Chapter three- An Army of Two (October 1996)
The evening wasn't a pleasant one, the last of the Indian Summer dying as October slipped into November. It had started to rain so the Hufflepuffs along with their honorary Ravenclaw took a place inside of the Leaky Cauldron next to the fire.
Sinking into a battered leather sofa, Verity watched Simon roll her a cigarette, her mind full of her disappointment that Fred had remained stubbornly tight lipped for the rest of her shift. Whatever George had said to him, it had been persuasive enough to leave Verity hanging. Around the coffee table were their various assorted drinks; a cheap cider for Earnest, ale for Brynn and Simon while Justine modestly sipped a butterbeer.
Verity was not so modest, knocking back her wine like there was something secret hiding in the bottom of the glass.
"So Si," asked Bryn with a lazy smile, "were the numbers behaving themselves today? Or are we all doomed?"
Simon tapped his nose, "I can't say. I'm an Unspeakable, Bryn, the clue is in the name." He threaded his fingers through Verity's after handing her the cigarette.
"You're a glorified maths nerd," teased Verity. "And when you say 'I can't say'- that just means you didn't get any solid answers today. Though of course we don't need numbers anymore to predict the whole 'we're all doomed' thing."
Around the table, her schoolmates sipped their drinks awkwardly and Verity released that she probably wasn't being at all fun to be around. Her friends were still as content as she had been to bury their heads in the sand. It was all going to be sorted out soon, just another little hiccough- like the hoo-ha that had been around when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, when Sirius Black had escaped- it was just another problem for people cleverer and braver than they were to fix.
"Bryn got off with someone last night," she said to Simon, shifting the topic to happier things. "Another muggle girl, of course."
"What can I say, muggles are fun. The lights and the music, the short skirts and the vodka shots. I'm a hopeless addict."
Simon grinned, "We do know how to do good nights out- it's true. You wouldn't get the sort of girl you find in a muggle club walking through these doors. "
"But would you want to? Careful, Simon."
"God no- can you imagine a hag in a mini dress?" He leaned over and kissed Verity on the cheek, scratchy stubble against her face. "Anyway, I like my girls a little classier than that."
"So you're seeing someone other than Verity?" said Justine. Verity dipped her hand in her glass and sprinkled wine on Justine.
It got easier after that, much easier after the third glass of wine of the evening and as the crowd in Leaky Cauldron began to thin and the fire in the grate burned into its embers. The group got louder, their laughter filling the emptying pub- all but Earnest, who was as solemn drunk as he was sober.
"Seriously, the arse on this girl," Bryn had degenerated into relaying tales of another conquest. Verity placed her hands over Simon's ears.
"We need to go out together," Verity announced firmly. "A proper Hufflepuff night out in a muggle club…Simon can come too, of course."
"Thanks, good to know I can tag along," he rolled his eyes.
"I'd tie you up outside on a leash like a dog. But don't worry, we'd put some water in a bowl for you. You'd be up for that wouldn't you 'Tine?"
"We can't really afford it at the moment," shrugged Justine, one eye slipping shut as she struggled to keep her drunken head up. Lightweight. Earnest shot his girlfriend a mutinous glance. "I mean, I'm sure it will be alright when Earnest gets published, but right now things are a bit tight."
"Oh yes…your great biography of Elfrida what's-her-face. Past the introduction yet, mate?" said Bryn, draining the dregs of his beer mug.
"It's Elfrida Clagg- Chieftainess of the Warlock Council. And it takes a lot of research…but it'll sell. I know it will sell," he looked desperately at Justine as if to say 'I promise it will sell'. Justine just smiled drunkenly and ran her hands through his hair.
"You could always get something small in the meantime, something that wouldn't take up too much time and would at least get you some gold. I mean, if you're really hard up I could have a word with Fred and George- it's a really good place to-"
"Yes thank you Verity," snapped Earnest. "But I think I'm a bit over qualified for that. I mean, who wants to waste their time in a shop? Working for people who were in the year below us at school- it's demeaning."
"I like it," shrugged Verity- it wasn't as though she hadn't heard all of this before, and far worse from Constance anyway.
"I have ambitions, no offense Verity. And not all of us have the luxury of being able to live with our parents forever."
"I have ambitions, too," said Verity. "I do." Now, if only she could actually think of any of them. "Private ambitions."
Earnest snorted. Verity was about to call him up on it when Justine started snoring. She exchanged a glance with Bryn and let out a bark of laughter.
