ENDLESS NIGHT
A sliver of light shone in the pitch-black room for a moment before a pair of footsteps echoed as the light went out, the sole inhabitant on the room unmoving as he listened to his companion slowly descending the stairs to join him in the darkness.
"Umbridge isn't going to last much longer before she snaps," the voice of his most trusted advisor said simply as he turned his head in her direction. "Between Skeeter and the 'Golden Duo', she's being run ragged. She'll do something drastic to try reassert her dominance, and when it fails she'll lash out violently".
"I know," was all he said in response. He'd seen people like that before; his 'family' were people like that.
"Are we prepared for it?"
"Yes," he confessed before hesitating, "No".
Eyes blindly staring dead ahead, he listened as his companion moved slowly around his throne-like armchair to stand in front of him, almost sensing the way she put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrow. "What's that saying?" he asked casually, trying to keep the strain out of his voice, "She's 'all bark' and 'no bite'?"
"I'd hardly say having the Ministry behind her gives her no bite".
"I'd hardly say having the Ministry behind her gives her a bite in the first place," he countered immediately. "She won't risk going public, she'll be slapped down faster than she can blink and she knows it. She'll try attack directly and privately, and we're prepared for that".
"No. You're prepared for that, I don't see – why are we sitting in the dark again? Lumos!"
Cringing as light blossomed from the tip of Hermione's wand, Harry reached up to shield his eyes as his head throbbed in pain. "That's better," his best friend said simply as she flicked her wand to banish the light into the air above their heads.
"Now! You may be prepared for this, Harry, but I'm not," she continued as she sat down in the armchair beside his, "You have your telekinesis and telepathy, but I'm still an untrained witch".
"I'm barely more trained than you," Harry argued as he rubbed his temple. "And my telepathy isn't like that, it's... complicated".
"Of course it is," Hermione agreed, head still even though her voice betrayed her eye roll. "No offence, Harry. But it's still more than I've got. As horrid as she might be, Umbridge is still a fully-trained witch. And well… as amazing as the DA has been lately I don't think I'm ready to take someone like her on". Hermione paused with a disturbed expression on her face, "For someone who takes pleasure in carving open children's hands, I don't imagine she'll hesitate to use some dark curses if it's for the 'Greater Good'," she admitted slowly, "And the spells we've learnt in the DA will only get me so far if I'm right".
Not answering straight away, Harry clenched his hand into a fist beneath his robes as he turned to stare at the large poster of him on the wall. The work of Gred and Forge, he was lucky that the enchantments they'd cast on it had worn off by now, as his giant face staring down at him randomly shouting things like 'Dung!' and 'Umbridge!' would be sure to make his growing migraine only worse.
"You won't be alone," he promised slowly, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against his chair. "Whatever she does to you, just call my name and I'll show up to help you. We'll tie her up and dump her in a trunk for the rest of the term if we have to," he suggested as he cracked an eye open to watch Hermione's snort. "Lock her in the trunk and get Fluffy to guard the room so no-one can release her. Dobby can give her food to stop her from starving to death and we can spend the rest of the year in peace".
"Right up until Filch walks past whistling a ditty and knocks Fluffy out," Hermione countered.
"Ear plugs. Giant ear plugs".
Hermione snorted again. "Of course, why ever didn't I think of that myself?" she asked sarcastically.
"You were too busy marvelling at my sheer genius," Harry deadpanned, earning a third snort from his best friend as he shifted slowly in his armchair. "I had another dream," he blurted suddenly, unable to keep it to himself for much longer, staring at Hermione who just froze in response. "Voldemort was talking to Rookwood, something about Avery lying to him about taking 'It' from the Department. I think he was talking about the weapon Padfoot mentioned. They mentioned Bode," he added, knowing his friend would that find that titbit interesting.
"Bode... so that's why they killed him," Hermione murmured slowly, her brain moving at a hundred miles per hour as usual. "There must be defensive spells on the weapon or something, that's why he was in St Mungo's. And Voldemort killed him because he was recovering and would be able to identify who put him under the Imperius Curse, they couldn't risk it".
"And now Rookwood's told Voldemort how to get whatever the weapon is, but Voldemort still can't for some reason," Harry mused, "I just got the feeling that he can't," he clarified when Hermione frowned at him.
"You're not supposed to be feeling anything, Harry," the bushy-haired brunette pointed out with a sniff. "Professor Snape is teaching you Occlumency for a reason, remember?"
