Three days after Anthony's first detention, Ginny calls a DA meeting and they sit in a circle around the wireless. The station is tuned in to static, and it takes a few minutes of Ginny tapping the radio with her wand and murmuring for it to crackle to life.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen and anyone else, and welcome to Potterwatch!" says a familiar voice, and Terry spends the next three minutes trying to match it to a person before remembering oh, yeah, the Quidditch commentator. There's a list of the dead, dating back to three weeks ago, and Terry breathes out in relief when it is finished and neither of his parents are mentioned.
"And in recent current events, there's been a break in at the Ministry! That's right, folks, a break in! Three unknown heroes snuck into the Ministry of Magic and succeeded in rescuing about a dozen Muggleborns who were awaiting trial. Rumour has it that the three heroes were Harry Potter, with two unknown accomplices, but these have yet to be confirmed in any way, and we at Potterwatch hope Harry's a wee bit smarter than that."
Michael remembers Harry Potter; breaking into the Ministry of Magic for some harebrained, useless, symbolic action seems just up his alley.
"And finally, we'd like to remind everyone to keep Hogwarts students in mind, as they struggle through a school year plagued by Severus Snape and the new Ministry ordinances. Keep your heads up, kids. There's hope." There's an audible click, and then the radio falls back into static. Ginny turns it off.
"What do you think happened?" says Hannah. "He wasn't there just to sightsee, I'm sure."
"They rescued a bunch of Muggleborns," says Terry. He bounces his leg. His father isn't Muggleborn, but it's not too much to hope that his mother is safe, is it?
Anthony gives him a worried glance. Terry gives him a hopeful, crazy half-smile; it just ends up being depressing, because Anthony and Terry both know that Terry's parents should have already stood trial. Terry looks away after a moment.
"Right, right," says Ginny. "The point is, why did Harry break into the Ministry?"
"They rescued a bunch of Muggleborns," says Terry again, with the exact same inflection. He pushes his mother out of his mind.
"No, I doubt it," says Ginny. "Harry's a little smarter than that; he knows how risky it is to show his face anywhere."
"I sure hope so," says Seamus, who's leaning back in his chair with one foot on the seat. "Him being our last hope and the Chosen One and all."
Michael, himself, has his doubts. Not about the prophecy; he's not stupid enough to doubt Divination. It's been accurate for centuries. But Harry Potter is almost certainly Gryffindor enough to have broken into the Ministry to save Muggleborns.
Even if it'd been some kind of useless, pointless gesture, though, it'd taken real guts. Michael, who has no guts to speak of, can't disrespect that. He stares fixedly at his crossed ankles and slouches a bit.
"I think," says Ginny, "that Harry went to the Ministry to get something. Over the summer, the Ministry sent someone to our house to deliver things from Dumbledore's will—"
"Harry got stuff?" says Terry. "Why did—"
"And the one thing they didn't let them have was the Sword of Gryffindor," finishes Ginny, sending Terry a glare to shut him up.
"The Sword of Gryffindor?" says Terry, ignoring the glare.
"What does he need a sword for?" says Hannah.
"Well, the Ministry and the Order have tried everything else, I reckon," says Terry.
"Yeah, that'll work," says Seamus. "Just stick You-Know-Who with a sword." Terry puts his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing.
"It was from Dumbledore," says Neville placatingly. "If Dumbledore—"
"Dumbledore wants Harry to stick You-Know-Who with a sword?" says Colin. Terry snorts and doubles over himself; his heavy glasses slip off his nose and fall to the ground, which only makes him laugh harder. Michael sends him an alarmed look. Lavender Brown covers her mouth with her hands to keep from giggling.
"I'm saying we should trust Dumbledore," says Neville over the din. "He's the only one who had any idea what Harry needs to do."
"Why?" says Seamus, and his is only one of the voices that starts to rise. "Are we sure Dumbledore wasn't just old and crazy? He hired Snape—"
"Seamus!" says Neville loudly. "Please."
The Room falls silent. Neville blinks owlishly and glances sideways at Ginny; Ginny takes a deep breath and blows it out. "I think," she says, "that Harry went to the Ministry for the Sword. They didn't let him have it, so I think he assumed it was still in Ministry custody."
"But it's not," says Terry. "It's in the Headmaster's office still, I saw it two weeks ago."
"Exactly," says Neville. "Wait, what were you—"
"Wait," interrupts Michael, to Terry's relief. "Do you mean to say that you want the DA to get the Sword for Harry?"
"Yes," says Ginny.
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"Knut for your thoughts," says Terry to Michael, as they walk back.
"I don't like this," says Michael, predictably. "Of all the places to break into, the absolute stupidest is the Head's office."
