A/N Well, it's finally here! This proves that I've still got creative ability! *Clapping* Thank you, thank you! *Bows* Needless to say, things have been going a bit slowly with this fanfic. Any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated. With that said, I also love reading reviews *nudge nudge* You know you wanna. Just clicky that little button and write a review. C'mon, you know you want to.
Eleven
That night, Alice accompanied me to the staircase outside the Gryffindor common room. Several people passed us as we waited there, giving us dirty looks and suspicious glances. A Third Year tried hexing us, but Alice turned him into a hedgehog before I could do anything and he scurried away through the portrait hole in fear. Chances are I would hear about it again, but that would be in the future, not at the present. Therefore, it wasn't on my list of concerns for the moment.
"So, why are we here again?" Alice asked crossly.
I looked around at the portraits suspiciously. Lately, there was no telling exactly who was listening in on your conversation. As much as I didn't want to be a part of Hermione's little club, I didn't want to be the one to bring it down.
"Yes, why are you here?" the fat lady in the portrait guarding the common room asked. "If I recall correctly, only Gryffindors are allowed to loiter here. I don't want any rabble like you up here. Now go away, before I tell someone that you're here!"
I rolled my eyes. "Now you've done it, Alice."
"Done what?"
"Never mind." I leaned against the wall and the Fat Lady screeched in frustration. "Be glad it's us and not someone else." I said to her.
"I can remember when Hogwarts was a safe place," she pulled a little fan out from behind her and covered her face with it. "The Ministry didn't used to interfere, not like this. Something horrible is about to happen; I can feel it in my paint."
I didn't need her to tell me that something bad was coming. It had been obvious for so long that Hogwarts was in trouble that it made me wonder exactly why anyone was still attending the school. But oh, right. Almost every Wizarding family in England believed what the Ministry was feeding them. Lies, all lies. Nothing but lies.
I looked back at Alice. "I told you why we're here. We're waiting for the twins."
"Which twins? The Hexwood pair or the Hogwarts pair?"
"Do you honestly think that Casey and Aron would be any form of help of any kind in almost any situation?"
She shrugged. "They're good to use as bait if Draven's chimera breaks its leash. But yeah, I see your point. But…where exactly are they? We've been here for twenty minutes."
Just as she said that, the portrait swung forward and Fred and George appeared. They signaled for us to be quiet and led the way down the enchanted staircases and through hallways until we came to a blank expanse of wall. A door formed, slowly at first, and which seemed nothing like a door at all in the beginning but gradually became very clearly a door, across it. George opened it and we walked in to be met with a collection of students, from First Years to Seventh Years, from every house except for Slytherin.
Alice made a "Pffft" noise. "What good comes out of forcing people into separate houses based on their character? Only an oppressive system exhibiting a show of fascism would resort to--"
I let my mind wander and tuned her out for a bit. It was the best thing to do when she started on a rant like that. Only an idiot would interrupt her at the best of times, and even an idiot would know not to say anything unless prompted while she was complaining about the System and turning into an anarchist.
How much longer would she and the others be here for? Only a few days, probably. What did they say they had? A week? Something like that. Ah, well. At least I had Sev and the Weasleys to keep my heart from splintering when they were gone. Sometimes brief visits are worse than none at all.
I accidentally ran into a Second Year shouting "Levicorpus!" over and over and flourishing his wand exaggeratedly and looked around for Alice. She was still walking along, chattering on and ranting and raving, complete with gesticulations. She was throwing her hands all over the place, describing in detail the forms of governments she couldn't stand.
I realized I had also lost Fred and George. I spun around a few times and shrugged. They'd turn up sooner or later. They weren't exactly the sort of people you worried about; they could take care of themselves, at least for the moment.
"There you are!" I jumped and turned to see Hermione standing behind me. "I was beginning to think you'd skipped out on us again."
I smiled awkwardly. "It was getting a bit boring, always hearing about the meetings and never attending."
Her eager expression broadened. "Yes, well. I'm sure you've got all sorts of spells from Hexwood to show us…."
"Oh, right," I said blankly. "Of course."
I was racking my memory, trying to think of something I could teach them that wasn't too advanced and would actually be practical in everyday defense. A bedazzling hex? No. Nobody ever bothers with those. Cave Inimicum? Defensive spells are always useful, but it could prove too difficult for a large portion of the students here to really be of any help.
"Er…have you worked on Incarcerous?" I asked.
She frowned. "No. Personally, I don't think Harry even knows what Incarcerous is…it's simple, yes, but we haven't been using it yet." She brightened up. "It would be perfect!"
Raising her wand, she sent red sparks up toward the ceiling and everyone turned to look at us. Hermione backed away and I was left alone, in the center of the room, with dozens of people staring at me. I could hear them muttering to each other about me, about why a Slytherin who was Sev's favorite and hung around with Draco was at their secret meeting with them. They thought I would be working with Umbridge and was going to rat them out.
