Chapter 29

A/N: I'm back…if anyone's still around. Alright, do you want an explanation? March was my last month of school so I had to take a break and study (and thank goodness, it totally paid off). Also, the love life I insist is non-existent is getting completely absurd and so I haven't really had the time to think about this story. Anyone want to hear more about the love life? No?

Plus, I was yet again sent to the hospital. Luckily, it wasn't because of a fractured arm this time.

Lilylucy, Mary Sue? Haha, yeah you're probably right. I'm trying hard to change that but at this point of the story it's quite difficult. I'm glad you like the story though!

All right, let's just get on with the story.

(Thanks for reading!)

Bella's/Whitney's POV

"BLAISE!" I exclaimed in a voice way too loud for the library when he released my mouth "What do you think you're doing?"

"Saving your arse?" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But weren't the people chasing me your friends?" I countered.

"Do you want to be caught by them or not?" he looked at me seriously and I sighed.

"Fine, have it your way." I grumbled.

"If I had it my way you and I would be alone in the─"

"SHUT IT AND BRING ME TO MY DORM YOU GIT!"

"Who's there?" a cranky voice echoed across the library.

"Madam Pince." I squeaked and slid down behind a short bookshelf. Blaise had his back on the same bookshelf and he craned his neck around to see if she was heading this way.

"Go." Blaise pointed at a nearby door "I'm sure you can sneak around on your own. The whole squad must be in Dumbledore's office by now."

I moved silently and before I exited the door I looked back at Blaise. I mouthed 'thanks' and scurried away.

As promised, the halls were now empty and I didn't have to do much sneaking after all. I wonder what happened to Harry and the others. Did they get caught or did they make it to the tower?

"Lurking around again, Whitney Black?"

I spun around and gave out a sigh of relief when I saw it was only Emmett. I put crossed my arms on my chest "Don't worry, I won't be waving my wand at you this time."

"Are you running away from Draco and his friends?" he asked me, taking a step closer. In turn, I took a step back.

"Don't come any closer." I warned "But if you must know, then yes. I am hiding from them. Can you help me get back to the Gryffindor Tower?"

"Right away, Miss Whitney." Emmett smirked, flashing his shiny white teeth before using his vampire speed to get me on his back. After ignoring my scream of 'Wait, Emmett!' we were off. Emmett got me to the portrait in no time at all, much faster than it would have taken me.

"Thank-you." I said as I slipped off his back, slightly dazed.

"Anything to help a friend." He winked at me.

"Emmett! Emmett!" someone called from the dark corridor. It was Esme.

"What is it, Esme?" Emmett inquired. I could suddenly feel all the tension in the room rising. Has something happened?

"Alice had a vision. Dumbledore's gone and Umbridge will be the new headmistress." Esme said solemnly.

"What?" Emmett and I cried at the same time.

"Carlisle thinks it would be wise for us to leave." Esme continued "We were somehow hired by Dumbledore anyways and we are loyal to only Dumbledore. I can't imagine what it would be like to work for that…for that pink toad."

Emmett guffawed and even I had to let out a small laugh. But seriously, the Cullens were leaving? I know I wanted them to leave all year but they were starting to prove themselves to be useful.

"You're leaving?" I asked them and Esme nodded sadly.

"Hopefully, we'll still be able to work with the Order, dear. But I think it will be wise to leave while we still can." Esme said and she lightly stroked my cheek "Edward won't like it but I know you will be fine. Surely, we will meet again." Esme enveloped me in a hug and whispered in my ear "There will be not time for goodbye from the others so this comes from all of us. If Alice sees anything we'll be sure to send you an Owl."

As Esme released me, I was suffocated into an Emmett bear hug "Stay safe, little Witch."

I stood before them, my back to the portrait. The Fat Lady slept through our exchange soundly, letting out a snore every few moments.

"We will go once you are safely inside." Esme smiled at me kindly "Go."

I returned her smile sincerely and turned to the portrait. I said the password and the Fat Lady lazily swung open. The Common Room was bustling with activity; everyone was speaking to each other. I looked back at Esme and Emmett.

