Incendio

Samantha had never had a better time in her life. Every day between classes, she and Lee were helping Fred and George perform some kind of mayhem against Umbridge. One night the four of them had snuck out in the wee hours of the morning to place dung bombs beneath every one of the desks in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The classroom smelled for a week. Another time they hung little sticky spiders from the ceiling of the Great Hall, it took Filch three days to get them all down. Samantha's personal favorite was when she transfigured Umbridge's Daily Prophet to only show articles supporting Potter.

Of course Samantha made time for her studies, but the satisfaction of giving that cow everything she deserved had consumed a fair bit of time. They were preparing what Fred and George often referred to as, 'The Big One' for the upcoming Monday. For some reason, the twins had asked that both She and Lee not be present for this one. They said it could be too easy to pin them as accomplices if they both didn't have alibis.

She had her career consultation with McGonagall on that day around the exact time they planned for. So she was pretty taken care of, and Lee had Charms class.

She wasn't nervous as she walked into her meeting, she knew what she wanted to do. Even if Umbridge ruined her chances with The Daily Prophet, Samantha figured she could still go for a job with WWN, Witch Weekly or as a last resort, The Quibbler. Her appointment was at four-thirty on Monday. She was grateful it was near the end of DATD so she could leave the toad's ever present eye.

"Miss Fyre." McGonagall's face formed a relieved smiled as Samantha came into her office. She motioned for Samantha to take a seat. "Thankfully my consultation with you should be decently painless. With our," Professor McGonagall gave a quick cough, "headmistress, or whatever she believes she is, teaching her afternoon class, we shall not be interrupted. It should be a quiet afternoon hopefully."

Samantha laughed a little."It will be a very quiet afternoon, I'm sure."

McGonagall looked over her spectacles and raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "Oh, you are?"

Samantha nodded.

"You know Miss Fyre if you are aware of any prank or misbehavior I would need you to report it." McGonagall smirked as she spoke and Samantha realized she was being sarcastic.

Samantha smirked back, "If I knew that Fred and George were about to turn a corridor in the east wing into a swamp, I'd tell you."

"Theoretically, if you did know, I'd have to ask if you were involved."

"And I'd say of course not." Samantha pursed her lips into a guilty smile.

"Ten points to Gryffindor for your, good intentions." McGonagall smirked again. "Now onto business. You and I have been having this discussion for quite a while, and I know you realize what grades you need to achieve to enter into NEWT level classes. Myself and Professor Flitwick place your grades in Exceeds Expectations and Professor Burbage says you will easily get an Outstanding in her class. Your Ancient Runes is doing fine, but don't let up, I know you have some trouble with it."

Samantha nodded.

"You also realize these grades are not exactly necessary, just recommended. However, The Daily Prophet is known to take on trainees with better grades more frequently than not. Not to mention it is important to have certain skills when working in the field."

"I am well aware Professor." Samantha nodded. "I am worried they won't take me though."

"Let me guess, our Headmistress mentioned something along those lines?"

Samantha nodded. The bell signaling the end of classes rang and Samantha knew it wouldn't be long.

"I would not take her opinion too far into account." McGonagall smirked again, "I have no doubt anywhere you desire to write for, would take you on. If you aren't interested in the Daily Prophet, there is always the WWN which I know will be taking applications for their internship. I'm sure Mr. Jordan could help you fill out that paperwork."

Samantha nodded, "I'd still prefer the Prophet, but it wouldn't hurt to apply for both." She'd considered it, but she preferred the written word over the spoken.

McGonagall looked over her spectacles. "Understood."

The sounds of screams and exclamations began outside the office. There was also the sounds of student's footsteps passing by.

Samantha didn't turn to look out of the classroom and McGonagall merely peeked over her spectacles.

"The quiet afternoon, I presume?" McGonagall asked before removing her spectacles, "I believe that I should investigate."

"You probably should." Samantha nodded and the two sat in silence for a moment or two.

"Well, Miss Fyre are you quite comfortable with today's discussion?" McGonagall stood slowly.

"Of course Professor." Samantha stood up as well.

"Why don't you accompany me on my way to discover whatever it is that has happened?" McGonagall suggested and the two left her office walking to see where everyone was going.

They made it just in time to watch the Weasley twins fly out of Hogwarts on their broomsticks. They had announced loudly that they were never coming back and to come see their new shop in Diagon Alley.

Samantha cheered along with everyone else and couldn't believe they'd done it. She'd shown them the perfect charm to create the swamp and as they flew over her, she noticed a brief wink from George.

Directly afterwards, she went to find Lee so that they could celebrate together. She found this to be quite a difficult task as he was not at dinner and was not in the Common Room. She suddenly began to worry that he had chosen to leave with them, maybe less spectacularly, but it was a possibility.

As she was about to check one of their many hiding spots, she was approached by Neville with a note. "Lee asked me to give this to you."

Meet me at our first date.

-Lee

Samantha knew it meant the one-eyed witch passageway. She quickly thanked him before quickly going to find Lee. When she found him he was sitting in the passageway, his long legs against his chest.

"You alright Lee?" Samantha asked noticing his quiet behavior. It wasn't normal for him, especially after witnessing what could have been the greatest prank of all time.

