Wow! Two chapters published so close together- it's a miracle for me, right? Well, I have some good news for you. Chapter 22 is also all written up (and it's a good one), but it's on looseleaf paper. As soon as I can type it up, it'll get published for you all to read! We're nearing the climax of the story and then the ending, and I'm getting really excited!

The bodies of my fallen comrades, as I discovered that night, were being stored in one of the deepest unused dungeons of Hogwarts. I buried all of the dead students beside Zach and brought tales of the flowers on their graves to grieving family and friends. Chrysanthemums for Art (Nellie said they had been his favorite flower), orchids for Vince at Lyndsay's request, and marigolds for Margaret (my own idea), to name a few.

It was more difficult than I had expected to creep out early in the morning to bury them, for although the Ravenclaw dormitories were nearly empty- only eight students, four boys and four girls, inhabited them- I was now sharing a room with three other girls, none of whom were friendly to the rebel cause. Peggy had seniority, so the two third-year Ravenclaw girls who followed Damien and I moved into her dorm. Peggy's bed was by the window, so I took one across from her and the two third-years- Liv and Wijida- claimed sleeping areas by the door. Liv and Jida, as the latter liked to be called, were both extremely light sleepers. Luckily, they both adored me, so when I was caught sneaking out by the pair of friends, I was able to escape by claiming I had an early meeting with Commander Damien.

I did, in fact, end up having a meeting with him two days later, in which he confirmed the rumor that we would be learning curses, Unforgivable and more, in our classes from that moment on.

And the curses we learned? They were terrifying.

We learned Dark curses like the Blasting Curse, the Disintegration Curse, and the Entrail-Expelling Curse. We learned curses of Headmaster Damien's own invention, like the Amputation Curse and the Scalping Curse, which were horrifying enough. But the worst of the lot were definitely the three Unforgivable Curses.

All who still attended classes were split up into three groups. First- and second-years learned together, no matter what House; it was the same for the third-through-fifth years and the sixth- and seventh-years. My class- years 3, 4, and 5- had the good luck to learn the curses in order. We began with the Imperius Curse, practicing on one of the house-elves from the kitchens. I made an apologetic face to the elf, a tiny creature with small ears and pasty skin, before forcing him to perform a cartwheel and a somersault. Eve-Charlotte excelled at the Imperius Curse, able to keep her hold on the house-elf long after the rest of our class broke off. She was beaten only by Maile's skill. The fashionistas practiced on a willing Liv all the way to our next class.

There, we learned the Cruciatus Curse, which Sami loved. I was less energetic due to the fact that we practiced on pets that the students who were now hiding in the Room of Requirement had left behind. Most of the cats and toads had had the good sense to go into hiding in the many nooks and crannies of our gigantic school, but the owls- stupidly loyal, loving creatures- had stuck around the Owlery, hooting loudly for their masters. I recognized Lanie's fluffy snowy owl, Amadeus, among the newest group of test subjects; abandoning my friends at the door, I ran to him, picked him up, and stroked the owl's white feathers.

"Is this your owl?" Katy asked, appearing at my side.

I shook my head. "It's Lanie's, but I do know the owl. Meet Amadeus."

Amadeus snuggled his head into my shoulder comfortably. Amadeus and Peltie had always gotten along very well, meaning that Amadeus and I had also been chums since our first meeting the year before.

Katy stuck out her arm. "I'll take him so you can learn, Aly. We won't practice the Cruciatus Curse on him if he's your… pal."

I detected a hint of sarcasm in her sweet tone, but relief washed over me and I gladly handed Amadeus over. The owl screeched and ruffled his feathers in protest. I fondly scratched his white head feathers. I couldn't save all of the owls from pain and hurt, but I could save Amadeus. Lanie will be thrilled, I mused as Katy walked out with the hooting Amadeus. She had only owned the snowy owl for a year and a half- her parents had finally allowed her to buy a pet just before our third year.

"Grab an owl and sit down," Professor Gedding said in a monotonous, flat tone. I was pretty sure that all of the teachers had been placed under the Imperius Curse once the students went into hiding, because all of them had suddenly become expressionless and emotionless (except for the Commander, of course).

I turned to the nearest owl, a small grey-and-brown screech owl. Cradling its head in my palm for a moment, I whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Then I picked it up and went to my seat.

I was heading to my last long class of the day, dreading finding out exactly what I would be practicing the Killing Curse on, when I heard a very young and very high-pitched scream.

Headmaster Damien was towering over a young Hufflepuff girl from Ivan's group in the corridor outside the classroom he had claimed for his own, wand to the girl's neck, as I skidded into the corridor among crowds of curious onlookers. "You dare to defy me, Aviva? You dare to skip my class and betray me?"