"Wait, Bella." Emmett stopped me, taking a hold of my elbow.

"Whitney." I corrected him.

"I don't care." His face was stoic "The others told me that Alice explained to you about the whole Volturi deal. She didn't tell you everything."

"What?" I narrowed my eyes at both vampires.

"Emmett!" Esme cried "Hush!"

"No!" I screamed "Don't hush! Tell me!"

Emmett sighed "I'm sorry, Esme. She has to know." He then turned to me "We are still in correspondence with the Volturi, but we're not the only one sending messages. Recently, they have asked for the body of a Wizard. Dead or alive."

I widened my eyes at them and became speechless. I blinked once and slammed the doors in their faces.

The Volturi wanted a specimen? I didn't know how powerful the Volturi was in truth but I knew they held loads of authority in the vampire society. The Cullens couldn't just refuse. But they had to.

It was only know I noticed how quiet the room was. All eyes were on me and I stared right back at them defiantly. Most of them turned away, leaving a few of the lower leveled students to gawk at me.

"Whitney!" Hermione cried as she pushed through the crowd, Ron and the other DA members behind her. Hermione threw her arms around my neck and flung herself at me "Oh, I'm so glad you're safe! Do you know where Harry is? He isn't back yet! We're getting so worried!"

"I don't know where he is. I hid in the library." I explained and Hermione nodded.

"Go get changed, we'll be sitting over there." Hermione pointed at an empty set of seats by the fire "We've been distracting ourselves with homework and our studies, waiting for you guys."

"You mean you've been distracting yourself with homework." Ron smiled slightly at the brunette "The rest of us have been playing about Exploding Snap or talking about Quidditch."

Hermione rolled her eyes and the encouraged me to get to my dorm.

Once entering the dorm room I shared with Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati, I immediately turned on the tap water in the bathroom and stripped out of my clothes.

I washed my face, trying to get rid of memories instead of dirt. I would look up the mirror every few seconds and check for some dragon. I walked back to the room and picked out clothes from the dresser. Once I pulled on a gray sweater I bounded the stairs once more, joining the group.

I joined a game of Exploding Snap but stopped after my eyebrows were starting to prickle. I wasn't in the mood to talk Quidditch tactics with the team so I settled with staring at the window, pretending to read through another issue of Witch Weekly.

The information Emmett had revealed to me still bothered me greatly. What were the Cullens going to do about their problem? They surely just couldn't ignore it. I know I won't. I can't tell the Order though. There was already a lot on their plate. We just made things worse for them tonight.

What happened to Dumbledore? And Harry? It's obvious there having some rendezvous in the Headmaster's Office right at this second.

Most of the DA members had departed when Harry arrived. It left the four of us, me, Hermione, Ron, and Harry, to talk. Harry explained that Dumbledore had gone off before Umbridge and Fudge could send him to Azkaban. Harry suspected that Umbridge was going to take Dumbledore's place.

"Marietta is just a grumpy git who doesn't know how to keep a secret." Ron grumbled when Harry mentioned that he and Marietta (Cho's friend) were the only students.

"Don't be too hard on her, Ron. She's Cho's friend." Harry defended the girl.

"Of course she is." I glared at him and he shrugged at me.

"At least we know Hermione's spell worked." Ron muttered.

"You think that will come up in the OWLs?" Hermione asked brightly as she started scavenging her notes for the spell she used on the list of members.

Harry was still looking at me. Ron was distracted by Hermione's notes; he wanted to see the spell too, now worried about the OWLs.

"Why do you care so much when I mention Cho?" he asked me.

"She's such a drama queen." I rolled my eyes at him "Just the kind of girl I don't think you should be mixing up with, o Chosen One."

Harry threw an ink-blotted quill at me and laughed "Shut up you prat."

I laughed and threw it back at him. We stared each other for a moment, neither of us speaking. I quickly turned away.

"Uh, Hermione. I'll head up to my dorm now."