"Think you'd better take her home, mate," grinned Bryn. "Oof, she'll feel that tomorrow."
Both Bryn and Earnest stood up, hauling Justine with them supporting her on both of their shoulders.
"Night you two."
Verity blew a kiss and one after the other they stepped into the floo grates, yelling the names of their respective homes. Taking her last sip of wine Verity turned to Simon and leaned into his chest.
"Mmm, booze," she said into his work robes. "You're warm." Simon tipped her head up to kiss her and when they broke away he was smiling.
"Did you have an alright time today?"
"I did. It's good to be back at work, whether it's demeaning or not."
"Earnest's just stressed about money- don't take it personal."
"Nah I didn't. You coming back to mine tonight?" asked Verity, leaning back into Simon's chest.
"Very tempting, but I have to be in early tomorrow."
"My super important Unspeakable boyfriend."
"Not glorified maths nerd?"
"Of course not, who would even say that?"
They kissed again and Verity finally pulled herself up from the sofa, "I think Tom over there is giving us the evil eye; wants to close up." She gave the barman a cheeky wave and Simon, pretending to be mortified pulled it down.
"Cheating little hussy."
"I'll see you tomorrow," grinned Verity, pecking Simon on the lips and stepping into the grate.
The house was dark, the curtains all drawn and Verity staggered into the living room, stumbling over one of the cushions that had fallen to the floor. Fumbling for her wand, Verity cast lumos just to light her way up the stairs and hopefully to flop into bed. But then again, she might as well take the scenic route and go via the kitchen for a late night snack.
In the slim glow emitted from her wand, Verity could see that like the rest of the house the living room was in a state of disarray. She had tracked ash from the fireplace onto her mother's fresh cream carpets, there were bottles and fag butts here and there too while books from the book shelf were organised neatly onto the floor. The only thing that flourished in here, thanks to Hannah's efforts were the plants which had grown lush and thick and green.
Once she reached the kitchen, Verity went for the bread bin and decided that she might has well go the whole hog and make herself a sausage sandwich. Lighting the range with her wand, Verity was just listening to the satisfying sizzle of sausages in the pan when she heard something like a small explosion from upstairs.
Her first thought was Death Eaters- they'd got Mum and now they had broken in to finish the job. Forgetting the sausages, Verity found herself wishing that she had passed her apparating test- but acknowledged that she wouldn't be much use to her family if she showed up upstairs with one of her legs still downstairs. She ran as quick as she could, following the sound of another explosion into Hannah's room.
Considering it, it wasn't the best thing to do- her wand was still on the kitchen counter downstairs.
Fortunately for Verity there was no one but Hannah there.
"Reducto,"said Hannah clearly, pointing to her bed. On it were several plates from the kitchen lined up, fragments of china littered all over her floor. As she said the curse, another shattered into pieces. She noticed Verity and automatically put her wand behind her back.
"Hannah, what the bloody hell are you doing?"
Verity looked at the broken plates and then back at her sister, concluding quite reasonably that Hannah had gone mental.
"I thought you'd gone to Simon's," said Hannah, which wasn't really an answer to Verity's question.
"I hope you were planning on fixing those. Jeez, if you need an outlet why don't you just get drunk or something- it works for dad and me."
"I was practising," said Hannah feebly.
"That's illegal," said Verity, remembering that Hannah wasn't even of age. "You could get arrested for that. Shit, we do not need the improper use of magic people coming around here at this hour."
"It's fine," said Hannah and she blushed. "I did research. If there are other people of age in the house then it scrambles the trace on me- they'll all assume Dad is doing magic around me. I just… didn't want to fall behind."
"So you decided to blow up our crockery. What the bloody hell are we going to eat off of tomorrow? That's just stupid, that's moronic, that's…that's… actually that was really good," Verity frowned, as it hit her what she'd seen. The reductor curse was a tricky one, that Verity had never been able to master in all of her years at Hogwarts and here was Hannah who frequently burst into tears waiting on her OWL results that summer because she was convinced she'd failed everything, pulling it off beautifully.
"Do that again," said Verity, folding her arms and leaning against the door.
"Are you serious?"
Verity was, so Hannah prepared herself. Clearly Verity had unsettled her a little as she didn't hit the plate square in the middle this time but it was still far more than Verity could manage and that plate was now definitely reducted.
"Well I suppose we don't have to worry about the washing up anymore."