"Let me just make something clear!" I yelled over their whispers. "I am not here to spy on you, so wipe that thought out of your heads!" They looked at each other skeptically. They didn't believe me? Fine. They could leave if they didn't want to learn how to stay alive in the real world.
"Most of you already know, but in case you don't, this is Bandit Morvant," Hermione said encouragingly, stepping up next to me. "She came here from Hexwood International at the beginning of the year. She knows more than any of us. If we want to fight against…" she took a breath "Voldemort, then we have to trust her and listen to what she has to say."
She nodded at me and I sighed. I was hoping for a moment there that I'd be able to get out of making a speech before a bunch of people that hated me. I only wished the others were standing next to me. It'd be so much more helpful. Instead, all I had was Alice. She walked up crossly and planted herself firmly beside me.
"Hi," she said angrily to the crowd.
"Hi!" an overly-eager First Year standing next to Ginny Weasley replied. She shoved him back out of the way into the crowd.
"I'm Alice Lee." She crossed her arms. "My Grandfather is the Headmaster of Hexwood. Only the most brilliant minds are tutored there, and Bandit here is one of the greatest to ever come out of Hexwood. If you sorry excuses for Wizarding children had any brains in those thick skulls of yours, you'd listen to what she has to say and abandon all of your prejudices. That's the one thing this place has yet to run out of," she mumbled.
My eye twitched.
"S—so," I stuttered. "Uh…like they said, I'm, sort of…here to teach you. Just…think of me as a guest teacher or something." I rubbed my hands together. "I thought we'd start off with Incarcerous, since it's not too demanding and it's one of the most useful spells out there. You can use it against an enemy running at you or one that's trying to flee and stop them in their tracks with binding ropes. Come on, watch."
Half an hour later, almost everyone had managed to get some sort of ropes to fly out of their wands to bind something (or someone) else. I was trying to help Neville along a bit with almost no luck when the door opened with a loud bang that echoed around the room and Fred and George walked in. I was about to ask where they'd gone off to when I saw who was following them.
The entire Hexwood gang walked in—Kimberly, Jessie, Hadrian, Reese, Kindy, the twins, and Draven. They looked around and Reese said, "And this would be the Room of Requirement."
"We thought you might need some help teaching us thick-skulled Hogwartians," George said.
"So we brought back up." Fred explained.
"This is your student army?" Draven asked hopelessly.
"It's going to take a lot of work to get you all in top shape," Kimberly skipped forward and stopped next to me.
"This is when the real work starts," Hadrian yelled to everyone.
I smiled. With everyone here, we might actually be able to take Dumbledore's Army somewhere. "Kimberly, choose a spot anywhere in the room and start with your divination." I said to her. She nodded and bounced off to a corner. I raised my voice. "Jessie, Herbology. The dangers of misused plants and ingredients."
She walked off into the crowd and a small table with a few potted plants on it appeared. So then, if this really was the Room of Requirement, we'd have no trouble getting everything we needed.
"Hadrian, go ahead with alchemy. Alice, since this room will create anything we need, start with some basic creatures that can be trained for use in battle." I watched as she made her way to a corner and the room lengthened for her, a stable appearing. A few hippogriffs, a passive three headed dog, and a Liondragon. How she planned to find anyone brave enough to step up in front of the beasts was questionable, but at least she was participating.
"Kindy, share some of your survival techniques with everyone. Casey, Aron, go on with Dark Arts. And don't get distracted." There was murmuring amongst the crowd again at the mention of Dark Arts. "Oh, get over it!" I snapped.
"I believe the Dark Arts are my department," Professor Gabriel appeared out of the shadows along the back wall of the room. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"O-okay," I said, recovering. "G-go ahead, Professor." I shook the sudden chill off. "Where was I? Oh. Right. Draven--"
"Blood magic. I know." He interrupted.
"Yeah. And Reese…just…do your thing." I straightened up. "And I'll supervise. If anyone has a question about a charm or a potion, you can come to me."
Alice's Liondragon roared and a ball of fire exploded out of its mouth. The people nearest the stable drew back.
"Look, they're nice!" Alice shouted. She wrapped a hand around the Liondragon's snout and held it shut. "See? There's nothing scary about them at all."
Alice normally has a terrifying effect on all creatures, humanoid or otherwise.
I traveled about the room from person to person, making sure everything was going smoothly. My first stop was with Draven, since he was closest. He had a pedestal with a blue crystal bowl on top that was slowly filling with blood from his recently sliced forearm. A small crowd of mostly girls was watching, eyes drenched with fear.
"Blood magic is the most helpful art in the world," Draven began, talking as if he was alone. "Everyone has blood inside of them. Everyone can use it to their aid."
A girl raised her hand. "Isn't blood magic…illegal?"