"Commander!" I yelled, trying to push forward through the crowds. They were too thick, and although the hall was hushing, it was still loud enough in the small space that was prone to echoes that Damien didn't appear to hear me.

The girl- Aviva, had he said?- was crying, sobbing hysterically, "I don't want to kill anyone!" She had a light Irish accent, not at all like Lyndsay's brogue, although the girl's broad features did remind me of my Gryffindor friend. "I don't want to be a murderer like you! I just want to learn, and help people, and-"

Commander Damien slapped her upside the head with one meaty hand. Aviva's small dark head whipped to one side, course hair falling over one shoulder. "Wretched whelp! If you are not with me, you are against me, and I shall kill you on the spot!"

Pushing my way through the final crowds, I tapped him on the shoulder. Maybe not the brightest thing to do. "O Commander? I don't think that's a wise decision."

He glanced sideways at me for a fraction of a moment. "Alyssa, you must learn to let me rule. I am the king, and while it is indeed true that you will follow me someday, today is not that day."

"Killing off your own followers is a foolish move," I pointed out anyway. A hint of exasperation crept into my voice, and I didn't even try to hide it this time. I was tired of Damien's crazy schemes and senseless killing. Maybe he would stop if he figured out exactly how much people despised him.

He did stop. Aviva crumpled to the floor, her tear-streaked face beaming gratitude at me.

"Miss Lamothe," Damien said in a scarily soft voice. "You are too week. I hereby assign you detention for the next week. Eight o'clock. My office. Don't be late. And count yourself lucky that Alyssa Salinger was here to save your sorry hide."

I didn't know who he was talking to- Lamothe?- until Aviva nodded and wiped away her tears. "Yes, Commander. Thank you, Alyssa."

I nodded at her with a soft smile.

"Alyssa, you will oversee the detentions."

This was highly unexpected, so it hit me like a kick in my stomach. My knees weakened and wobbled. "C-Commander?"

"You both need to learn strength and humility, although varying levels of that last one," Headmaster Damien decreed. "It will do you good."

Then he noticed that everyone around us was frozen, clumped and clustered around the scene, staring. Before he could shout, I mimicked what he most likely would have said, just in a calmer tone. "Get to class, everyone."

Everybody scurried off, and I turned on my heel and strode into my next class- Headmaster Damien's lessons on the Killing Curse.

The door had just swung shut behind me when my eyes landed on a box of- a box of- gross. I gagged. The box was overflowing, full to the brim with dead rats. And one single owl.

All the blood drained from my face.

The owl had white feathers tipped in grey, and black-and-golden eyes that would've looked familiar if they hadn't been so dull… so lifeless.

No.

She said- but Katy said-

I picked up Amadeus's limp body- for it was Amadeus, Lanie's friendly and intelligent companion. My mouth opened in a short gasp as I cradled the owl's corpse.

"Sad about your owl friend?" Katy asked in a lilting voice from behind me.

I spun around, face flaming hotly. "You said you were saving him, when really you offered him up as a sacrifice to be killed!"

She shook her head, the beginnings of a slightly mocking smile spreading across her face. "Actually, I sais no such thing. I just said we wouldn't practice the Cruciatus Curse on him, and we didn't. I did tell the truth, you know."

"But why?" I sputtered. "He was just an innocent owl!"

Katy glared at me with a ferociousness that was shocking to see on her face. "Aly, Aly, Aly. Listen, I know you're technically higher than us in rank, but that doesn't mean you're better." She shook her head in disgust. "Commander Damien is right. You do need to learn some strength. You're getting too weak. Getting sad over a rebel's dead owl? Really? You're acting like such a weakling, I could almost think you're a rebel sympathizer or something."

She walked away, and I was glad, because I was sure in that moment that had she looked at me dead-on, my face would have betrayed me and I would have died on the spot.

Lanie was devastated about Amadeus's irrational murder, but she seemed more worried about the whole detention issue. "What do you think he'll do to you and that poor Hufflepuff first-year?" she fretted. "I hope you don't have to torture her. I feel like that would break you, and then we'd all be doomed."

Her words were echoing around my mind when I arrived at Commander Damien's office later that night to administer my first detention to Aviva. Both Damien and the first-year were already there, Aviva clutching what looked like a normal dark quill. I assumed it was hers, but didn't see a pot of ink anywhere.

"I will be here, working at my desk, during all seven detentions," Damien declared. "Aviva, you will write your lines until you learn discipline and respect. Alyssa, you will watch her. If she writes anything other than the lines I have provided, if she pauses for more than a moment, if she speaks at all, you will punish her immediately. I hear you need to practice your Cruciatus Curse."

