Bellamy frowned at the framed picture he was hanging up. Looking behind him he asked, "Is it straight now?"
"A little up on the left." Octavia replied from where she was curled up in one of the chairs in the common room.
He shifted it a bit and looked back at his sister in question.
"Too far."
"O, we've been at this for ten minutes now!" He threw his hands up and jumped down from the stool he'd been standing on. "It's as straight as it's going to get."
"Damn it Bellamy," Octavia snapped, "It's Atom, we have to get this right." Her voice quavered slightly over Atom's name and she glared at him.
"Sweet Merlin, would you two shut up! It's straight, leave it." Monroe snapped from her place on a couch.
Aden snorted into his hot cocoa at the drama around him. Bellamy glared at the sound but quickly noticed that the crowd around him were all in various states of amusement. Most of Gryffindor house was assembled in their common room. Sighing he ran his hand through his hair. Without a distraction, his mind quickly returned to the grim reason for their assembly, though Atom was never far from his mind these days.
"Well then since it's 'straight' let's get this thing going." Clearing his throat, he began speaking, letting the grief he had been feeling lend weight to his voice. "As you know, one of our own disappeared two weeks ago. His trunk was missing and Sydney says he ran away because he couldn't handle the 'stress' of school. He hasn't been heard from since and now they say he must have been the victim of a tragic accident in the Forbidden Forest. It seems suspicious to me that he disappeared on the same night that Shumway suddenly took a leave of absence." Murmurs could be heard and numerous heads nodded in response to his remark.
"I can't tell you what truly happened. What I can tell you is that our friend was no coward. Atom stood up against bullying he did not whimper and cower in the face of the constant abuse and derogatory treatment inflicted on mixed blood and muggleborn students. That is why we have come here tonight to remember our friend, to celebrate him, and to honor a true Gryffindor hero." He raised his mug of hot chocolate. "To Atom!"
The room raised their mugs, Bellamy felt guilt swirling in his gut at having to twist the tale, but there was a certain poetic justice in fanning the flames of the conspiracy theories placing the blame for Atom's disappearance on Shumway.
"Atom was our friend, our brother. He may have disappeared but we won't let our fight and spirit disappear with him. No, let's show our Gryffindor courage. Let's come together and show this school that prejudice and bullying will not be allowed if any Gryffindor has anything to say about it." The crowd assembled around him cheered and Bellamy could see determination and drive light up in their eyes.
Bellamy walked over and leaned against a wall next to Miller. The common room was filled with voices as people started taking turns telling stories about Atom. He felt a smile tugging at his lips as Roma talked about the time, a third year, Atom jinxed a Slytherin girl that had called her a mudblood. The girl only let out honks for hours. The Slytherin had spent those hours chasing him through the castle trying to hit him with stinging hexes.
Miller shifted slightly, "You know I think the picture is a bit crooked actually."
"If you tilt your head slightly it's straight." Bellamy replied, looking at the definitely not straight picture. It was Atom's most prized possession, an autographed picture he had gotten of him standing with the Holly Head Harpy team. He'd gotten it at the game he'd won tickets to in a radio contest. He was standing in the center of the picture with the team around him and the beam on his face seemed to radiate happiness. All the players had signed the picture as well. The picture was now framed in the nicest frame they could transfigure and was proudly on display on the wall of the common room. It had been Harper's idea and they had all agreed.
Bellamy choked up on first seeing it realizing that Atom would never smile like that again. He felt the weight of Atom's death keenly. Atom had been following his lead when they pulled all those pranks and he had been trying to protect Bellamy's sister. Bellamy hoped that the picture would remind him of the cost of failure and what it was that they were all fighting for so he would never forget. Though the house had been given an edited version of events he hoped that they would get a similar inspiration from the picture.
"How's the research for enchanting our meeting room with the notice me not and silencing charms going?" Bellamy asked quietly.
"It's coming. Bryan has been helping find materials."
"Do you need any help with it?"
"Not unless you know someone else trustworthy with knowledge of enchantments. Really, it's just time consuming. The castle doesn't like being messed with."
Bellamy bumped Miller slightly. "Like the time you tried to enchant the door of the bathroom to not open for Slytherins but instead it just screamed when anyone touched it?"
Miller laughed sharply, "Rookie mistake there."