"Don't tell Dad," said Hannah desperately, clasping her hands in the begging position. "Please, don't tell him."
"You know I won't," Verity waved her hands, as if to bat away all the pleading. "But seriously, that was really really good Hannah. I had no idea you were so talented."
Hannah shook her head "I'm not. Not at all, no. I just had a good teacher really."
"In Defence Against the Dark Arts?" scoffed Verity, "Did we go to the same school because I seem to remember, aside from Professor Lupin ,all of the old teachers were monumentally crap." Verity still bitterly maintained that if Gilderoy Lockhart hadn't been her teacher during her OWL year she would have got higher than a P.
"Well," Hannah gave a sheepish smile. "I might not have had an official, qualified teacher."
"What does that even mean?"
"Harry Potter," said Hannah with a proud smile, brushing aside some of the shards of exploded plates and sitting on her bed.
"The chosen one? Blimey, Hannah. Well, I suppose he'd know all about defence against the dark arts wouldn't he?"
"It was last year," continued Hannah excitedly. "You know I told you about that Umbridge woman not teaching us properly- well Harry Potter decided that since you know who was back, even though no one was admitting it back then, we needed to know the important stuff and Ernie got me into it. Guess what we called ourselves?"
Verity pulled a face, "Oh I dunno, The Screaming Hippo Society…what?"
"Dumbledore's army," giggled Hannah. "An army. Anyway, we learnt loads of defensive spells from Harry Potter that we could actually use. That he used against you know who and survived. And well…since I'm not there anymore, I didn't want to forget anything- especially if…."
"If what?"
Hannah leapt up and ran to her bedside drawer, fishing inside and pulling out a plain silver sickle. "Look."
"It's a coin," said Verity sceptically, her mind going back to the original 'Hannah has lost her marbles' line of thought.
"It's my coin. All of us in the DA have one. Whenever we had a meeting, the numbers here would change to reveal the time and date. And one day it's going to happen again, someone's going to need me and I'm going to go. I'm going to be ready for it this time too. That's why I'm practising ,Verity, so I can be useful."
Useful. The concept struck a chord with Verity who studied the coin. Hannah had the right idea, really, Verity couldn't fault that. But the thought of Hannah waiting by a coin and rushing off to be killed made Verity feel more than a little queasy. But she looked far happier and more alive than she had been in months. This was the Hannah Verity knew, the Hannah she had missed terribly.
There was silence for a moment before Verity finally decided to just go for it and speak. "So you learnt the reductor curse, what else?"
Hannah chewed her lip, remembering, "A disarming charm, the impediment jinx, the stunning spell, shield charms, a patronus charm-."
"You know how to do a patronus!" exclaimed Verity, now she was seriously impressed.
"Well, almost. I wasn't really getting it at school as fast as everyone else, but I came home this summer and practised lots," Hannah smiled impishly and Verity had to wonder for just how long her little sister had been secretly violating the restrictions on underage magic. "I pretty much had it down by the time I went back to Hogwarts- I was going to show Ernie…but Mum…" Hannah's smile faded, "I don't think I'll be able to do it any more. It's harder to think of happy memories now."
As soon as Hannah mentioned Mum, Verity knew that she'd made up her mind. There was no other option, not really.
"Hannah, do you think you could teach me?"
"Huh?"
"Well, it's like you said. We need to know this stuff- I never paid attention at school because it never occurred to me that we'd ever be in danger…but now we are and I'm a pile of hot turd when it comes to defensive spells. I want to be able to fight back. I want to be useful too."
"I've never taught anyone before, Verity. I was pretty much the worst one in the DA."
"You'll be able to run through it nice and slow for me then. And while you teach me you can practise too. If there's one thing Hufflepuff's are good at it's sticking at something and practising as hard as we can, even if we aren't the best at it to begin with."
Hannah considered it before she finally said, "Okay, I suppose I could try."
Verity smiled wide, pleased to finally say that she was actually doing something as opposed to milling around at the joke shop all day and getting drunk all night.
"Let's be useful for a bloody change! If Mum could see us now…"
Hannah nodded. "We'll be ready, I suppose…but I don't know what we'll be ready for."
"I suppose when the time comes, we'll know. Everyone gets an opportunity- even Hufflepuffs. Now, come on- you can teach me how to explode a plate. And if we're feeling particularly powerful we could even blow up a tea pot."
Hannah smiled at this, and then wrinkled up her nose, "Do you smell burning?"
"Oh shit, sausages!"
