And Gryffindor Rebels

Chapter 1: An Azkaban Prisoner

A man dressed in a thick black cloak quickly walked down the lane towards a small cottage in the middle of a dark forest. The foliage of the forest was so thick that the stars from the night sky could not be seen. A mixture of grass and leaves crunched under the man's footsteps as his shoulders hunched over as if admitting defeat to a battle that was lost long ago.
In fact, this man was just released from Azkaban Wizarding Prison just a fortnight before. He suffered for nearly three months in the rotting prison, run by the guards, Dementors, who sucked the joy and fun out of all life. His happiest memories, though far few and in between, had been nearly shattered as if a small child had chucked a stone through a glass window. He could see the remnants of his happiest memories lying on the floor yet he was unable to bend down to retrieve them.
Azkaban did serious damage to the mind of a human who had just an ounce of happiness inside him and he had been stuck there for three long months. He remembered who had sent him there to rot: Albus Dumbledore. He knew Dumbledore held something against him ever since the first reign of the Dark Lord, but no, he didn't speak of the Dark Lord anymore; no one did, actually.
He remembered how Dumbledore strode into the Dark Forest on the grounds of his beloved school of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and rescued those two students from his rage. His rage was well-founded: he was sent to his old school to capture a loose dragon from his place of work, The Dragon Reserve of Wales.
Just when his men got close enough to the take the dragon back to the reserve, those two meddling students intervened and started attacking them! Although he would never admit it, that Gryffindor girl had a wide array of spells at her disposal. He remembered hexing her right after he flung her boyfriend into a tree. How his wand vibrated under his own fingers with the feeling of glee he got from hexing her had been joyous.
Right when he was about to finish both students off, Dumbledore had come striding into the forest and before he knew it, he was waking up in Azkaban Prison.
As the cottage grew closer, the man flung his arm upwards and the door to his cottage flung open with a great force that made his black cloak bustle about him.
However, something was amiss in his cottage: it was utterly black, no sound to hear, no movement to see. Having been trained in the dark arts, his instincts took possession of him as he pointed his wand steady in front of him, his dark eyes scanning the blackness.
"LUMOS," the man's voice rang out, the tip of his wand igniting with a bright light immediately. He heard a cackle behind him and he instantly flung around, shooting a jet of purple light at his aggressor. The purple illuminated the blackness before disappearing into thin air.
"It seems as if Azkaban has done you some damage, old friend," came a voice from the darkness.
"Who are you and why are you here?" Cried the man whose wand was still pointed at nothing in particular but where he thought the voice had come from.
"Who am I? Why, I am surprised by your incompetence," replied the voice.
"My incompetence? You fool, you don't know who I am! Show yourself!"
Out of the darkness, a man appeared. "Now Paul, you should know who I am as I know who you are."
A look of terror briefly crossed Paul's face but a second later, it passed. Paul lowered his wand away from his intruder before waving his wand behind him and a fire burst in the grate at the far end of the cottage.
"What are you doing here, Alex?"
The man named Alex gave him a look of modest surprise and replied, "Well, the last I heard of you, you had been taken away to Azkaban for apparently, attacking school children? I had to see if the rumors were indeed true. And I found out they were…just like the old days then?"
Paul shot him a look of disgust when he said, "I don't talk about those days anymore. They are in the past."
"The past, you say? Maybe your past but let me remind you, the fire still burns."
"What are you on about, Alex, you're wasting my time."
Alex, ignoring Paul's last comment, smiled and said, "Did you hear about the Longbottom's?"
Paul shook his head from side to side and thought to himself, 'Alex calls me incompetent yet he seems to forget that I was locked away in Azkaban Prison.'
"They were attacked and tortured into insanity." At this, Paul shot his head up and looked into Alex's green eyes.
"Tortured into insanity? By whom?"
"Death Eater's, apparently. Bellatrix, her fool of a husband, Barty Crouch, Jr., and another lunatic."
Paul leaned back in his chair to digest this information. He was quite surprised by his actually as he had thought the Death Eaters were done and finished for.
"Yes, apparently the Dark Lord still has followers out and about even after his downfall," replied Alex, as if reading Paul's mind. "But, I have other news to give you other than those of Death Eaters. The reserve wants you to come back to work. They are willing to give you a full pardon after you had completed your time in Azkaban."
Paul had thought he would be fired from his job at the dragon reserve; this news was most welcome. "I am honored they would still have me back after Azkaban, actually."
"Yeah, well don't let this get to your head. Our boss, Jones, had been out of league with Dumbledore even since the start of the First War. Any man Dumbledore convicts is a man whom Jones can trust."
Paul shook off Alex's comment and nodded his head, saying, "I'll be back tomorrow, then."
Alex nodded and got up to leave. Before he reached the door, he turned and said, "Don't be so happy to return tomorrow, though. News has spread, old friend, how you and your men were defeated by two Hogwarts fifth-years." And with that, Alex walked out the door, his laugh ringing in Paul's ears.
Paul had turned a deep red out of immense anger. He then vowed to himself that he would venture to Hogwarts and he would finish off those two students. He would enact his tail of revenge. Not twenty miles away, Charlie Weasley was sneaking back into his house, the Burrow, after taking his girlfriend, Hermione Granger, out for a romantic broomstick ride.

