Chapter Eleven: Join the Club

"Neville, this Aurore. Aurore, say hello to Neville." Harry introduced the two of them.

Unfortunately, Aurore kept herself mostly hidden behind Harry and Neville was just staring at the floor with an embarrassed look on his face. Both of them were shifting uneasily. It was like dealing with a couple of shy four-year-olds.

"Alright, this clearly isn't working." Harry muttered with a sigh of disappointment. "Why don't you two talk to each other about something? And yes, that means showing your face, Aurore. I swear, you're a completely different person around strangers."

"Err, Hello," Neville muttered and Harry rolled his eyes. The boy hadn't been this introverted when he had walked up to him, though maybe that had something to do with scaring off Malfoy.

"Hi," Aurore squeaked back, still firmly planted behind Harry. It was hard to believe that this was the same person who would almost beat him every time they sparred. There was another uncomfortable silence as neither of the two made any effort to fuel the conversation. Harry held the bridge of his nose in on hand and sighed again.

"Okay, I suppose I'll just get to the point then." Harry's voice cut through the silence like a knife and just barely echoed down the corridor. "Aurore, remember that plan I talked to you about?"

She gave an affirmative nod, fretful eyes still locked on Neville.

"Well, I thought that Neville here would make a nice addition." That grabbed her attention enough for her to fix a startled gaze on him. "Well, technically not an addition, since there's nothing to add him to per se. He would be the first."

"Err, sorry, what plan?" Neville cut in with a puzzled look at the two of them.

"Before I get to that, let me just give you some background information first." Harry replied amiably, though his eyes betrayed that this topic was not a matter to be taken lightly. "Aurore and I have certain enemies, powerful enemies, that I've just learned are a lot more dangerous than I'd thought. The problem is, we can't go to any adults for help, because we know that at least one of the teachers here at Hogwarts is in league with them."

"Who?" Neville whispered, eyes widening drastically. He hadn't expected something like that.

"The man you'd least expect to be working with a group of super-powered magic evildoers: our very own headmaster, Albus Dumbledore." Harry answered in a hard tone.

"But- but that's not possible! Dumbledore's the greatest wizard in the world. How could he be working with dark wizards?" The Gryffindor protested in shock.

"Think for a moment, how much do you really, truly know about him." Harry stopped Neville in his tracks. "Everyone always praises him like the messiah, but have you actually seen any evidence of this supposed greatness? He admitted to being friendly with our enemies who are unquestionably evil, you can trust me on that. He also has way too much power for such a benevolent and peaceful person. Ever since we've met, Dumbledore has taken an unhealthy interest in me. I just know he's planning something."

"Okay, suppose that Dumbledore is... evil? What are we supposed to do? We're just students!" Neville argued.

"Well, we certainly won't be relying on the teachers." Harry responded with a snort before his face turned solemn. "Adults always tell the children 'don't worry about the big problems, we'll deal with those'. How well were all the grown up witches and wizards 'dealing with problems' when Voldemort was around? Just because we're young doesn't mean we're powerless!"

The Gryffindor flinched severely at the word 'Voldemort' and Harry calmed himself down. It was something that he believed very passionately in, and sometimes it was difficult not to shout it out to the world whenever he talked about it.

Neville responded with silent contemplation, or at least it looked like he was contemplating something. If Neville was so much of a math genius, he had to at least have logic in his head, right? Unfortunately, Harry knew, irrationality that had been ingrained into one's mind since they could talk often outweighed logical reasoning. All that was left was to see which was stronger in the Gryffindor.

"I- I think I understand what you mean." Neville finally answered. "But still, fully grown wizards are a lot more powerful than students. Even if them being unable to solve a problem doesn't mean that we can't, it doesn't mean that we can, either."

"So you would just give up on trying something because it might not work?" Harry questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Neville couldn't find a reply for that.

"Listen, just let me explain some things to you, and then you can make your decision." Harry tried to lower the tension that had slowly built up and was now almost tangible. "I'm not proposing that we start a war,"—at least not yet—"but there are some effective things that we can do.

Right now, Dumbledore has hours and hours of free time to plot and plan or whatever it is he does. That's an advantage he has over us. If we can take away his planning time, then it's a stalemate until we can figure a way out of here.

The way to get this done is simple. I've overheard some teachers talking about how some pranks played by the Weasley twins, two particularly creative third years, made them so busy with sorting things out that they could barely spend enough time on teaching.

Unfortunately, simple pranks won't be enough to preoccupy his attention away from what he thinks is more important. So, the plan I've come up with is to raise hell in such a way that Dumbledore thinks he has a new and very formidable enemy.

As soon as we can convince him of that, it's a matter of putting out complicated false leads and sending on a wild goose chase. He'll be busy worrying and preparing for an enemy that doesn't exist and we'll have that planning time without having to worry about Dumbledore making a move just yet, since he'll be so preoccupied.

In order to pull some of these things off, though, we need more than two people. While Aurore and I can both use different kinds of magic from what is common here very powerfully, we have next to no knowledge when it comes to how normal wizards think and act, the way they work as a society. That's why we need you. As soon as I saw how good at maths you are, I knew that you had a lot of potential.

I'm not going to lie to you, Neville. This will be a carefully calculated and very dangerous game. If Dumbledore figures out what we're doing and calls on the Che- on those enemies I told you about, our lives may be put in danger.

Eventually, I do plan to be more aggressive towards those enemies for reasons that I'll tell you if you decide to join us. If you do join us, then when that time comes, I will give you the decision to choose whether you wish to stay or leave and will not fault you for your choice."

"I... really don't know what to say to that." Neville reploed dazedly after a few moments. "You've really thought this through, haven't you? I- I can't decide this right now."

