After nine o'clock, once the children below fifth year had finally returned to their common rooms, the school at last fell quiet.
There was no need to worry about the sixth- and seventh-years anymore; they were already "adults." Pomona finally breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to settle down and rest.
Yet just as she took out a book, urgent knocking sounded outside her door.
"Come in," she said listlessly, hoping it was something minor.
"Head of House, someone's fighting!" a student shouted from outside.
"Where's the prefect?" Pomona asked.
There was suddenly no sound outside. Pomona had no idea whether he had gone to find the prefect or whether the fight had already ended.
Clearly, she could not keep reading. She tossed the book aside and stared at the ceiling with a long sigh.
Fortunately, there were House-elves, so she did not have to clean or cook. Housework was tedious and exhausting, especially after a full day's work.
No one could attend to both ends at once. Housework always needed someone to do it. Back when she had shared a house with Sirius and the others, it had been Remus who kept things in order. Otherwise, with only Sirius and James, the place would have become too filthy and messy for anyone to live in.
They had once been close enough to share a dormitory, but later they could not even live beneath the same roof. That was mainly because a traitor had appeared in the Order of the Phoenix, someone who had given the Death Eaters information about its members.
Not every Order of the Phoenix member was as high-profile as Sirius and James. Many treated the Order as a kind of "part-time job."
At first, everyone believed Mundungus Fletcher was the traitor, but both Albus and