Terry raced down the empty corridor that led to the library, enjoying the sensation that he was being chased more then he probably should have.

At least, he thought that he was being chased. He knew that there was definitely someone behind him, but he couldn't tell if it was a friend or a foe. He had glanced backwards once, and after nearly tripping over his own feet, had decided to focus on running.

Just as his legs were starting to burn, Terry reached the library. Barely slowing as he entered, he made his way toward the back of the library, ignoring the dirty look that Madam Pince threw at him. Finding a table near the back that was unoccupied, Terry flung himself into a chair, snatching up a book that someone else had left there. As he registered the title (One thousand ways to cure your sniffles, and other assorted cures) Michael darted into the seat opposite him, panting heavily.

"Anyone following us?" asked Terry, trying to sound casual.

Michael shook his head, too out of breath to speak. Behind him, Justin Finch-Fletchy appeared from behind a bookcase, sweating gleaming on his face, but less out of breath then Michael, who was taking deep breaths in an effort to stop panting.

"Anyone following us?" Terry asked again, as Justin pulled out a chair next to him.

"I don't think so, but I was busy trying to catch up to you," replied Justin, scooting his chair closer to the table. "I wasn't aware that you could run that fast."

"Neither was I," said Terry, spotting a tired and slightly sweating looking Padma coming toward their table. "Were we followed Padma?"

"I thought I saw those two thugs, Crabbe and Goyle coming around the corner, but I decided against stopping to look," said Padma, dropping into the seat next to Michael. "But they'll have a job spotting us in this, won't they?"

She was right, thought Terry. The library was crowded with students bent over books, or scribbling away at parchments franticly. Anyone looking for them would be hard pressed to find a way to find them. Terry was willing to bet his- well, he was willing to bet Anthony's right hand that anyone searching for them would be stumped. Michael obviously felt differently.

"You know that you just doomed us to being found, right?" he frowned at her.

"Yes, we're now forever doomed to be found by out pursuers forever," said Terry, letting a slight edge of sarcasm creep into his voice. "Cheer up Mike, We got away."

"You know I hate being called Mike," Michael grumbled. "My parents called me Michael for a reason. And if Padma hadn't just doomed us, you just did."

Terry opened his mouth, and then closed it, admitting to himself that Michael had a point. Before he could speak, Padma gently coughed and nodded toward the entrance.

Looking toward the entrance, Terry saw that Crabbe and Goyle had lumbered in, looking as huge as ever. Terry saw them glance around, before starting toward the back of the library.

"No reason to panic," said Terry, looking mostly at Justin, who was staring at Crabbe and Goyle worryingly. "And stop staring Justin, it's too obvious."

Justin snapped his gaze back to the table in front of him.

"No reason to panic," Terry said again, as Crabbe and Goyle came closer.

Terry quickly pretended to be immersed in reading about how to clear the sniffles as Crabbe and Goyle passed the table where some Hufflepuffs were studying. Padma and Michael had both snatched up books as well, and Terry saw Justin duck under the table, on the pretence that he was tying his shoe. At least, Terry thought Justin was tying his shoe. He didn't really know if it was pretence. Maybe he actually wanted to tie his shoe. Or maybe Justin was just hiding under the table, hoping Crabbe and Goyle couldn't see him, which would be silly, since they would be able to see him even if he was hiding under the table.

"You gonna be in so much trouble," said Crabbe, startling Terry out of his convoluted train of thought. Crabbe and Goyle had made their way to their table, towering over all of them.

"I was right," said Michael.

"Now you can panic," said Terry, half a second later.

This didn't seem to be the response that Crabbe had expected. He glanced at Goyle, who shrugged.

"We found you," Crabbe said, cracking his knuckles menacingly. Across form Terry, Padma winced at the noise.

Terry hesitated for a moment, then decided that the thing to do was play offensive, figuring that with these two goons, keeping them off their balance would be the best thing. Leaping to his feet, he walked over to Goyle, and hugged him.

"Huh?" grunted Goyle. He was so big that Terry could barely wrap his arms around him. Before he could do more than that, Terry released him and rushed over to Crabbe, and did the same thing.

"Huh?" said Crabbe, in the exact same tone as Goyle; Terry stifled a laugh. He stepped back and beamed at the two of them, as if he was overjoyed to see them.

"You certainly did find us, and about time too, we were getting tired of waiting," said Terry, taking another few steps back so that he could see Michael and Padma without turning his head too much. "We were almost about to give up."

"You came just in time," said Michael, nodding wisely. Terry felt a surge of relief that Michael had caught on so quickly.