When Charlie Weasley awoke the next morning, a smile was plastered onto his face. That is until, his bedroom door burst open and in walked his older brother, Bill Weasley, a smug grin stretched over his face.
"Well young brother, I hate to break it to you, but you're not as sneaky as you think. Mum saw you come in last night," Bill laughed.
Charlie silently cursed himself as he would soon face the wrath of his mum; a wrath he had faced all summer after joining Hermione on many midnight escapades. Charlie then silently shrugged his shoulders in defeat.
"Well, before you face Mum downstairs, do you care to tell me where you and Hermione escaped to late last night?" Bill folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the door frame. "Don't you have to get to work or something, Bill, besides nagging me," Charlie asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"I don't work yet but I have an interview the Ministry tomorrow but stop avoiding my question, Charlie. Where do you two go?"
"We went…out." Charlie smiled as Bill gave him a disgruntled look. Charlie then leapt up off his bed, walked over Bill, shoved him lightly away from his doorframe, and then slammed the door into his brother's face.
Charlie laughed to himself as he heard Bill thump down the stairs, muttering to himself. Charlie changed out of his pajamas and took a deep breath before trudging down the stairs himself.
Charlie cautiously walked into the kitchen and gave a sigh of relief when he did not see his mum there. Bill was sitting with his back to him as Charlie entered the kitchen. Not a second after he sat down, he heard, "CHARLES WEASLEY! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
Charlie's shoulders cringed at the sudden outburst as he craned his neck to see his mum, Molly Weasley, coming in from the back garden, a look of outrage on her face.
"Mum, it was honestly nothing," Charlie mumbled, not wanting to anger his mother further.
"What was that, young man?!" Charlie saw his mum's hands balled into fists at her sides.
"I think, mum, he said that he didn't stay out too late with Hermione; he only came back at three in the morning!" Bill piped in.
Charlie's jaw dropped open before he shot a murderous glare at his brother. His anger was short-lived as his mother screamed, "YOU DID WHAT?! CHARLES WEASLEY, AM I GOING TO HAVE TO PUT BARS ON YOUR WINDOW?!"
Charlie felt his anger rising but he decided to keep his control as getting into a war of words with his mum wasn't the best idea.
As his mum kept yelling at him, Charlie saw Fred and George sticking a huge spider down the shirt Ron was wearing. Charlie silently chuckled to himself, wondering if those two would even leave Ron alone. Ron's high-pitched squeal made Charlie roll his eyes and shake his head.
"DON'T YOU ROLL YOUR EYES OR SHAKE YOUR HEAD AT ME, YOUNG MAN," his mum burst out.
"Mum, I wasn't-," Charlie started but Bill cut him off.
"You heard mum, Charlie. Don't roll your eyes or shake your head." Charlie turned towards Bill who gave him a wide smile. Charlie knew that Bill was enjoying his mum lecturing Charlie after Charlie refused to tell him where he and Hermione had snuck off to.
After nearly an hour of his mum yelling at him, Charlie was finally let go, and he rushed away from the kitchen table. Charlie thought to himself how he couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts again where he would be free of his mum's ever-watchful eye and he could spend all of his time with Hermione.
He longed these quiet summer nights; just the two of them riding on his broomstick, flying against the black canopy night sky, the wind rushing past their ears. He smiled as he remembered Hermione's high-pitched scream as Charlie dove towards the ground or shot off like a rocket into the sky.
In just two days, Charlie would be back on the Hogwarts Express, traveling back to the ancient school of magic where he would be free with Hermione. Charlie would be lying to himself if the news of the Longbottom's torture didn't rattle him. His parents were good friends with them and their near-demise made him sick to his stomach.
He heard his mum worrying over their son who was Ron's age apparently. Charlie couldn't remember his name but his life was already affected in terms he knew nothing about as of yet. After everyone thought the Wizarding World was safe, some Death Eaters were still at large.
But venturing back to Hogwarts, Charlie felt a sense of safeness inside the walls of the castle; he felt protected and that no harm could come to him or Hermione there. Charlie would later learn how wrong he was.

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Well, I hoped you all enjoyed the very first chapter to the sequel to "And Gryffindor Roars!" Since I have started term again, I will be unable to post as frequently as I had been doing with "And Gryffindor Roars." However, I am committed to finishing this story and I will post as soon as I can (I'm currently thinking I have time post two-three chapters a week). But trust me when I saw, this story will be finished. Don't forget to rate and review!