"All right, I'll just finish this up." I heard Hermione say but I didn't turn back.

Things have certainly taken a turn for the worse.


"By order of The Ministry of Magic: Dolores Jane Umbridge, the High Inquisitor, has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts─"

"Oh shut it, you old crackpot!" I exclaimed, kicking a stone. We Gryffindors were on the way back from Herbology.

"I reckon Dumbledore will be back before long." Ernie Macmillan said confidently as we walked "I heard she couldn't even get into the Headmaster's office. The gargoyles wouldn't let her!"

"Oh, I'm sure she really fancied herself sitting up there in Dumbledore's chair. Towering over all the teachers, the stupid, puffed-up, power-crazy old─"

"You really don't want to finish that sentence, Granger." Malfoy came up smirking "I'm afraid I'll have to dock a few points from you."

"You can't dock points from another Prefect!" Ernie said immediately.

"True, but I can since I'm part of the Inquisitorial Squad." Malfoy said, proudly showing off his badge.

"The what?" Hermione asked.

"A select group of students chosen by Headmistress Umbridge herself." Malfoy smirked at us once more "Now, I'll dock five points from you, Granger, for bad-mouthing our new Headmistress. You as well, Black, don't think I didn't hear you. Five from Macmillan for contradicting me. Five from you, Potter, because I don't like you. Five from Weasley because his shirt's untucked. And I almost forgot, ten from Granger since she's a Mudblood."

Ron angrily growled and nearly pounced on Draco but Hermione stopped him just in time.

"Wise move, Granger." Malfoy breathed, looking afraid for a few seconds there "New Head, New Times. Potty, Weasley King, Mudblood, Blood Traitor," he sneered at me "And Macmillan, a disgusting git, even for a Gryffindor. Be good now."

"Unbelievable." I breathed once Malfoy was far enough.

"Well believe it!" the twins suddenly said at the same time, appearing behind us.

"The 'Inquisitorial Squad' has been docking points from us all morning." Fred said.

"They're bloody annoying, if you ask me." George said.

"Which is why we plan to give a…special welcome…to our new Headmistress." Fred smiled evilly.

"You'll be causing trouble?" Hermione gasped.

"Precisely." George affirmed the flabbergasted Prefect.

"Hogwarts isn't worth it if Dumbledore's not around." Fred explained "We've always been causing trouble but we knew where we had to cross the line."

"Once in a while, we put a toe over it." George smirked.

"But you can be expelled if you try anything now!" Hermione explained.

"You don't get it, do you, Hermione?" they said at the same time "We'd leave right now if we didn't want to repay Dumbledore for all those times when he didn't expel us."

"So you all better run off for lunch now, so you won't be suspected." Fred smirked.

"Run along." George encouraged.

"I want to help." I declared.

"Whitney!" Hermione gasped.

"Trust me, Hermione. I'll get out of it if it gets too much." I assured her.

"Well it will be intense, little Black." Fred said.

"But we'd be happy to have your help!" George added.

"Excellent!" I smiled gratefully at the two.

As the others headed for lunch, the twins led me to a hidden room behind a tapestry close to Umbridge's office.

"We know for a fact that Umbridge will be calling in Harry any time soon." Fred explained.

"Poor boy won't even have time for lunch." George sympathized.

"So what we want you to do, dear Whitney, is watch for Harry Potter. Then, we will tell you the next part of our plan." They said together as they started going through the boxes that littered the room.

"Got it." I nodded at them.

I opened the door slightly and saw a cloak turn around the corner and I knew it could only belong to Filch. Perhaps Umbridge sent him to fetch Harry?

A few minutes later Filch returned with Harry trudging after him. I watched as he hesitantly entered Umbridge's office with a light shove from Filch. Filch firmly closed the door behind him, looked both ways as if he was crossing the street, then started merrily skipping down the hall.

I closed the door and laughed. Fred and George looked at me "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing." I said while holding my stomach, attempting to breathe normally "Right, Harry's in Umbridge's office. Now what?"