"Michael here was just about to leave," said Padma, also nodding.

"But now you're here, and there's no real harm done, but I do wish that that you hadn't kept us waiting," said Terry, making himself sound indignant "I have multiple other things that I could have initiated, and there's no point in refuting myself in saying that they were very important things that I could have been doing, but I knew how important it was for you to make yourself heard here."

Crabbe and Goyle glanced at each, before going back to staring at Terry, both slack jawed with puzzlement as they tried to work out what he had said. Terry didn't give them time to recover.

"So now that we're all here, Does anyone want to begin, or shall I?" asked Terry.

"I think you should." said Michael. "After all, you were the one that called us all here."

"Very well, I shall start," said Terry, doing his best to sound grave. "Padma, are you ready to take notes?"

Padma stared at him for a moment, looking puzzled, before nodding. "I'm ready."

"We gather here for the gravest of reasons," began Terry, and immediately, Padma started taking notes. In the absence of a quill, she had resorted to pretending to hold one, and seemed to be writing on an invisible piece of paper. "I found out, not even two hours ago a cause of gravest concern. Not only to me, nor only to the students of our esteemed Ravenclaw House. This is so grave, it threatens the whole castle, and even the school.

"What?" Terry heard Justin mutter under his breath.

Michael nearly let out a snort at the nonsense coming out of Terry's mouth. Terry looked down at him, trying to sound serious.

"This is no laughing matter sir! If we fail to act, the very fabric of this world could come undone. No, the only solution we have, and it is a dire one, I will admit, is to prepare ourselves for a battle so grave, that even the headmaster himself, may his beard grow ever longer, might not be enough to turn the tide!"

Terry tried his best not to grin, as glanced at Crabbe and Goyle, trying to judge how his plan was working. Crabbe had at least managed to close his mouth, though he still looked completely befuddled. Goyle hadn't moved and, if anything, his jaw had dropped more. Transferring his gaze, Terry looked at Justin, who was looking around at all of them as if they were crazy. Which was a pretty fair assessment, Terry thought, as he looked at Michael (Who was now stroking an imaginarily beard), and at Padma, who had continued to write with her nonexistent quill, her face close to the table, her shoulders shaking with the suppressed urge to laugh.

"Sir," said Michael seriously, stroking his beard more vigorously than ever. "You surely seem to think that the time for the gravest of battles to come, but you have yet to say what has led you to this conclusion."

"Hold on," began Justin, with the air of someone trying to inject sense back into a conversation.

"Indeed sir," cried Terry so loudly that the tables nearest to them glanced up. "I will tell the full grave tell, though I doubt that you will find it to your liking. If," he added to Padma, "You find the tale too horrendous to bear, I urge you to cover your ears Madam, for this tale is not for the faint of heart."

"Sir," said Padma evenly, surprisingly straight faced. "It is my scared duty to transcribe this meeting, for if we fail, some record must be kept. I will listen to this grave tale as far as my tolerance will allow."

"As you must madam," nodded Terry, who had used the opportunity while she was speaking to make a rough plan of what he was about to say next. "Though I dare say that if we fail, there may not be a world to come back to.

"This can't be happening," Justin muttered.

"Sir, the tale, else time shall make a fool of us," said Michael, ceasing to stroke his imaginary beard. Terry risked a glance at Crabbe and Goyle while Michael was speaking; the only change was that Crabbe was moving his mouth, as if he was trying to from words, but was too dumbfounded to manage it.

"Indeed sir," said Terry, nodding his head in acknowledgement. "Though I am not eager to discuss it. On my way to the great doors that bar our entrance to the outside world, I made a detour to the basement, seeking, as you all know, to know whether the rumors were true. To my greatest sorrow, they were true. For, in the kitchen of this mighty school, I found food."

"Food?" gasped out Michael, raising both eyebrows in mock surprise.

"Food?" said Justin incredulously.

"Indeed sir," said Terry as solemnly as he could, though he was not very successful, as a smirk broke though. "I hardly need to say that I retreated hastily, for I knew that reinforcements would be need if we were to have any hope of conquering this scourge."

"You did wisely," said Michael, nodding, but Crabbe had finally regained use of his speech after listening to this latest part of Terry's inane tale.

"We saw her running," he pointed at Padma. Beside him, Goyle was still trying to get his mouth closed.

"Of course I was running, there was food in the castle," snapped Padma, sounding much more like her usual self then she had a minute ago. "What did you expect me do?"

"I would have run too," said Justin, looking greatly relieved that Terry had stopped talking nonsense.

