Many thanks to my awesome beta, njty9101!
The Summer of Operation Reparo
The Return of Dumbledore's Army
Dean Thomas is walking down the deserted streets of Knockturn Alley as slowly as he possibly can; eyes darting around to all sides, wand drawn. Although he has only visited this street once before – Seamus had dared him in fourth year to do it – he cannot reconcile this empty alleyway with the frightening, bustling place from his memories. Gone are the Dragon's Blood bars, the Dark Arts shops, and the hollow-eyed addicts pleading with the street dealers to "jus' gimme another chance, look, I'll pay you back double "- before furtively pocketing their foul-looking vials of potion. Gone are the heavily made-up witches in the windows, strutting in stilettos and leather – a few of them were even wearing what looked to Deanlike highly modified Hogwarts uniforms along with their come-hither stares. The shop windows are boarded up, and it does not seem as though there is another living soul in the world.
"Lumos," says Dean, as quietly as he can. He sweeps the area around him with his wand, training the light on the darkest corners of the street. He is satisfied that nothing will jump out at him. "Nox." The light goes out.
He thinks his best bet is to Apparate to Hogsmeade from here, and it is as he is closing his eyes to concentrate on his destination that he hears it: The crunch of leaves; the sound of footsteps. They are coming unmistakably in his direction.
At first, Dean does not panic. He will have time to Apparate if he stays focused. However, despite his best efforts to concentrate, he is staying firmly in one spot. Again and again he tries to Apparate –willing himself desperately to move - and each time he fails. The panic is starting to build now. He opens his eyes and it is all he can do not to scream:
Three masked Death Eaters are advancing, wands pointed directly at his chest.
Dean prepares to draw his own wand – at least he'll die fighting – and with a sick swoop of fear he notices that his wand is not in his hand.
No. NO. Not again. NOT again. Dean fumbles with his robes, glances on the ground – did he drop it - ? He can't see it anywhere. Through the terror, Dean notes that the Death Eaters have not said a single word to him, which makes this almost worse in a way.
What are they doing? Where the FUCK was his wand!
The Death Eater in the center steps forward, his mask glinting silver in the moonlight. He raises his wand.
"No," gasps Dean raggedly, "no." He lifts his arm to shield himself – useless, he knows – and has a split second to think to himself: Not like this, not like this, please not like this before he hears the inevitable shout: "AVADA KEDAV-"
These are the last words he hears…
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…before he wakes up.
By the time Dean comes to his senses, he is sitting bolt upright (or at least as upright as one could be in a hammock that was hanging from twenty feet in the air), he is breathing harshly, and he is covered in sweat. It takes him several moments to orient himself to his surroundings. He sucks in a deep, shaky breath and hopes that he hasn't woken anyone. In all honesty, he doubts it. At least two or three people a night have woken up screaming since Dumbledore's Army has congregated at Hogwarts six weeks ago. Everyone has learned to sleep through the others' night terrors by now – and strange though it seems, Dean has been sleeping far better here than he did during the month he'd been at home with his mother and siblings.
As Dean lays back in his red hammock, he mulls over the turn of events that have brought him and the 27 other young wizards and witches with him to this place – and to this point.
The war has not been the end of it – no, not by half. With Europe's most feared wizard destroyed, the magical community now has the daunting task of rebuilding. The Ministry has been in shambles, with no one knowing who is in charge; St. Mungo's has been overflowing to the point that Madam Pomfrey has had to fill up the Hogwarts Infirmary with injured patients; wizards and witches who had fought for Voldemort are protesting their innocence using every defense under the sun. Azkaban is overflowing, but the Dementors have long since abandoned the prison. Relatives – both muggle and magical - are searching desperately for their missing loved ones. Magical Britain is in chaos.
To add to all of this, Minerva McGonagall, current Headmistress of Hogwarts, announced gravely six weeks ago over the wizarding wireless that the school would be unable to open the following year. She had been distraught, but with the magical community in such an uproar and with so much to be done to ready the school for new students, she felt that she had no alternative – but as it turned out, she was wrong.
No one had seen Harry Potter, hero of the wizarding world, since the Final Battle. Dean was close enough to his "inner circle" (i.e. Ginny, with whom – despite their falling out - he still kept in touch) to know that he had been holed up at Grimmauld Place for three straight weeks, mourning the loss of his friends and hiding from the ravenous press. But the day the announcement was made, he showed up at the Headmistress' Office and informed her in no uncertain terms that Hogwarts would reopen in the fall – he, Harry, would see to it personally. Professor McGonagall was touched by his gallant offer, but was concerned (as usual) by his thick-headedness.