"You," Fred said as he picked up two boxes wrapped in pink paper "Will run down the hall then turn to the second corridor to your right. Then you place these boxes at the end of the hall, light them with a simple Incendio spell, then run for your life."

"What will happen?" I asked.

"Fireworks." George said "Huge ones. Don't go around trying to fire spells at 'em. They'll only backfire and make the thing worse. We will meet back at this room."

"All right." I said as I took the boxes from Fred.

"Good luck." They said together as they started picking up their own boxes.

I followed their directions and placed the boxes at the end of the second corridor to my right. I took out my wand from the sleeves of my robes and pointed it at the boxes.

"Incendio."

Pink sparks started emitting from the box and the wrapping had melted off completely. As it grew bigger I realized the twins had given me a Catherine Wheel.

Run for your life.

Oh right.

I ran as quickly as I could from the corridor, the Catherine Wheel not far behind me. I collided with George at one point. He helped me up and started dragging me back to the room. There was a dragon firework chasing after us, the Catherine Wheel not far behind.

We burst into back into the room to find Fred doubling over laughter, one of his eyebrows completely singed off.

When the firecrackers started firing, we heard Umbridge screaming for Filch.

"The more she shoots spells on those fireworks, the bigger they get!" George exclaimed and he and his twin started laughing.

"Impressive." Harry said as he entered the room.

"Haha, yes." Fred agreed "Now we have to set up more crackers. You two best enjoy the rest of lunch now."

"You wouldn't mind setting off one last Catherine Wheel by the Great Hall, would you, Whitney?"

"Not at all." I said as I took the box from him. Harry and I had a fun time running away from the pink wheel of sparks after we set it off.

For the rest of the day, teachers had been calling the Headmistress' attention to new found fireworks. Umbridge was having a hard time trying to put them out, only making them worse. The teachers claimed not knowing how to put them out so they didn't do a thing. It looks as if they didn't like the new Headmistress either.


The next day, Harry was moping around about his lessons later with Snape. Even though Dumbledore had left Hogwarts, it seems that the Occlumency lessons were still vital to Harry.

"Just think about doing it for Dumbledore and not that greasy git." I suggested.

"That's the thing. If you haven't noticed, Whitney, Dumbledore's been a little distant from me this year. I have no idea why though." Harry said in a depressing tone.

"Whining about it won't help." I told him sharply "Come on, let's just take a walk around the castle before your lessons start."

Apparently, taking a walk around the castle meant talking to Cho Chang.

"Umbridge hasn't been asking you about the DA, has she?" Harry asked her good-naturedly.

"No, no." Cho said hurriedly "I just wanted to tell you that I never thought Marietta would do something like that."

"Well your poor judgment obviously has obviously gotten us into trouble." I snarled and she looked at me warily. Harry elbowed me, silently telling me to calm down.

"She's a lovely person really. She just made a mistake and─"

"A lovely person who made a mistake?" Harry exclaimed incredulously "She sold all of us out, including you!"

"We…we all got away didn't we?" Cho pleaded "Marietta's Mom is in the Ministry, you know that."

"In case you forgot, Ron's Dad is in the Ministry too and you don't see Sneak written all over his face." Harry said furiously.

"That was an awful trick by Hermione Granger!" Cho exclaimed "She should have told us she jinxed that list!"

"I thought it was a brilliant idea." Harry looked at her with a stoic expression.

"Oh yes I forgot. You love it because it's Hermione's idea." Cho said, obviously fuming.

"Merlin, don't cry about it!" I exclaimed.

She turned her head sharply towards me "I wasn't going to!"

"Look, I just have a lot to cope with right now." Harry told her coldly.

"Then go and cope with it!" Cho exclaimed. She turned on her heal furiously and walked away.

Harry sighed, frustrated "I'm going to meet with Snape now. See you back at the Common Room, Whitney."

A/N: More of the twins and Ginny in the next chapter! Woohoo! It was fun writing that.

Er, how about I ask for 7 reviews this time since I took about two months to write this? Sorry for it being so short...

Thanks!