Sun Gold was still frolicking about.
It reminded Pomona of Felix when he had first arrived in the Alps, and of the students riding carriages to Hogsmeade—they were all like prisoners who had finally been let out after being confined for too long.
In fact, even without parental signatures, the children could have found ways to forge them on the permission slips. But during Harry's third year, the rules for entering and leaving the school had been especially strict because Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban.
Harry was believed to be Sirius's primary target, and with the incident he had caused during the holidays, it would not have been easy for him to forge a signature and slip through unnoticed.
Poor Harry Potter. If he had not had the help of the Weasley twins, he would have been trapped in the school for the entire term.
Fortunately, Fred and George had provided the Marauder's Map. Together with the Invisibility Cloak, it allowed him to roam the school at night to his heart's content.
That deprived the old bat of quite a bit of amusement. Catching Harry breaking school rules, punishing him with detention, or docking points from Gryffindor had been among the few entertainments in Severus Snape's tedious teaching career.
But during that time, he had found a new target to torment—Neville Longbottom. Because of an incident in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Snape felt that his masculinity had been offended.
The terrifying Potions professor had actually made Neville dissect a toad, an animal of the same species as Neville's pet Lucky. Of course, that had happened during Harry's fourth year. Throughout the whole of third year, Severus had been searching everywhere in the school for Black.
Once the vengeful Head of Slytherin had it in for someone, there was