After that, the two friends fell into silence as they watched and listened to the gathering honoring their missing friend.
-MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA-
Breakfast the next morning was a slow affair. Gryffindor house was united in their exhaustion after staying up too late. Bellamy gratefully accepted the pot of coffee from Sterling. Having friends in other houses had unexpected bonuses, like coffee from the Hufflepuff table when they ran out at their own.
Octavia was snoring softly on his shoulder. He poured some of the new coffee into a mug and added the ridiculous amounts of sugar and cream his sister liked. Taking the mug, he waved it in front of her nose.
"Hmmm….smells good." She murmured reaching for it blindly.
He raised his eyebrows, "I think you're forgetting something."
Octavia groaned. "You're the best brother ever. Now give me my coffee." He surrendered the mug to her and she sighed in happiness as she breathed it in, sipping slowly after he had placed it in her outstretched hands.
"That's right I'm the best brother ever." He yawned while patting his sister on the head.
"Ass," she murmured into her coffee.
Bellamy chose to ignore the insult and began to munch on his morning toast. Getting through the day was going to be awful.
Four hours later and Bellamy was drooling on his history text. As much as he loved history, Binns had the magical power to put almost anyone to sleep. His will power gave in five minutes into the lecture.
He jumped awake when Miller kicked his chair. Glancing round he scrubbed at his face while making sure Binns hadn't noticed. The ghost was still droning on though so he figured he was safe. He turned to glare at Miller, who just shrugged unapologetically before gesturing towards the clock. Seeing that the class was going to be ending soon he decided to thank Miller for the warning instead of hexing him.
As soon as class ended he slipped out of the door to avoid the rush. He was missing lunch for this, he thought dismally while jumping over a trick step and heading up to the owlery. As he emerged outside and made his way across the last stretch to the owlery, he felt the cold nipping at his face. The weather had turned over the weekend the first frost settling in. When he at last arrived he saw Clarke standing there, a beautiful screech owl on her arm. He paused to watch her stroking it and cooing at it.
"So you have a soft spot for owls then?" He asked walking in the rest of the way.
She glanced over at him. "Not particularly, but my father got him for me when I was ten so I could send letters to Wells while we were in France."
He nodded in understanding. He was quickly realizing that her father was her hero. "So any news on the communication devices? Cause no offense but it's freezing up here."
She arched an eyebrow at him "You play quidditch?" She set the bird down on a nearby perch before turning around facing him properly. "Hold out your hands."
Cautiously, he held his hand out, curious about what she was doing. He yelped when she conjured blue flames in his hands. It took him a second to realize it wasn't burning him. Indignantly he glowered at her amused face. "You could have warned a bloke."
"You're the one who forgot he is a wizard."
"Oh ha ha." He pulled the crackling blue flames closer to him, they were warming him up quite nicely now that he wasn't freaking out over whether they'd burn him or not. "So is Raven done with the communication devices?"
"She found a charm that will work, the Proteon charm. Course there was a lot of technical talk about reworking the spell so proper messages could be sent. Honestly, I don't understand half of her spell crafting jargon. She was thinking jewelry would work for passing on short messages to each other like times and places for meetings, even a warning message. They heat up when used so we would know when a new message came through and then we would have two minutes to read it." She pulled out a pocket watch, "I was thinking I could use my dad's old watch."
"That's brilliant, you think it will work?" He queried.
"Oh course, if Raven say's it'll work, it'll work. I wanted to get your input and make sure you were on board before we moved forward with enchanting though."
Bellamy felt awkward. He knew he was technically a leader but Clarke was the one with the ideas and well the everything. Clearing his throat, he replied. "Thanks, yeah it's a great idea. The sooner we can get one to everyone the better."
"Any news on your end?" She asked putting the watch back in her pocket.
"Roma had an idea, she took the oath last night after the memorial for Atom." He shifted at the reminder of his failings. "She thinks the quidditch players in the rebellion should wear their marks of loyalty openly, make the tattoos a trend so people not with us get them for fun. Make it so it's not something unique to us."
"You think that would work?" She asked looking at him in surprise.
"I've learned the hard way to never doubt her when it comes to trends and fashion." He huffed hoping Clarke was unaware of the nail polish dare.