I dipped my head, hoping beyond hope that Aviva would keep quiet and write her lines in a timely fashion. Lines weren't so bad. We could make it through this together, Aviva and I.

"Commander, you didn't provide ink," Aviva said softly.

"You won't need it," Headmaster Damien practically chirped. He was suddenly rather jovial, which scared me far more than how angry he'd been earlier. "That quill you're holding is a marvelous invention by an idol of mine from about, oh, fifty years ago. I know you've heard of Dolores Umbridge, Alyssa- but do you know of this wonderful quill?"

I shook my head. "No sir, I don't."

"Legend has it that it was used on Harry Potter himself, that scourge," Damien continued to crow. "I went to Hogwarts at the same time as his children, you know. I was a year below the oldest, and I remember when his youngest son was sorted into Slytherin. Such a stuck-up child, you know. Always thinking he knew more than his betters. I tried to befriend him, but I simply could not put up with his family line." Then, suddenly, he snapped his icy gaze to Aviva. "Well? Get writing!"

Aviva instantly sat in the extra chair by Damien's desk, placed a roll of parchment on the wooden tabletop- that definitely was her own- and placed quill to paper. She ticked one line, inkless, for the letter I and immediately stopped with a gasp.

I hurried to her side, eager to get her back on track. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Tears springing to her eyes, she showed me the back of her left hand. A line had been scratched into the skin, a line in shining scarlet blood.

I furrowed my brows. "How did that happen? Never mind, just keep writing."

Aviva bit her lip and wrote the next letter, an a, in shiny dark red ink. Where the ink was coming from I had no idea- not until the line healed over on the back of her hand and an a cut into her skin beside it. Only then did I make the connection between the similar colors of the magically appearing ink and Aviva's own blood, welling up on the back of her hand.

The quill is siphoning Aviva's blood from her hand somehow and using it as ink.

Sickened, I told Aviva to continue in a strange voice that didn't at all sound like mine. She scratched an m onto the parchment with a small cry of discomfort, then an o, and then an n. Slowly, words began to take form in Aviva's scrawled handwriting on her dark brown skin and on the parchment alike.

I am only a soldier in Commander Damien Kayash's powerful army, and I will remember as such.

The words, tiny so they could all fit onto the back of her hand, healed over and over on Aviva's skin, only to be split open again and again and again. I was both horrified and fascinated by the magic of the quill. Yes, it was some powerful Dark feat, a seemingly innocent method of cruel torture, but how much work and thought had gone into that one quill? How many spells, how much time? How did it know which letter to cut open on which square centimeter of skin as Aviva wrote those terrible words over and over? At that moment, I dearly wished I knew the answers to those questions.

I stole a glance at Headmaster Damien. Is he as disgusted by the quill as I am? No, he was watching with a detached interest out of the corner of his eye as he leaned back in his chair, abnormally large feet on the desk, turning pages in a dark-covered book. I craned my neck to read the title, and he obliged my unspoken request with a knowing smile. Secrets of the Darkest Art by Owle Bullock. It was probably from the Restricted Section.

Commander Damien continued reading the Dark book for all seven 90-minute detentions. He finally turned the last page about half an hour before the final detention, at the exact moment that Aviva broke down in tears.

She tossed the quill aside. "I can't do this anymore," she sobbed, a hint of an unfamiliar accent creeping into her trembling voice. "It hurts, Aly, it hurts."

Damien closed Secrets of the Darkest Art with a snap. "Alyssa," he said cruelly, completely ignoring the crying eleven-year-old sitting at his desk. "The curse?"

I looked up from comforting Aviva with a start. "With all due respect, sir, I don't think-"

"You seem to have forgotten my proper role at this school, my protégé," Damien snarled icily. "I am Commander Damien. I am King Damien. I am not a sir." His nostrils flared. "And you will perform that curse on Miss Lamothe… or else you will take her place this coming week, and I will administer the detentions myself. I can be very cruel when necessary." He bared his teeth.

I tried to stand tall, to be brave. Aviva was just a first-year. She was a Hufflepuff like Rossalene. She was innocent and small and in pain.

…but I wasn't brave.

And Aviva had chosen to follow Damien, to join Finley's team.

Finley.

Imagine you're hexing Finley, Aly.

Do it.

"Crucio!"

I didn't dare cry myself to sleep that night, for fear Peggy, Liv, and Jida- who had all stayed up late anyway, playing around with Jida's stash of Extendable Ears and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder- would hear me. But internally I vowed that I would get everyone out, and soon.

My eyes closed.

Then I bolted upright.

It's Sunday. Eleven p.m.

The counter-curse!

I'd been so busy and exhausted the previous Sunday night that I'd completely forgotten to follow the Headmaster out to the killing barrier.