Having Harry Potter on your side was certainly an asset – but would it be enough? He stood there in her office, the set of his mouth informing her that he meant every word he said, removed his D.A. coin from his pocket, and Activated it.
And they came.
It took a few days for them all to assemble – to pack, plan, and say their good-byes. But they came. And in those few days, Hermione Granger had done something no one – not even Hermione – really thought she could do.
She fixed the Room of Requirement. True, the room was still slightly singed in some spots; true, there was an eight-foot section of the room that was simply charred blackness and probably always would be; true, the room still smelled a bit like smoldering ashes. But she had done it.
The room had provided beautifully for the students – the dormitories had been absolutely destroyed and some of the D.A. found it too painful to return to their former living quarters, anyway.
In the room are 28 hammocks, suspended from the ceiling. Next to each hammock, also floating quite high, is a small chest of drawers containing their clothes, toiletries, and in Hermione's case many books. Folded up under the hammocks are rope ladders that descend and ascend for each occupant as needed. Each hammock has been equipped (also thanks to Hermione) with a Balancing Charm and a Protective Charm to keep the hammocks from tipping over and to keep the students from falling out. The hammocks are clustered in five areas: the center of the room and in each of the four corners. In the center of the room are four jewel-red hammocks trimmed in gold: one each for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.
In Dean's corner there are two rows of five hammocks, all red and trimmed with gold. The closest row to the wall holds: Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown. The outside row held: George Weasley (who sleeps there only occasionally, he is staying in his Diagon Alley flat tonight), Lee Jordan, Neville Longbottom, himself, and Dean's best friend Seamus Finnegan.
The corner of the room adjacent to Dean holds four hammocks, which are yellow trimmed in black. Four Hufflepuffs are clustered there: Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Ernie Macmillan, and Justin Finch-Fletchley.
The corner of the room diagonal to the Gryffindors is the Ravenclaw corner. Suspended from the ceiling are six blue hammocks trimmed with bronze, in which sleep: Cho Chang, Padma Patil, Michael Corner, Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot, and – slightly apart from her Housemates – Luna Lovegood. Dean lets his eyes wander to the corner across from the Gryffindor corner and shakes his head in surprise for at least the twentieth time: Hanging there are four green hammocks trimmed in silver – the Slytherin corner.
No one had been more surprised than Harry when Theo Nott, Millicent Bulstrode, Adrian Pucey, and Tracey Davis had shown up to help rebuild Hogwarts.
No one had been less surprised than the Slytherins when Harry had told the lot of them to bugger off.
No one had been more surprised than Harry when Hermione told Harry off for being an unforgiving, unprincipled git and told him where he could stick his wand.
"None of these four participated in the battle, Harry. Please tell me how we are supposed to achieve any semblance of school unity – let alone harmony in the wizarding world – if we're not willing to give everyone a chance?"
And so they were given a chance, and upon taking it, the four Slytherins proceeded to prove themselves admirably.
The 28 of them had grown immeasurably close these past six weeks – and there were still another six to go – before they completed their task. What task?
Operation Reparo.
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It had been George's idea to call it Operation Reparo, and everyone had readily agreed – it felt like the very least they could do. George had barely spoken a word since Fred's death. He had altered to the point where he was unrecognizable. His hair was just as red, and his freckles had changed in neither number nor hue, but everything about him was different. His posture, his gait, his eyes, his face. He walked as if he were a hundred years old. His eyes were dead and hollow. Seeing an unsmiling, solo Weasley twin felt horribly wrong; it went completely against the laws of magic and nature.
Dean cannot begin to fathom the depths of George's loss: He feels that he would die if any harm came to his sisters. How could he move on? And he has spent so much time apart from them; he felt it must be a thousand times worse for George, who had barely left Fred's side.
Ron had told him that Operation Reparo was bringing him out of his shell, giving him something to focus on. It does seem that George is throwing himself into his work – and there is certainly enough work to be done.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a hazardous, tumultuous wreck. There is hardly a section of the school that does not need major repairs. Not to mention the fact that the student body, when it returned, will no doubt be in complete disarray. Professor McGonagall has been so busy trying to convince the Board of Governors to allow the school to reopen that she has not had the time to see to the necessary changes herself. The situation being what it was, she did the next best thing:
She left Hermione Granger in charge. And Hermione, being who she was, proceeded to do what she did best: mix her work ethic, idealism, intellect, and her innate compassion together to form a bloody brilliant plan.
She had divided the twenty-eight of them into nine small groups and given them each a set of objectives designed to restore Hogwarts to its former glory – and if all of the objectives worked, she had no doubt that it would be even better than it had been before.
