In the second week of September, the air at Hogwarts was charged with a feverish intensity.
Every classroom was holding grueling practical combat lessons.
Dolores Umbridge was the Academic Affairs Office Deputy Director sent by the Ministry of Magic. She should have been sitting haughtily at the back of every professor's classroom, observing their lessons.
But she wasn't.
For an entire week, her short, thick legs had not even managed to take a single step outside the Academic Affairs Office.
Every day, she was trapped in that pink armchair, mechanically approving endless broom repair forms, reports on losses of Venomous Tentacula, and purchase receipts for Pumpkin Juice.
That evening, the setting sun cast dark red shadows over the Castle's stone walls.
Umbridge took advantage of a bathroom break to finally catch her breath.
She lingered in the Bathroom for a while.
When she returned, she discovered that Sirius seemed to think she had left.
He had dismissed those irritating student assistants of his.
With several dull taps of a wand, the office door was locked from inside, and the pale blue glow of an Anti-Eavesdropping Charm flashed through the gap around it.
A feverish flush rose on Umbridge's broad face.
She picked up her pink alligator-hide handbag and hurried to the door.
Rather than knocking, she pointed her short, stubby wand straight at the lock.
She did not even bother with an Unlocking Charm.
"Smash."
With an explosive bang, the brass lock was blasted apart, and the heavy oak door slammed into the wall.
Flames were burning in the fireplace.
Sirius stood at the edge of the temporary Floo Network's green flames.
The Academic Affairs Office's Floo Network connection had been opened specifically between him and the Marauders Company by certain people in the Ministry of Magic in cooperation with