I have one hour.

Pushing my bedcurtains out of the way, I scanned the darkened room, with only moonlight to guide me. I was looking for something, and I knew exactly where to find it.

Poking out of Jida's bag beside her bed across the room.

I crept over, careful to leap over the squeaky floorboard in the middle of the dormitory and land lightly on the balls of my feet, and slipped it out of the embroidered satchel.

A flesh-colored string with the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes logo imprinted down the side.

With fifteen minutes left to spare until midnight, I slipped from bed and inched across the wooden floor. Neither Liv nor Jida stirred, and of course Peggy didn't either, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I got out into the hallway.

I was extra careful following Commander Damien that night. I had no one to distract him if I was discovered (but, on the bright side, I wouldn't have to distract him at all). I was truly alone, completely on my own. However, this enabled me to get a lot closer to the Head while he was whispering the counter-curse. Plus, I had- for the first time- a foolproof listening device. I had never used an Extendable Ear before, but I figured out how to fit it into my ear just as I reached the barrier.

Thank you, Wijida Sangsorn.

I listened for the counter-curse, staying as still as possible-

And I heard it.

"Terbolescus Sanencio," my tyrannical leader murmured.

The barrier parted in the torchlight that was quickly approaching from the other side. Julian was coming. I nearly jumped in excitement.

I know the counter-curse.

I was ninety-five percent sure that I had heard the Headmaster correctly. As Julian asked Damien why he suddenly needed so little food, I stood from my hiding space behind a bush and scurried back towards Hogwarts.

Everyone in the Room of Requirement, except for four guards, was fast asleep when I entered. The guards at the door- Jessie, Kira, Aleyn and Nate- jumped to accost me when I slipped in, but when they realized it was just me they parted. Jessie even escorted me personally to Lanie, chattering about hunger and sleeplessness (such dark topics for such a light and happy person). Lanie, Lynne, and Shawnee were curled up together on a bed of pillows with a thick black blanket tossed loosely over them. I didn't blame them for wanting to share body heat. It was one of those nights that occur in March and April where the cold suddenly snaps into existence even though it's spring.

Lanie woke first as I approached, her light brown hair knotted and tangled. When she saw me, she gasped, effectively waking Lynne. "How did the detention go? That poor girl, Aviva! I'm so glad it's-"

I cut her off, sort of sharply. "The counter-curse for the barrier. I know it."

Lanie was awake instantly, and she elbowed Shawnee until the black girl was also entirely awake. Shawnee tossed perfect dark spirals of hair, not mussed a bit, from her face. "How are you sure?"

In answer, I held up the Extendable Ear I'd nicked from Jida's bag.

Lanie's turquoise eyes widened, and she barked out a short, loud laugh, waking Brooklyn, Rossalene, and Millie, who were all sleeping nearby. Upon seeing me, they crawled over. Lanie had clapped a hand over her mouth the moment she laughed, and she lowered it slowly. "Extendable Ears! I can't believe we didn't think of that. We have to get an owl to the Ministry- they can save us."

"We can save ourselves," Brooklyn yawned stubbornly.

"But Lanie's right," Millie agreed with a matching yawn. "We should get an owl out. They can help. They're the government for a reason."

I folded my arms. "I'll do it. It's too dangerous for you all to leave."

"But you're in classes all day," Lanie pointed out in protest.

"We're just sitting around here twiddling our thumbs," Ross added.

"It's so boring," complained Helen as she joined the little circle we'd created, brushing her hair back with a small comb.

"We can do it, Aly," Lynne insisted, wiping a delicate hand across her eyes. Across the room, I spotted Johnny wake up and eye us all for a moment before rolling over and going back to sleep.

"You might be the head student of Damien's little army, but you're not the boss of us," Brooklyn said with a grin that was far too cheeky for the late hour.

I elbowed her. "Fine. The Ministry will come and make the barrier disappear and they'll cart Damien and his real followers off to Azkaban. Then we'll be free and no one else will have died, as long as you guys are super careful with sending this letter."

"The death count of the Second Wizarding War was well over one hundred."

Startled, I turned to see Oscar standing behind me. His dark hair was messy too, but his matching eyes were as serious as ever as he stared at us.

"At least twenty were killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or on his direct orders," Oscar added, not so helpfully. "It is difficult to live during a war."

I turned away from Oscar. "He's right. We need to make sure that no one else dies." My green gaze found Lynne's. "Lynne, I have a favor to ask of you."

Thirty minutes later, we had a plan.

Not so action-packed, sure, but I can promise you that that will all change in the next few chapters. How did you like it? Was the counter-curse reveal decent? Let me know your thoughts in the review box below!