"It's a risk, but if she's right the reward would be worth it. Give your team the go ahead to wear them openly. Others can start wearing them openly not long after that." Clarke seemed to be thinking. "How's recruiting going?"
"About a quarter of those old enough in Gryffindor have sworn the oath so far. I believe that everyone in the house sympathetic to our cause and above fourth year will have sworn the oath by the time Christmas break gets here in a month." He was proud of his house showing its' willingness to fight the good fight.
He continued speaking after a pause. "Four more swore the oath in Hufflepuff this week."
Clarke breathed out. "That's good, really good. Raven brought in three Ravenclaws and I swore in two Slytherin's this week. I don't trust the majority of my house but Fox and Thalia can be trusted."
He was surprised by that news. "Why would two of your purebloods want in on this?"
"You have to stop looking at it from a perspective of blood. Yes, most of our opposition are purebloods but not all of us are bigots. It's about power and right now the purebloods have it. Ostracized purebloods are likely to help and any pureblood who recognizes the inevitable end of the current trends."
"Inevitable end?" Bellamy watched her carefully. "I thought we were at the end. How much worse can it get?"
"Bellamy as the muggle population grows what happens to the muggleborn population?"
"It increases as well." He answered cautiously.
"And the pureblood population has been stagnating for generations now, especially in the last two. It's actually decreased in size. The purebloods in power see the muggleborn population as an infestation destroying our way of life and challenging their power." She fisted her hands before giving him a dark look. "What do you do with a pest problem that gets out of control?"
Bellamy opened his mouth stunned. "You….you don't mean that...that's ridiculous!"
"It's already started." She ran a hand through her hair. "Did you see the story about the muggleborns who 'attacked' the Wizengamot members?" She waited for his nod before continuing. "They spat at them. They didn't physically or magically cause any harm to them. They've been sentenced to Azkaban, Bellamy. It's not the first time and it won't be the last."
"That's…." He stopped his protest as he thought about it. He'd grownup in a magical district lived in mainly by squibs, poor halfbloods and muggleborns. Hadn't he seen people taken in for crimes they clearly hadn't committed? Seen the way they were all treated for being 'inferior.' The aurors had never been a source of safety for them. His eyes widened in realization. "They're killing us off aren't they?"
Clarke nodded. "Slowly, and they don't see it as that but it's heading that way. They passed the Protection Act last month. Aurors can now stop and search a person based on blood. Then the Organized Crime Prevention Act from this summer makes it so gatherings of four or more muggleborns in one place can be brought in for questioning. Those laws people aren't paying attention to are just the beginning. The harsher the laws get the more people like us are going to fight back. The more they fight back the harsher the laws are going to get."
"We're going to get people killed!" He exclaimed in horror. "How can you be ok with that! Raven already gave me a lecture about escalating matters and getting people hurt. What we're doing will be on a much bigger scale than the bullying here at school, people will actually die. If it's just going to make things worse then why are we doing this!?"
She gripped his arm. "Breath Bellamy. It's part of the reason why we're using nonviolent methods. It will keep the legal backlash to a minimum while allowing us to do the most good. No matter how hard we try however, things are going to get worse before they get better. We can only do the best we can to minimize the consequences on the innocent."
"We should train our people to protect themselves if there is going to be this much of a risk!" He protested.
Clarke paused and tilted her head. "That's actually a really good idea. Come up with a plan for that and I'll help you put it into action."
His heart clenched in his chest a familiar feeling since Atom's death. "Let's get out of here, it smells like frozen shit." He needed to get out of here before he lost his temper at Clarke for how calmly she could talk about the deaths to come.
Clarke looked at him concerned for a minute before responding. "Ok, same time tomorrow?"
"Yeah, whatever, I'll be here." He started stomping out of the owlery not really sure where he was going.
He felt a grip on his robe holding him back. Turning he saw Clarke biting her lip looking at him. "Bellamy, you're doing the right thing. We need you."
He shrugged her hand off. "Yeah, I'm just gonna go." He made a hasty retreat before Clarke could hold him back again. He knew that something had to be done and that what they were doing was right. But he wasn't ready for this. He wasn't a leader. A leader was someone more like Clarke, someone with a plan. He was in over his head and he had no idea what he was doing. He wasn't a leader.
-MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA-
Harper had found him and dragged him to dinner from his corner in the library where he had been reading about past rebellions and realizing the massive death toll that seemed to go hand in hand with any rebellion.