He nodded. "I wish they would have told me they weren't coming back."

She sat down and put her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I would have gone with them." He admitted.

"I'm sure they didn't want you to loose your internship." Samantha mentioned. "You know your NEWT scores are important for that."

He said softly. "I don't know what to do now."

"Well, what do you want to do?" Samantha asked.

"Easy for you to ask, you've always known what you wanted." He insisted and his tone stung a little.

Samantha sat up and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I was just asking."

They both went quiet briefly and Samantha considered leaving till he was in a better mood. She had been in a relatively positive mood and she didn't appreciate him snapping at her. She knew it was probably just because he was frustrated.

"Hey, I'm going to go grab some supper." Samantha said before standing.

"Please don't go." He grabbed her hand. "I don't know why I said that."

Samantha nodded and sat back down.

"How'd your meeting with McGonagall go?" He asked wrapping his arm around her.

"Good I guess." She decided not to mention that it was relatively easy for her. "She doesn't think Umbridge ruined my chances with the Prophet."

"Good." He kissed her forehead. "Wouldn't it just kill her if you proved her wrong? That you didn't have to take a bribe to get where you needed to be?"

"It would also kill her if she heard your voice on the radio every day." Samantha giggled a little.

Samantha didn't mention that she was considering the WWN herself, she wasn't sure if she'd want him thinking she applied for him. Whatever she did as a career, she wanted to do it for herself. Not for someone else.

"That would be the ultimate payback wouldn't it?" He chuckled.

"Wanna keep making Umbridge's life a living hell till then?" Samantha looked at him with a smirk.

His handsome smile began to spread to the rest of his face. "We only stop when you are Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Prophet and I have my own radio show."

"A perfect plan if I do say so myself." She giggled before he grabbed her face and kissed her.

The next few weeks continued with her and Lee finding every possible way to torture Umbridge. They started off by selling whatever Fred and George had left to Lee of their products, so more students could properly terrorize her. Nearly every student in Hogwarts had found a way of torturing her and not a single teacher ever said a word about it. Samantha could have sworn she'd heard some of her teacher's encouraging Peeves along in his terror.

Samantha borrowed a knife from Potter that could open any locked door. She and Colin used it to get inside the Gazette's printing room. They worked together using the printing press to print off pro-werewolf pamphlets. Lee then snuck them into every first year's Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook.

Their greatest achievement was when they flew into her office using Lee's old broom. They started first by bewitching her clothes to change colors like a neon rainbow. Then Samantha charmed all of the cat plates to instead howl like wolves.

Lastly, Fred and George had left a few nifflers for Lee and they levitated one into Umbridge's office. It tore apart her office and stole everything of possible value.

They decided to put their pranks to the side the weeks before exams. He was an excellent studying partner and the two of them would quiz each other in the common room every night, pacing back and forth together and reciting facts. Everyone in their fifth and seventh years seemed on extreme pins and needles. She'd never seen everyone so nervous before. She felt fairly confident, but she would occasionally burst out crying when she missed even a single question.

After Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, Lee had started regaining some of his better personality back, however she continued to notice moments of snippy displeasure towards her whenever she mentioned the twins. He also still scowled when she spoke to any person of the opposite gender. She chalked a lot of it up to jitters over his NEWTs, but she internally realized it may be a part of his personality.

The first morning of exams she felt like she had been hit when the Jelly Legs Jinx again. The Charms written exam she found to be extremely easy. She had used many of those spells in the last few weeks to terrorize her teacher. She knew the Color Change Charm and the Levitation Charm like the back of her hand.

She had a similar confidence during the practical exam even if she was in the same group as Hermione who would surely do everything perfectly.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized Transfiguration was the next day. During the written exam, she knew she would pass with one hundred percent. She beamed unashamed when her iguana completely disappeared during her practical.

Herbology on Wednesday was much harder and she knew she would be lucky to get an Acceptable.

Defense Against The Dark Arts on Thursday was not terrifying in the least. Potter's words from when he taught them in the D.A. kept ringing in her mind, so she only struggled with two counterjinxes.

Friday was Ancient Runes, she struggled with a few translations. She cursed at herself for not studying harder the night before, she had just been so nervous she couldn't think straight anymore. She'd spent some of the evening snogging with Lee in hopes it would give her brain a small break. They also snuck another niffler into Umbridge's office, just for fun at this point.

Over the weekend she breathed a small breathe of relief. She only had a few more exams to go. Potions and Muggle studies were the only ones she had left. She was grateful she didn't take Care of Magical Creatures as she was then allowed to take Tuesday off.

Wednesday was Muggle Studies, she found herself laughing when one of the questions asked what the difference was between a television and a telephone.

However, she wished she hadn't dropped Astronomy when news that the entire group taking that examination had witnessed Hagrid being violently sacked by Umbridge.

Samantha greatly regretted the niffler prank they had pulled. It turned out Umbridge had been blaming Hagrid for that. What had everyone especially worried, was the fact McGonagall had taken several stuns to the chest. She'd tried to protect Hagrid and she apparently had looked very bad.

Samantha made her a small Get Well card. She sent it with Whisp after finding out from Madam Pomfrey that Professor McGonagall had been transferred to St. Mungos.

History of Magic would have been pretty painless, that was until Potter began to scream.