"You were running from the secret room on the seventh floor," said Crabbe, cracking his knuckles again, though his soft voice ruined any real affect it might have had.

"That couldn't be me, I was running from food, remember?" said Padma. "It might have been my sister though. You know, she does looks like a bit like me. Except that her nose is much too big for her face. And her eyes are beadier then mine.

"Your identical!" exclaimed Justin, this last turn of events apparently too much for him. "You look exactly the same!"

Padma turned to him with great dignity. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Justin just started at her, too lost for words to speak further.

"But I saw her run into this library," said Crabbe slowly, as if he was trying to reason his way through this. "And she looks like you,"

"Right, but Padma was running from food, not you. And since Padma's sister isn't here, you must have either lost her, or you were never chasing her in the first place." said Terry

"And since I doubt that you could have lost her, you must have been mistaken," said Michael, going back to stroking his imaginary beard again.

The bewildered expression came back to Crabbe's face as Michael finished his sentence. Terry almost felt bad for him. It was disconcerting at the best of times when Terry used his wits to confuse someone, and Crabbe had never been known as the greatest of thinkers.

For the first time since Terry had begun his story, Goyle seemed to focus on one word.

"Mistaken?" he grunted.

"I'm afraid so," said Terry cheerfully. We've been in here waiting for hours for reinforcements to take on the food problem, and Parvati hasn't come in."

Crabbe and Goyle took a moment to register this. Crabbe had screwed up his face, in an effort to work things out better, and Goyle looked like he usually did- which is to say, bemused. After a minute of hard thinking, with the four D.A. members still looking at them, Crabbe started to shuffle off, obviously still uncertain of what he was doing. For a moment, Goyle just stood there as his partner moved away. It wasn't until Michael raised a eyebrow at him that Goyle caught on, and he lumbered to catch up to, joining Crabbe in looking like a pair of small elephants walking away.

Out of respect for them, (and because he was feeling cautious) Terry waited until they were out of the room before he collapsed into his chair, picked up his book, and broke into helpless laughter.

Across from him, Michael had buried his head into his arms, his shoulders shaking. Next to him, Padma had leaned back in her chair, her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as hard as Michael's were. Even Justin managed a smile, though he still seemed a bit puzzled by the whole thing.

"Boy, are they dumb," gasped Terry, setting them all off again.

"How did you think of all that?" asked Justin, once they had calmed down again.

Terry shrugged, "I think I once read something about how a quest happened in a castle. All it took was adding in some different details, and the words practically form themselves."

"With a little quick thinking," added Michael.

"With a bit of quick thinking," agreed Terry, nodding his head in Michael's and Padma's direction. "And I never would have risked such a ridiculous story if it had been someone other than Crabbe and Goyle."

"Everything worked out though," said Padma, grinning at Terry.

"It certainly did," said Terry, feeling quite content.

"And here I thought that all you guys did is study," said Justin, looking more relaxed now that a few minutes had passed, and it was clear that Crabbe and Goyle weren't returning. "I guess I was wrong."

"We do like to relax every now and then," said Michael, leaning forward with his arms on the table. "But we do more than our fair share of studying too."

"Except for Terry, he just lazes around," said Padma.

"Hey," said Terry, trying, and failing to sound indignant. "I do all my best thinking with my eyes closed, that's all."

"So what do we do now?" asked Justin, cutting them off, perhaps sensing that they could go on like this for a while. "I mean," he lowered his voice. "I mean, we can't continue the D.A. anymore, can we?"

They looked at each other for a lengthy moment.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens," said Michael, breaking the silence. "We weren't caught, but that doesn't mean that others weren't. Let's hope that none of us get expelled, and then we can see what happens."

"No sense worrying about it yet," said Terry. "But your right, now that Umbridge knows about the Room of requirement, we don't have a place to meet. But no matter what happens, I'm going to make sure that the rest of her time here is unpleasant."

"I'm with you," said Padma.

"Me too," said Justin.

"This probably isn't very smart," said Michael, letting out a sigh. "At least wait and see what happened tonight before you start doing anything like… I don't know, like enchanting suits of armor to follow her around, okay?"

"If I have to," said Terry, in a mock whiny voice.

"I just hope that the others are okay," said Justin, who in spite of their reassurances still looked worried.

"Relax," Terry told him. "Most of us got out before the Slytherins even ran into the corridor. Everyone's probably safely hidden by now. We'd be better off if we focus on Michael's idea of getting suits of armor to follow Umbridge around."

"That's not what I said," Michael refuted him immediately.

"I like the concept," said Terry, speaking over Michael. "But I'm thinking maybe if we can get them to sing…"