Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The next day Josie was sitting in the great hall eating her mediocre breakfast and trying to make it last when a sudden chill entered the hall, making the few people who were chattering fall silent. Heads swivelled to the entrance where the headmaster, Bellatrix and two large black cloaked dementors stood looking menacing.
Walking into the now silent hall they approached the Gryffindor table to where Jason O'Connell, a half blood and good friend of Josie's, sat.
"Jason O'Connell?" Rodolphus asked, his voice, although not raised, seemed to vibrate around the room.
"Y…Yes sir?"
"You are under arrest for lying about your parentage and faking your family tree to not only gain admittance into the prestigious school of Hogwarts but also to rise above your proper station in life as a mudblood in servitude. Take him away," Rodolphus finished to the dementors.
Two large scabby blackened hands grabbed Jason, holding him cruelly tight as their despair washed over him and he collapsed.
A few Griffindors stood up in protest, Josie one of them. A small voice at the back of her head was screaming at her to sit down but her feelings of outrage overrode her common sense.
"You can't do this!"
Had that been her? Oh crap!
Rodolphus head snapped round towards her direction and it was a show of her courage that she didn't wilt under his lethal gaze.
Maybe if she had cowed away things might have turned out differently but she didn't.
Flashes of memory brought about by the dementors came to the forefront of her mind.
Two years old and watching her mother scream and cry as Death Eaters broke into their house to take away her father, a muggle born wizard.
"He's a half blood. His dad is a wizard. O'Connell is an old wizarding name," she shouted at Rodolphus
Mouth, shut up
Her first detention in her first week of starting Hogwarts: she had never known how bad the Cruciatus had been, with Bellatrix laughing insanely over her.
"You can't arrest him you inbred scum."
Merlin, had that been her?
SLAP!
Josie went flying across the room from the impact of the slap Bellatrix delivered.
Suddenly Rodolphus was standing over her, his face a picture of thunder.
"I think, Miss Burns, that you don't know your place; two weeks detention starting tonight and a hundred points from Gryffindor…"
"Headmaster, Burns here already has two detentions with me tonight and tomorrow," Alecto Carrow put in helpfully.
Josie only heard part of this, her vision and head were swimming from the impact of the slap.
"Then Alecto, I will relieve you of your punishments tonight and deal with her myself. I do not like to be questioned Burns, especially not from a filthy mongrel half blood like you."
Grabbing her by the back of her neck and, yanking her up, Rodolphus pushed her towards Bellatrix,
"Take her up to my office my dear, and wait for me there."
Bellatrix grinned and started dragging Josie forcefully towards the door,
"Bellatrix!" Bellatrix turned round, "No playing with her; just watching her. Go on, my pet." The grin on Bellatrix faded and she didn't move, "Now Bellatrix." The headmaster's tone had hardened and Bellatrix dragged Josie unmercifully up toward the stone gargoyle where she spat the word,
"Vert." The gargoyle jumped aside to reveal a spirally staircase that was slowly making its way upwards like an escalator.
Josie for her part was nearly wetting herself from fear. She had never been punished by the headmaster himself before; that only happened to the regular offenders.
Why wasn't her mouth connected to her brain? Why did she have to speak out? Why did she have to be such a hero? Did she regret it though, she asked herself, and the simple answer was no, she did not regret anything. Despite her fear she was glad she had stood up to the headmaster. But did she really have to call him an inbred scum?
Bellatrix pushed her into the small circular room whose walls were decorated a deep green with silver diamonds. The walls were lined with shelves piled high with books on blood purity and dark arts.
A large heavy dark mahogany desk stood opposite the door with a large cushy green velvet chair behind it
Behind the desk on another shelf were a variety of torture instruments and the sorting hat. Chains were hanging off the wall onto her right.
Josie swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat, her original fear taking over as the adrenaline slowly began to subside from her veins.
Bellatrix chained her up against the wall roughly, muttering under her breath about her husband.
Finishing, Bellatrix took a step back and just looked at Josie with those cold insane eyes that sent shivers up Josie's spine.
After fifteen minutes had passed Josie didn't think she could stand Bellatrix staring at her anymore and it was then that the door was thrown open and Rodolphus strode in, a long thin metal tipped whip in his hand, currently coiled in on itself.
"You may leave my pet. I won't take long." The 'my pet' wasn't said as a term of endearment, more a claim of ownership and Bellatrix pouted in a sulky way at being denied her fun before storming out, slamming the door loudly.
Now it was Rodolphus's turn to stare at Josie.
Josie was not a regular offender; in-fact she hadn't gotten more than twenty five detentions since starting Hogwarts four years ago which was strange for a half blood; the teachers had even said how she would make a good death eater as her marks were reasonably high and she didn't speak out of turn very often.
So why she had done so now was beyond him.
Rodolphus decided to scare her into submission. He decided this was probably a one off and after he was done with her she would realise what a mistake she had made and would be begging for his forgiveness which he would graciously give before sending her off for two weeks worth of detention with Nott.
That should ensure no more bad behaviour.
Crack!
The steel tipped whip snaked out and slashed her across her already bruised face leaving a small shallow cut which began to bleed.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Three more, deeper cuts appeared along her neck.
Placing the whip down he took out his wand and, pointing it at one of the cuts he had made said,
"Attero"
Screaming as the cuts deepened and the skin around them began to erode Rodolphus only stopped the curse when the skin round her neck was blackened and burnt looking.
"Crucio." He held the curse on her for a full minute as she lay withering and screaming, still chained up by her wrists, half on the floor; her muscles doing wired spasms.
Taking off the curse he watched her as she lay sobbing hysterically on the floor.
Let it be over soon, please let it be over, she thought frantically.
Five more Cruciatus's later and she was begging for him to stop.
