her when he
explained the Truth Spell. She spent an entire month moving through the halls of
Hogwarts, her nose buried in parchment, and fingers stained with ink. Dark shadows
formed under her eyes as sleep began to elude her again. If Voldemort was recruiting Death
Eaters at Hogwarts, then Snape and Regulus could not be the only ones. Certainly, if she