She had gathered the D. A. to her and handed each of them a list which read as follows:
Curse-breaking Squad – Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley
Reconstruction Squad –
Sub-Group A – MichaelCorner, Katie Bell, Justin Finch-Fletchley: Kitchens, Great Hall, Grand Staircase
Sub-Group B – Adrian Pucey, Angelina Johnson, Cho Chang: Common Rooms, Bathrooms, and Dormitories
Sub-Group C – Padma Patil, Alicia Spinnet, Tracey Davis: Hallways and Classrooms
Sub-Group D – Lee Jordan, Neville Longbottom, Millicent Bulstrode: Outside grounds, (including Herbology Greenhouse and Quidditch Pitch)
Sub-Group E- George Weasley, Anthony Goldstein, Parvati Patil: Entranceways and Courtyards
Inter-House Unity Squad – Theo Nott, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Lavender Brown
Remembrance Squad – Ernie Macmillan, Seamus Finnegan, Hannah Abbott
Aesthetics Squad - Dean Thomas, Luna Lovegood
Hermione held up a hand, forestalling their inevitable questions. "First off," she said, "the groups are absolutely non-negotiable. Non-negotiable. As in, don't even bother asking. There is a reason that I divided you up the way I did, and I ask that you respect that. Secondly, I ask that you give me a moment to explain what each group – or sub-group – is to do."
All eyes were on her. She took a deep breath.
"First off, as should be obvious, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and I will be concentrating on de-activating all of the left-over curses, jinxes, and hexes from every area of the school. Many of the Death Eaters cast "time-sensitive" spells, or "motion-sensor" spells – not unlike muggle landmines in that they can be "tripped" and activated. There are also hidden portkeys designed to transport the user to Malfoy Manor or Little Hangleton. First, we'll do a sweep of the area and de-activate anything we find. Then we will call in professional curse-breaker Bill Weasley, who will do a thorough check of his own and/or assist us in identifying the more obscure dark spells." She paused briefly.
"So that's us. The Reconstruction Squad – which as you can see is broken up into five sections – will be responsible for cleaning and rebuilding their assigned area of purveyance." She smiled wanly. "This is not the most glamorous job, but it is absolutely crucial – students cannot come back to Hogwarts unless this is done. Most of the areas are fixable, but some have been destroyed to the point where they'll need to be rebuilt. You'll be responsible for drafting the floor plans and magically constructing the new areas under the guidance of Professor Flitwick, who will be visiting with each group daily."
Hermione squared her shoulders. "The Inter-House Unity Squad is critical to our success – I cannot stress this enough. As you can see, I have assigned four of you to this squad: one representing each House. I want you four to come up with ways in which we can build school spirit, not just House spirit." Hermione's keen, brown eyes looked out over the crowd and sought out… Theodore Nott's.
"Theo," she said tentatively, "I wanted to thank you for coming, and I also want to let you know that I think what you'll have to say as a member of this Squad should be taken very seriously by the others. The worst thing that could happen to this school is the other three houses making Slytherins feel like second-class citizens. It will do to this school what the Death Eaters never could: rip the school to shreds from the inside out. We need it understood that we do NOT judge anyone by their parents: whether their parents were die-hard Voldemort supporters or whether their parents don't possess a drop of magical blood. I am sure that the four of you will come up with some splendid ideas. Professor Slughorn will be overseeing your progress."
Now Hermione bit her lip – to keep it from trembling, thought Dean. "The Remembrance Squad," she said, "will be in charge of making certain that the memories of those who died – what they loved, what they fought for – live on. Professor Vector has agreed to assist you, although she can only be at the school once or twice a week. You may come up with your own ideas, but as a starting point I feel that it would be beneficial to do the following things: ensure perpetual care for the fallen students' gravesites, establish scholarships in the names of those who died, and provide scholarships to those students who have lost a sibling in the war. We should also ensure that the school is equipped to accommodate any students who have sustained permanent injuries – and I also think we should provide counseling services to those who feel they need it. You will also be working a bit with Dean and Luna because…"
Her eyes had sought out his. "Dean, I'm sure you've noticed that I placed you on the Aesthetics Squad." Her face flushed slightly. "I guess it's a bit much to call it a proper squad, but the tasks I have for you and Luna are very important. I would like you to make Hogwarts look as beautiful as it once did. The Reconstruction Squad will be gutting many of the areas of the school and rebuilding walls and windows and such. They won't have time to put in statues or artwork. So many of the portraits have been destroyed – we'll need to remove them and get new ones. And," she said, her eyes searching for and finding Luna's, "you'll be working with the Remembrance Squad, because I would like the two of you to create a Hogwarts War Memorial."