"And it's working," Harry defended, keeping up the lie about Snape's Occlumency training, he didn't want her getting suspicious about where he was really going after all. "I mean I'm in control again, I can feel him trying to slip in and he can't. This time though I slipped into his mind".
"Can you even do that?" Hermione questioned suspiciously, "I mean, I thought your telepathy was more communication and advanced warnings?"
"That's what I thought," he admitted with a shrug, "I still feel like there's some kind of connection between us, like a backdoor in my mind or something. Not like Snape's doing anything to help," Harry muttered darkly, his usual hatred of Snape helping relax Hermione.
"Promise me you'll try clear your mind tonight," his friend pressed slowly.
"I do it every night, Hermione," Harry defended sheepishly, "It just doesn't work so well each time," he explained thinking back to the frustrating book on meditation hidden inside his pillow.
"Promise you'll try harder?"
Rolling his eyes, Harry meet Hermione's and smiled. "I promise".
Hermione stared at him for a moment before nodding in satisfaction. "Now that we're down here anyway, have you done your homework?"
No. Harry had not done his homework.
If he had, then Harry would without a doubt remember the exact purpose of the Patronus Charm. Said purpose was to ward of beings of darkness like Dementors and Lethifolds, and coincidentally, Solani.
Thankfully Harry was only half-Solani, or he imagined he'd have melted into a puddle of Solani-goo on the floor the very first time someone (Hermione) had managed to summon their Patronus. As it was, he was lucky he'd only been struck with the almost overpowering urge to be sick along with a minor case of sunburn. There was also the stabbing pain in the back of his head that happened whenever he looked directly at a Patronus, but that was thankfully averted by a pair of conjured black sunglasses and an easily accepted excuse of migraines.
"They're so pretty!" Cho was saying, making Harry roll his eyes safely behind his sunglasses.
He didn't like her anymore. She'd cancelled on him twice now for their date, and although he had been going to cancel on her anyway Harry was offended by her sudden dislike of him. He didn't like being dumped. He'd mentioned this to Hermione, who'd only muttered 'Boys' under her breath before listening to him rant without complaints.
"They're not meant to be pretty, they're meant to protect you," Harry shot back across the room, earning a warning look from both her and Hermione. "What we need is a Boggart, that's how I learned. I had to summon a Patronus with a Boggart-Dementor right there. It's much harder but it works a lot better when you need to use it in a real scenario".
"But wouldn't that be scary?" Lavender asked nervously, another failed attempt at casting the Patronus falling from her wand.
"That's the idea," Harry admitted bluntly, easily pushing down the part of him that just wanted to watch and laugh as they all failed just like he did. Glancing over at the door as it opened and shut on an invisible person, he absently reached out with his mind and felt no-one, relaxing for a moment before something tugged softly on the leg of his pants.
"Master Harry Potter Sir?"
"Dob-" he froze as he caught sight of the terror in the house-elf's eyes and the tremor to his limbs. "What's wrong?"
"Dobby has come to warn you!" squeaked the elf, trembling from the tips of his toes all the way up past the eight knitted hats on his head. "But the house-elves have been warned not to tell..." as the house-elf made to sprint at the wall, Harry's hand snapped out and caught the normally excited elf with his telekinesis.
"Dobby? What were you warned not to tell us about? I don't want to know what it is," Harry interrupted quickly as Dobby whined, "I just want to know what whoever it was told you".
The house-elf looked stricken for a moment before freezing, blinking up at him in adoration before a grin flashed across his face. "Bossy Toadlady ordered the house-elves not to warn Harry Potter's group that she was coming to get them now," the house-elf blurted out quickly, slapping himself across the face seconds later.
The entire room going even quieter than Dobby's presence had already made it, Harry only had a couple of seconds to think before everyone started panicking. With dread rapidly filling his chest, he looked around the terrified students, wondering how in Merlin's name was he supposed to get them all to safety. Even if he was willing to out his teleporting ability, he still wouldn't be able to transport everyone to their common rooms before Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad showed up to –
"If the Elders discover that the Solani still live, then a warning message will be sent out telepathically to everyone we can. If you're in Nighthaven when you get this message, you're to grab everyone who cannot travel through the wards on their own and smoke out, don't stand and fight just run".
"Dobby!" the house-elf stopped pinching himself immediately. "The house-elves aren't allowed to warn us, but can you all apparate us near our common rooms so we can escape Bossy Toadlady?" he asked quickly.