Unchaining her and crouching down so they were on eye level he spoke in a deadly voice,
"I don't like back-talkers Burns, especially from mongrels like you. Though as this your first offence with me I shall let you off lightly by not punishing you anymore."
Josie's heart nearly stopped beating from shock at these words as hope slowly bloomed in her only to be dashed away cruelly by his next words,
"However Professor Nott, your head of house, expressed some interest in ensuring your…behaviour is up to standards and as he is an expert in the matter I shall leave it up to him.
"Your detentions will go on for two weeks and if I hear from the staff after this that there has been so much as a peep from you, you will on your way to Azkaban for a life long sentence faster than you can say Kelpie. Understand?"
"Y…Yes sir."
"Good. Now, get out of my sight." Standing up and turning towards his desk as Josie half crawled half ran towards the door and stumbled down the steps just as the bell rang.
Having missed Blood Studies Josie made her way towards the dungeons where Potions was taken.
Taking her seat at the back she waited for Adonia who came soon enough.
"Oh Merlin Jose, your neck…"
Josie shrugged but immediately regretted it as a burning pain shot up from her neck to her head; making her eyes water.
"Two weeks detention with Nott," she whispered as more students filed into the room. "But what about Jason?"
"They took him. Oh Josie, they took him away." And she broke down in tears.
Truly, Josie hadn't expected her own outburst to have made any difference but somehow hearing that Jason had been arrested made her blood turn cold as it made it more real.
The door flew open and Snape walked in doing his perfect imitation of an overgrown bat.
"Miss Osborne, please cease your tears now as they are neither appropriate nor constructive," Snape's sneering voice came her way.
Adonia choked but managed to hold her tears back as Snape started going on about a shrinking potion that they were going to do.
"The instructions are of the board. You may work in pairs. Proceed."
Adonia, still choking back sobs, lit the fire underneath the cauldron while Josie, trying not to move her neck as even the slight movement reduced her to eye watering pain, started chopping up the snake's stomach for the potion.
Because of her pain and inability to prepare the ingrediants right the potion turned bright pink instead of the blue it was meant to be.
Snape took on glance, vanished it and gave them both a zero and a two foot long essay on how to prepare a simple shrinking solution.
The rest of the day flew by and seven o'clock came around to quickly for Josie's liking.
The detention itself was made worse by the pain in her neck which, she had been told by a sixth year, whom was learning that particular curse in Dark Arts, would scar badly.
It was way past midnight when she dragged herself, bleeding and bruised, back to the deserted common room where she was surprised to see Adonia sitting alone in one of the larger armchairs near the fire.
"It's not fair Jose," she said before Josie could remark on her still up, "It's not fair how they removed Jason just because he was a half blood; it not fair how you got tortured beyond endurance just because you stood up and gave your opinion. It isn't fair how muggleborns have to serve purebloods when they should have an education as well, it isn't fair how muggles are kept pent up in cages or camps..." she broke off on a sob and Josie came over to comfort her.
This however only made her break down more as the suppressed tears over the last fourteen years came pouring out,
"It's not fair, It's not fair," she kept on repeating.
Something inside Josie snapped as she watched her usually strong best friend reduced to such a state by psychopaths called Death Eaters.
"Then we should do something about it." Looking back Josie couldn't believe she had said it, could barely remember it, even. It was as if somehow something had taken her original frightened mind and replaced it with a new courageous moral driven one.
"What?" Adonia sobbed.
"We fight. We fight for Jason, for all those who are suffering; to bring down the Dark Lord's regime…."
"We fight? Where? How? What happens if we get caught. You're already on their black list…"
"And you are a pure blood they won't do anything to you." She stood up and started pacing, ignoring her screaming muscles,
"We should fight. You've heard of the stories from years ago…Harry Potter the one who dared fight V…Voldemort."
Adonia gasped.
Feeling even more reckless Josie carried on,
"There are still rumours, stories of underground resistance…"
"Stop it Josie, stop it!"
"If we can form our own resistance in Hogwarts, make the death eaters feel like they're not in complete power…well, it's a start isn't it?"
She stopped and looked at Adonia; her eyes alight with a new kind of fire.
Adonia hesitated. What Josie was propositioning was mad, insane even. A death sentence if ever there was one….and yet to give others hope...
"We'll call it Potter's army. No, that sounds lame: how about…"
"The Angels? Call it TA for short." At Josie's enquiring look Adonia continued, "Well think about it: angels are meant to represent good and defend the weak right? So if we're known as the Angels then its like we're defending the people who can't fight back."
Josie nodded, liking the idea and symbolism.
"We'll need to learn defensive spells though, as they don't teach them. And proper history rather than that pureblood crap they spew out," Josie snapped.
"No Slytherins though, it'll be taking to much of a risk."
"No Slytherins," Josie agreed
Adonia nodded before reality kicked in,
"Where are we going to hold this though? I mean any extra curricular activities have to be approved by our head of house and then the head master then the governors before it can have the go ahead."
Josie shrugged.
"It'll be an illegal defence group."
The idea somewhat thrilled her.
"Where will we do it? We can hardly go up to Nott and say, excuse me sir, could we please use the great hall for an illegal defence group to fight against the Dark Lord."
Josie snorted at the thought but couldn't come up with any answers.
The classrooms were all locked after the last bell and there were regular patrols made along the corridors during the weekends and when school had finished by the Slytherin prefects as well as teachers.
Josie sunk back into a seat, not wanting to admit defeat but seeing no way to get around this current obstacle.
"Don't worry Josie, we'll find something," Adonia promised. Josie just nodded before making her way upstairs to bed, her feeling of rebellion growing steadily stronger instead of weakening at the dead end they had come up against.
No matter what, they would fight back and they would win even if it cost her life.
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