"Is it? I wasn't informed." Draven said indifferently. "If you're really so concerned about playing by the rules, you shouldn't be here."
I smiled to myself and continued on to Kimberly in her corner. She was staring dreamily at a crystal ball on a table. I leaned over her shoulder and saw nothing.
"Divination is difficult to master," she said. "I'm sure most of you already think it's useless. People at Hexwood hate divination classes too. But everyone has a remote ability to look into the future. Even you." She pointed at Ron as he was backing away to find something more interesting.
I followed him to where Kindy was telling a story about fighting a bear deep in the Carpathian Mountains. She saw me and waved. I smiled back, then turned away to observe Alice. A few brave souls had dared to inch closer, including Luna. She was stroking the Liondragon's nose fondly.
Behind me, I could hear Jessie and Neville discussing rare plants. Well, now I knew what Longbottom was actually good at. Nice to know he really did have a strength. He wasn't completely hopeless, anyway; he was strong. He had power. He just didn't know he did.
I walked past them to Professor Gabriel and the Hexwood twins. I stopped and stood next to Potter, who was looking on with an air of mistrust.
"Enjoying everything?" I asked.
"This is illegal," he said.
"This is all illegal."
"The Dark Arts are banned. They're evil."
"Hate the player, not the game. Just because the most feared wizards on the planet use Dark Magic doesn't necessarily mean it's evil. Besides, I find it hard to believe that you yourself haven't committed evil acts. Everyone has."
"I'm not evil," he said angrily.
"Depends on how you look at it," I shrugged. "I can name several evil things I've done in the past few days, even. I'm not completely evil, but I suppose it depends on whom you ask."
"I'd agree with you, but then I'd be a liar."
I clapped him on the shoulder. "You might think you hate me now, but just wait. It'll get worse, I promise."
Regrettably, the Hexwood gang left only a few days later, just as predicted. In those few days, extra DA meetings were held with hopes that people would learn more than enough to be able to fend for themselves over Christmas break. The holidays approached quickly, and only two weeks later I was on the train back to Platform Nine-and-three-quarters. I walked back and forth from Draco and the others for the first half of the trip, got tired, and ended up staying in a compartment with Luna and the twins. We bought sweets every time the cart went by and played several small games of exploding snap.
When we finally reached the station, I found Draco and together we spotted Uncle Lucius and Aunt Narcissa. We traveled to the Malfoy estate (apparition—never mind that Draco didn't have his license) and after being fussed over by Aunt Narcissa I was finally allowed to sleep in peace in a guest room.
In the morning, after I'd managed a small breakfast, I went by fireplace to my own home. As I stepped out into the familiar sitting room of the mansion, I was smothered by a hug from my mother.
"Bandit, I've missed you so much!" she said as she crushed me. Finally, she stepped back to look me over. "How have you been? How's Hogwarts? Did you have a good birthday? I heard the Ministry's been interfering--"
"Give the girl a chance to breathe, darling." Father put a hand on her shoulder.
"I've been fine," I said. "Hogwarts is fine too. My birthday was wonderful. And yes, the Ministry is interfering. They've put a woman named Umbridge in Defense Against the Dark Arts and she's taking over everything, but it's all right. I've got everything under control." For now.
After a few hours, they resumed their natural cold, pureblood-parents characters and my worried mind was put at ease. I had begun to start worrying that there was something seriously wrong with them; they never fretted like that. I was suspicious that it was actually a couple of aurors with polyjuice potion masquerading as Nomen and Aestevia, but I highly doubt that aurors would have been able to go so long without giving the house elves a break. I could be wrong, and I probably was about that, but there was something about them that just told me it was actually my mother and father.
It was nice being at home again, away from all of the worries of Hogwarts. No Pansy Parkinson to argue with, no Umbridge to dread speaking with, no big-headed Ronald Weasley to roll my eyes at. I was almost going to miss them over break, I could just feel it.
No you don't, I reminded myself. This is holiday break. Time to relax and get away from things. Christmas is almost here. It's lovely when the house elves begin caroling, isn't it?
Last year, when I came home from Hexwood for break, the house elves began singing carol after carol on Christmas Eve during dinner and continued on throughout the rest of the night until Christmas Day finally arrived and they were given the day off.
I almost considered telling my parents about Dumbledore's Army, but then decided against it. I trusted them, of course; they were my parents. They would never let anything slip intentionally. It was the unintentional bit I was worried about. Even though the Malfoys had disowned Father, they were still on speaking terms. What if he told them? I honestly couldn't be sure that it would be kept a secret.
Then there was the matter of the portraits lining the walls. They definitely weren't to be trusted. Who knows where they go outside of the house. No, the DA would be kept secret for the time being. I'm sure Hermione would've been proud of me, since I was a Slytherin and all.
Oh, God. Now I was starting to think like them, too.