"That's fine, Neville, there's no rush." Harry assured calmly, backed up by a small 'yeah' from Aurore, who had finally come out from behind him and made to join in the discussion. "The position is always open. Just know that there's going to be other people as well. I hope that eventually we'll have twenty or so. I'm not really certain how that will end up, though."

The Gryffindor didn't respond, gazing down as if deep in thought. It would come as a surprise, Harry would be deep in thought after an offer like that too.

"Before, you said 'until we can figure a way out of here'." Neville finally said, looking back up at Harry. "What do you mean?"

"That's my current goal." Harry explained without explaining, then elaborated further. "I want me and Aurore out of this castle. We could just leave, but there's a person here who's very precious to us and I'm not going to leave her here where Dumbledore might as well be all-powerful. She reminds me too much of myself when I think of how I might've turned out."

"You want to leave Hogwarts?! Why?!" Neville exclaimed. It was a testament to the enormity of his shock that the usually shy boy was so loud. Lots of people wanted to get in to Hogwarts, but nobody ever wanted to get out.

"Dumbledore came with all of his knowledge and power to show me just how much I could learn from Hogwarts. And like a moth to flame, I just eagerly jumped right in in spite of all of my suspicions and doubts!" Harry growled, mainly at himself. "Sorry about that, it makes me angry when I think about it.

Dumbledore's influence spans most of Europe and several other places as well, but it is at Hogwarts that he is most powerful. This is not a school, this is his school, and with the way everyone worships him, his authority is absolute.

That's why it's important that our little group of hell raisers needs to be comprised of students. The more people that don't trust him, the less power he has here and the more safe it becomes for us. Eventually I want to find a way to get out without leaving anyone important to me in danger. If you become my, err, comrade -man, that feels weird to say- then you will also become one of the people who are precious to me."

"I thought you were done with the speeches." Neville quipped with a small smile, though he still looked stunned by everything. "I'll come back and talk to you in a couple days. I just- I don't know how to respond to that."

Not waiting for a response, the Gryffindor hastily made his exit. When he was about thirty meters away down the corridor and just about to make a turn, he called back. "You talk like an adult, you know!"

The Gryffindor scampered away and out of sight before Harry could shout back that he wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. Slightly miffed at not getting the last word, he turned back to Aurore, who bow seemed more at ease without Neville.

"I suppose we ought to head back too." Harry stated without visible emotion.

Aurore nodded and hummed in agreement.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Neville Longbottom found, much to his distress, that sleep evaded him. There were so many questions buzzing in his head that he hardly even knew which ones to ask himself first! These people wanted to go against Dumbledore!

His gran had always told him how Dumbledore was a great wizard and a great man. And she'd raised him ever since he could remember. But at the same time time, he couldn't deny the logic of Harry's words, if what he said was true.

The entire thing only became more complicated when he learned quite unexpectedly that Harry was not just some random student with a vendetta against Dumbledore, but Harry Potter, the savior of the wizarding world!

He'd never seen the Boy-Who-Lived up close before, as he had been certain that the famous Ravenclaw would want nothing to do with someone like him, but Neville had definitely recognized him when he came in for lunch and had nearly fainted when he'd heard Professor Flitwick address him as 'Mr. Potter'.

Who should he trust more, the savior of the wizarding world, or his gran? When it came down to it, Neville loved his grandmother. It was hard not to when she was the only person who was always present in his life. He loved her, but he didn't particularly like her. She was too controlling and irritable in his opinion (though he would never say that aloud).

Harry, on the other hand, he did like. There was something about the Boy-Who-Lived that just drew him, and it's not as if the person who'd defeated You-Know-Who could be so wrong, right? Then again, could Dumbledore be evil? It was all so confusing!

Imagining what could happen to the world if Dumbledore actually was evil made the boy shiver. Despite what people might've said, Neville was not in any way stupid. The effects of Albus Dumbledore turning on the world would be catastrophic. One man had the power to do all of that. He suddenly realized why Harry had been so worried about their headmaster having too much power.

'If you become my, err, comrade... Then you will also become one of the people who are precious to me.' Harry's words rang in his head like a broken record. A friend...

A few minutes later, Neville made his decision, and the seeds of great change were planted in his soul.

/-/-/-/-/-/-wouldn't this be a great place to end the chapter?-/-/-/-/-/-/

In the middle of a dark and empty classroom at the late hours of the night, two twin boys with uncommonly bright orange hair began to plot, impish grins painted across their features. The interesting thing about their scheming was that they never actually spoke to each other using complete sentences. Instead, it was as if each twin could predict what the other was going to say, thusly negating the need for coherent speech.

"We found-" the golden room.

"Yes, but-" people say there are traps inside.

"Since when have we-" ever let something like that stop us.

"Too true, though-" we should come prepared.

"Indeed, dear brother, but how much-" should we prepare for this?

"No chances," we go all out.

"Tomorrow at midnight," that's when we'll strike.

"Agreed"

Quiet as mice, the two tiptoed out of the classroom and sneaked away and back to their dormitories. All the time, the Cheshire Cat grins never left their faces.

(A/N): Whew, chapter is over. I actually wasn't sure I would complete this in time, since a bunch of crazy techno-crap made me lose this chapter and also the next chapter, which I had been working on. The techno-crap was probably my fault for not saving properly or something, though...

On another note, there's something else I'd like to bring up. I doubt many of you noticed, but I took down the A/N in chapter eight that was all "Dumbledore is not evil, please don't hate me!". Reading some of the comments reminded me that some people actually like Evil!Dumbledore, actually a lot of people. I also realized that at this point, I'm not really sure whether I want Dumbledore to be evil or not, so it's still up in the air right now.

Until next time, my beautiful readers!