The house-elf didn't even stop to answer him, instead vanishing with a loud crack and leaving Harry to glance up at a proud-looking Hermione.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Harry roared to be heard over the panicked dim as he turned towards everyone else. "SPLIT UP INTO YOUR HOUSES AND THE HOUSE-ELVES WILL COME TO COLLECT YOU SAFELY! DO NOT MENTION THE DA TO ANYONE, NOT EVEN EACH OTHER. DO NOT APPROACH ME ASKING ABOUT NEXT WEEK'S CLASS. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THE DA UNTIL THE ALL-CLEAR IS GIVEN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
There was no time for answers though as house-elves appeared scattered all across the room and started sprinting at the DA members, tackling random groups at a time and vanishing with almost ear-splitting cracks.
It was utter chaos.
Meeting Hermione's eyes for a moment, Harry just reached out silently for her hand, his best friend blushing slightly as she accepted it and he pulled her close. "It's okay," he promised simply, "She won't catch us".
Hermione made to smile but instead froze, tearing herself from Harry's arms and running off into the still panicked crowd.
"Was it something I said?" he asked Dobby dumbly, the house-elf just blinking at him with wide eyes as Harry tried to track Hermione in the wildly moving group of students. "Girls, eh? They're impossible to understand".
"Got it!" Hermione exclaimed as she appeared out of nowhere, something white clutched in her hand.
Feeling Dobby's hand curling around his leg, Harry was being forced through a tube the size of a pin within seconds, all the air being forced from his lungs as he flew through the darkness with only Dobby's hand on his leg to hold him down. As quickly as it had begun it was over, leaving both Hermione and Harry collapsing to the floor gasping for breath in the middle of the Gryffindor common room.
"Quickly," Hermione rasped out, thrusting whatever was in her hands at Harry. "Destroy it; it's enchanted so only you can".
Blinking dumbly as he pulled the thing from Hermione's wildly waving arms, Harry found himself staring down at a piece of parchment bearing the names of all the DA's members. "I thought this was that contract of silence thing?" he questioned as he heard the Gryffindor members of the DA going around ordering their house-mates to claim they had been there all afternoon.
"It's also a list of our names," Hermione explained gently, "We can't leave it around for Umbridge to find!"
Realisation hitting him, Harry quickly shoved his way through the confused crowd to the fireplace, throwing the parchment in without hesitation, hearing a loud sigh of relief from Hermione as it started burning immediately.
"Meet me here at midnight again," Hermione ordered, appearing at his side to whisper in his ear, "We'll talk about it then. Right then," she continued loud enough to be overheard, "I guess you're right, I am four chapters ahead in Transfiguration, I do deserve some off time".
"Go finish that book your Mum sent you," Harry suggested lazily, catching on quickly. "You said you couldn't wait to start it right?"
"Exactly!"
As Hermione turned and headed straight up to her dormitory, Harry looked around the common room to find a surprise. Even the Gryffindors who Harry knew hated him and thought him an insane liar were looking at him with respect on their faces. He didn't need to try figure out what it meant though, as there was a quiet cough before someone spoke.
"Umbridge is a right pain in the ass isn't she?"
Roars erupting across the common room as people agreed with the speaker, Harry used the distraction for what it was and slipped through the crowd, heading towards his own dormitory. Glancing back to meet Neville's eye, Harry nodded in thanks for the distraction and started up the stairs, entering his dormitory and ignoring Ron as the red-haired moron started glaring at him immediately.
Tonight was too close, Harry realised as he dressed in casual sleeping clothes. If the DA ever wanted to meet up again they'd have to change how they did things a lot. For one they could never meet in the Room of Requirement again, if Umbridge knew where it was then it would be stupid to return. And secondly they needed to up their security measures to prevent her from finding out about it again, whether someone overheard them or one of their members tattled (something told Harry that they were betrayed by one of their own), they would need to make sure it didn't happen again.
That was, of course, if the DA could ever meet up again with him at its head. Umbridge would be watching him like a cat watches a mouse, ready to pounce the moment he put one toe out of line.
Hermione had been right last night; Umbridge would be making her move soon. And her failed attempt at catching them at the DA meeting would only spur her into making that move sooner rather than later.
He couldn't wait.
ENDLESS NIGHT
I will admit. I'm a little disappointed that it seems like my sister was the only person to notice my joke about Dumbledore in the previous chapter. On the bright side though, that disappointment was quickly vanquished by JasonDragon64 claiming I'm funnier than Jeff Dunham - while I'm hesitant to believe I could ever be funnier than that man, I'm flattered by the comparison!