"Well," says Terry. "That's Gryffindors for you." They walk on in silence.
Really, Terry sort of likes the idea. It reeks of fancy spellwork and complicated plans, and Terry lives for fancy spellwork and complicated plans. Michael's clearly worrying, and they should all be worrying with him, but Terry has some faith in the DA. Terry's seen Ginny Weasley when she's good and determined.
"What makes a Thestral invisible?" says the door knocker, and Michael and Anthony give Terry an identical weary look as he considers it carefully. He has treated every riddle since second year the exact same way and they are growing more and more sure that the door recognises his answers by now.
"Magic," he says, finally.
"If you say so," says the knocker. Terry smirks, then glances at Anthony for the answer.
"The fear of being misunderstood," says Anthony dryly.
"My way is better," says Terry. Anthony and Michael roll their eyes in unison, two halves of a whole for a moment.
The lesson is on the Cruciatus Curse. More about the use of the curse than the prevention of it. Amycus snaps at Anthony when he points out the illegality and next to him, Terry's hands shake so violently that he spills ink down his front.
As they leave class, Terry struggles to Vanish the ink with one hand, holding his glasses onto his face with the other.
"How far do you reckon they're going to go to keep us in line?" says Michael. Umbridge's quills aside, there are dark stories going around of the Carrows losing their tempers in class. Alecto threw a book at Jack Sloper two days ago, or so they've heard.
"What's that s'posed to mean?" Anthony says. "Terry, d'you want me to-"
"No," says Terry, still sweeping his wand around his torso before he decides, oh, hang it, the robes are black anyway.
"Interrogation spell," says Michael, "or chastisement."
They catch on immediately; Anthony forces a laugh. "Don't be ridiculous. That's illegal."
Terry chokes on his next breath and just nods. Michael is a sort of tiresome pessimist but Terry's worried that Michael's warnings aren't too far from the truth, this time.
"They're Death Eaters," says Michael. "They don't care what's legal."
The DA only plans the mission out over a three-week period, which Michael warns everyone is probably not enough. Ginny says it has to be enough; too much longer and they'll have reshuffled the Prefects' patrol schedule again, and the DA will have to figure out a new route.
There is a diversion planned; Seamus, Lavender, and Michael are breaking into the Great Hall to replace the graffiti that Filch scrubbed away. Michael had volunteered for it in lieu of standing guard outside the Head's office; as the day approaches, he regrets his more and more, though he'd never admit it.
The only ones who actually plan to break into the office are Ginny, Neville, and Luna. Hannah, Anthony, Parvati, and Colin stand guard outside with instructions to change the Galleons if anything goes wrong. The Galleons burn; the people on guard run. Hopefully the rest make it out of the office in time. Hopefully the vandals aren't caught. Hopefully they get the sword. Hopefully.
It's October 31, and the school is frightening. It's not the usual Halloween decorations; it's the absence of them. Michael doesn't mind, because he hates fun and holidays, but Terry sits at breakfast chewing half-heartedly on his toast and missing the cheer. Anthony stands up to intervene in a fight between two third years; Michael sits so still he's practically vibrating. They are all on edge.
Michael meets Lavender and Seamus at midnight in the Room; most of the rest of the senior DA is already there. Anthony is going over the contingency routes back to the Room with Hannah.
Terry had wanted to go, but he's legally blind without his glasses and had made the mistake of telling Neville that. Neville's not risking their mission and their friends to Terry's glasses.
They have smuggled Weasley goods for this mission; there is not much worse than getting caught breaking into the Headmaster's office, and they know it. Michael's not too keen about this bit of it; he's already a slow runner, even when not weighed down with anything that could potentially be useful.
"It's the risk versus reward factor," Terry had said, when Michael had complained. "Probability you get caught isn't too high, but probability of you escaping goes up if you have extra equipment. Probability you don't get caught and the extra stuff interferes with the job is very low."
"I hate you," Michael had replied, which meant he knew Terry was right.
They head out.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never - "
There's a scare on the third floor with Mrs. Norris but they freeze instinctively, and she moves on after a moment.
"Too close," whispers Seamus. Lavender shushes him fervently and they go back to their Common rooms separately.
Alone for four flights of stairs, Michael's breathing gets shorter and less stealthy; by the time he arrives back at Ravenclaw he's ready to faint. He sits heavily between Padma and Terry and stretches out until the door reopens, a half hour later, and Anthony materializes slowly. They know immediately that something is wrong.
"Is Luna there?" says Terry, and Anthony shakes his head. "No," he says. "They got caught."
"Where are they?" says Padma, and Anthony shakes his head again.
"We don't know," he says.
"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.
[Poem: I saw a man pursuing the horizon, Stephen Crane. Thank you for reading.]