FIFTH YEAR WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SIMPLE. Lavinia Sterling has never wanted much from Hogwarts. Good friends. Good grades. A quiet life. Unfortunately, Hogwarts has never been particularly good at giving people what they want. Fifth year brings O.W.L.s, new classes, old rivalries, questionable decisions, and a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor who seems determined to make everyone's lives miserable. As the Ministry tightens its grip on Hogwarts and Dolores Umbridge begins interfering with more than just their lessons, the castle becomes increasingly divided. Gryffindors and Slytherins are at each other's throats. Dumbledore's Army is formed in secret. The Inquisitorial Squad is given far too much power. And Lavinia somehow finds herself caught between it all. Between late mornings, chaotic friendships, arguments in corridors, questionable adventures and the occasional academic crisis, fifth year becomes anything but ordinary. Because sometimes the people you expect to hate become the people you understand. Sometimes friendships are formed in the most unlikely places. And sometimes, the person you barely noticed at the beginning of the year slowly becomes impossible to ignore. Fifth year was supposed to be simple. It really, really wasn't.