His dinner was tasteless and he was ignoring the chatter of his friends around him while he ate. They seemed to respect that he was in a mood and mainly left him to himself. Octavia had been shooting him worried looks. His attention was caught by one of the fifth years. Smith and two of his friends were eyeing the Slytherin table excitedly. He hadn't planned a prank for today. He had time to wonder what on earth was happening when the pitchers at Slytherin table exploded sending stink sap everywhere with a loud boom!
He watched in impressed horror as the chaos it had caused spread. Laughter burst out of him as people started screaming while trying to get the goo off of them. Some of the neighboring Ravenclaws were swearing while trying to get some of the far flying spray off of themselves. Amongst the chaos he saw Clarke stand up. She looked half drowned in the sap. Bellamy followed her gaze as she looked down the table at the first and second year Slytherin girls who seemed to have either run away to their common room or were attempting to hide their sobs. Suddenly, it was not so funny anymore and the ache in his ribs from laughing was no longer a pleasant sensation. Returning his gaze to her face it became clear that Clarke was pissed, like really pissed. If eyes could burn people, his entire table would be roasted. She was striding towards them with an air that was truly terrifying. Most of the table had stopped laughing at the look. He glanced at the staff table and noticed that they seemed more than happy to let Clarke deal with it.
He heard Roma who was next to him swallow. "You didn't mention she was terrifying." She hissed out.
He rose from his seat intending to intercept her. However, as soon as she saw him rise she changed course to approach him. Deciding that it would be best if they met in a more private location, Bellamy retreated from the Great Hall and into the adjoining hallway. He was relieved when Clarke followed him, though she still looked boiling mad.
Once they were out in the hallway, Bellamy started glancing around to ensure that there was no one around who would overhear them. Before he had finished searching the area with his eyes, Clarke seemed to explode at him.
"Did you sanction this prank Bellamy? No, not this prank, this untargeted and cruel attack that did more to hurt insecure teenage girls than any pureblood bigots. I thought we were past this."
"No, princess, I had nothing to do with this one. I didn't even know anything was going on until I saw some suspicious glances in the direction of the Slytherin table right before it happened. Where do you get off accusing me anyway? Aren't we on the same team now?" Bellamy replied, feeling a bit angry that she was blaming him for this.
Clarke's anger seemed to cool a bit and she responded more calmly. "You're right, I shouldn't have assumed. But, Bellamy this is not an acceptable form of pranking. Those girls did not deserve to be humiliated in front of the whole school. There need to be consequences for this. Bullying of any sort can not be condoned."
"There will be consequences, Clarke. I have a good idea of who's responsible and I will make sure that I get their names to you once I've confirmed it. But, this is just kids being kids and doing stupid things. They didn't mean to do any serious harm. So, don't tear their heads off, okay. Don't let them serve a detention with one of those pureblood assholes. Just make them do some lines with you. I can personally attest that it was one of the most boring experiences of my life and that is including class with Binns." Bellamy was glad to hear Clarke chuckle at his joke. He was pretty sure that he had successfully defused the situation.
"Alright, I guess you have a point." Clarke let out with a sigh. However, her face became stern again as she continued firmly. "I want those names by tomorrow morning. If I don't have them there'll be trouble."
"Relax, princess." Bellamy chuckled, "I'll get you your names." With that, they both returned to the Great Hall to deal with the mess and finish their dinner. The hall had settled down in their absence though there were quite a few Gryffindors staring anxiously at the door as they entered. They seemed to relax at seeing Clarke more calm, but tensed when she glared at them before going to help clean up the stink sap.
Bellamy returned to his seat and was quickly pounced upon by Gryffindors seeking reassurance that Clarke wasn't going to kill them. After they had been sufficiently calmed, he returned to his dinner. Bellamy contemplated the events of the dinner. Maybe he wasn't as bad a leader as he thought. Clarke had been playing political games and gathering blackmail for so long that she had lost touch with what it was like to be an ordinary kid. She may be the one with the big ideas and plans, but these were his people. He was the one who knew them, he could help them, and deal with their drama in ways that Clarke couldn't. Maybe he could do this after all. He just had to take things one step at a time. Feeling reassured himself, he reached down, picked up his fork, and took a bite of potato that was warm and buttery.