Profound Lotus
Terry slipped the fake galleon back into his pocket as he walked the school corridors toward his common room. The galleon was a clever bit of magic, he mused. The simplicity was the key. Had it fallen to him to devise a method of alerting D.A. members, he would have chosen far more complex means. The result would have been misinterpretation and confusion.
He halted before a stone owl perched on a chipped pillar.
"Shakespeare."
As soon as he spoke the password, the medieval tapestry to the right of the owl rolled up like a window shade. The oval opening the tapestry concealed was just high enough off the ground to have troubled him as a first year. He'd been small for eleven, but thankfully he'd grown taller. Still, Terry always felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland as he entered the common room.
Of course there was no rabbit dwelling with earthen walls waiting for him. The Ravenclaw common room was a book-lined space with comfortable chairs to sit in and oak tables perfect for spreading out ones homework on or playing a game of chess with a friend. At the moment it was largely empty. Two second years occupied a back table, deeply involved in a game of Monopoly that had been going on for a week and a half. Terry cast an amused glance in their direction; he wondered if they were aware just how many bets had been placed on the outcome of their game. Aside from the players, only Marietta Edgecombe was present, seated in one of the armchairs with a book balanced on her knees as makeshift desk while she wrote a letter in her angular script.
Marietta looked up from her writing as Terry walked over to the fireplace and sank into the armchair nearest the fireplace. Watching the flames lap at the logs always calmed him. Intellectually he knew what fire was and why it consumed log after log, but there was a part of him that still marveled at its beauty and mystery.
"Is something wrong Terry," Marietta asked. Her chin rested on her palm and her face was a mask of concern. For all of her faults, Marietta always made time for Terry.
"No, nothing's wrong," Terry, answered. Except Umbridge, he added silently. Marietta's mother worked for the Ministry and had impressed upon her daughter the importance of not interfering with the new regime at school. Terry had been surprised she went with Cho to the first D.A. meeting, but then again Marietta was one who always surrendered to the strongest power and her mother was very far away. "Just tired."
Marietta nodded sympathetically. "I remember the avalanche of work in fifth year."
"And the constant reminders of our OWLs? Honestly, how do they expect us to study given the workload?"
"It'll be better next year," she assured him with a soft smile. "Fewer classes and a bit of a reprieve before NEWTS."
"Thank goodness," he grumbled. "What are you writing?"
Marietta looked down at her lap, a slight blush creeping into her cheeks. "Letter to Mum."
"Ah," Terry would have said more but then Padma Patil entered the room. She was a D.A. member as well, but the Ravenclaw members hadn't thought it wise to return en masse after the illegal group meetings so they staggered departures. Apparently Padma had visited the library on her way back.
"Goodness, Patil," Terry said as he and Marietta hurried over to help the other girl, "did you bring the entire library back with you?"
Padma's face was hidden behind a stack of books but Terry suspected she was giving him a filthy look. He took the top five books from her and set them down on a nearby table.
"Surviving Dark Ages by Rupert Zosimus, So You Live in Interesting Times by Constance Quigley, Countercurses for the Confused by Wilberforth Perplexed," Terry read the titled aloud. There was a definite theme to Padma's selections. "Did you leave books for anyone else?"
"You aren't still in that association, are you?" Marietta asked in a rushed whisper as she looked over Terry's shoulder. "I thought it was banned."
Padma was busy laying her books out on the study table as she responded. "Ten Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban. I intend on being prepared."
Terry hid a grin at the realization that Padma had not answered Marietta's question at all. Not only that but her reminder of the Azkaban escapees provided legitimacy to learning defense.
"I'm sure they'll be caught soon," Marietta said half-heartedly. If the Ministry could not find Sirius Black after two years, hopes were not high that they would locate ten additional fugitives.
"Either way, I intend on being prepared," Padma said. She glanced across the copy of Chandra's Dealing With Dementors she was perusing at Terry. "Care to join me, Terry?"
As the pair sat down to study together, they were unaware of Marietta's continued scrutiny. Her blood heated as she watched Padma gently tease Terry. It boiled as Terry blushed and glanced over at Padma in a way Marietta knew he would never, ever, look at her.
Marietta looked down at her unfinished letter. Only the salutation and opening sentence were written. She began a new sentence. While Padma and Terry read of the intricacies of the Patronus Charm, they were blissfully ignorant of the deliberate strokes of Marietta's quill as she wrote to her mother of the D.A..