Hey everyone? Miss me? I missed you guys! Thank you so much for all of your awesome words of support!
I haven't been able to fix my laptop, but I have been able to find this wonderful brick of a laptop to do my writing on! Updates are going to be way less frequent because this laptop (it's older than me!) may be amazing, but it doesn't have wifi (it doesn't even have the word WIFI in it's outdated Word dictionary) and none of the internet ports work. So I have to put my stuff on a pen and get onto my friends computer, which is hard even for her…
I know that you guys all wanted that playlist, but with my old laptop went everything I have (it's officially dead, RIP my awesome laptop).
But, here's a new chapter (if you still remember the story!) and I hope it meets up to expectations! Once again, YES, it IS kind of morbid, but the 7th book is morbid (the bad guys are in charge!), so… no much I can do 'bout that.
Over 6300 words: I'm quite proud (and also very ill, I don't have anything else to do… XD)
Aw, I missed you guys so much, I'm looking forward to reading all of your kick-ass reviews on my phone's email!
GINNY
"Isn't it weird that there isn't a Head Boy yet?"
"Yes, Colin, yes it is," I said, raking my hair back with my hand. I missed the rule that said that if two people were prefects they had to be best friends! Just piss off already!
"What do we have first thing?"
We. Ugh. I really needed a break from this kid.
"Luna!" I gasped through my hands.
She was looking for a place to sit at the Ravenclaw table – with Michael. Sigh. Prefects unite!
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Yes," I said before I could stop myself. I locked eyes with Colin. "I mean no... Well, I mean yes. Everything's wrong, you know?"
"Hm... I'm going to have breakfast."
"OK," I sighed, and I put my head in my hands again, with Colin watching me.
"What do we have first thing again?"
oOo
"Prefects meeting," Luna observed on the notice-board.
"Maybe they'll finally announce the Head Boy," I said thoughtfully.
"Probably."
We said good-bye to Neville and we headed to the Head Prefect's quarters.
A week had passed and there was still no Head Boy. I suppose I would have given the whole thing a bit more thought if it wasn't for the Carrows.
The Carrows sucked, basically.
Amycus was a stupid name, right? Well, he was a pretty stupid bloke too, and I wanted to hurt him.
He taught Muggle Studies, which was now obligatory, and he spent that class telling us that Muggles were evil and had to be exterminated... his sister, Alecto, was a total freak. In fact, I preffered Umbridge to her. Umbridge. She was trying to teach us the Unforgivable Curses! What the hell?
Luna knocked on the Head's Dorm's door before I reminded her that there was a password.
"Sorry, I was thinking of other things..." she apologized dazedly. "Kittens."
Crappy password? Tell that to Pansy.
Now, Luna had been right about the Prefect bathrooms. They were worth becoming Prefects. But the Heads' dorm was definitely worth becoming Head Girl or Boy.
Even though we'd only been as far as the front room - a great cosy Gryffindor common room type of thing, but for two people and just plain awesome - I was guessing that the rest of it was full of even more sheer awesomeness.
All the Prefects were already there. So was another familiar face...
I exchanged looks with Luna.
"What's he doing here?" I asked around, and Blaise looked up, a bored expression on his face, but he smiled as he saw me. Not sure how to feel about that...
Pansy scowled at me. "That's why we're here, you stupid-"
"Shut it, Pansy," Blaise said. Pansy shut it.
Awesome...
"I'm Head Boy," he said lazily.
All the Prefects exchanged glances, but I just stared at him, mouth slightly open.
"Terrible, isn't it?" he asked me, smirking. "Now you're going to have to do whatever I say..."
I rolled my eyes and sat down next to Colin. Wrong move.
"I wasn't sure that you were coming," he said to me. "Because I saw it up in the Gryffindor Common room, and I couldn't find you, and I thought that maybe you had gone to bed..."
"No, I was in the Great Hall..." Hiding from you... "They put up a thing there too."
"Cool," Colin said, smiling widely.
"Wonderful, I'd say," Blaise mocked from the sofa in front of us. Colin looked uneasy.
Wait… that was a good thing.
"So, how's it been?" I asked Blaise casually. His eyes glinted.
"Alright, thank you for asking."
I could tell that Colin wasn't pleased with Blaise's answer.
"You're… you're friends?" he asked carefully and in the quietest voice I'd ever heard him speak with. Well, if Blaise wasn't my friend before, he was my best friend now.
Blaise raised a questioning eyebrow, wanting me to answer that question.
"Sure. We go way back," I smiled.
Blaise grinned in the most un-Blaise-ish way I've ever seen him grin – ever.
Colin looked even more uncomfortable. Perhaps Blaise being Head Boy wasn't too bad after all…
"… So, Prefects can't dock points of give detentions anymore," Pansy was saying. I hadn't even known that we could do that in the first place… damn! "But the Head Boy and Girl can," she said smugly.
"That's not fair," Michael spoke up. "There are less Prefects now, why are they making our jobs harder?"
"They don't want us to get cocky," Astoria said in a deadly voice. It was the first time I'd heard her speak in a while. She mostly just stared off into the distance… oh wait, she still was. "Too much power might cause a rebellion. It's fourth year all over again."
Oh my Merlin she actually had a brain.
"That makes sense," Luna said dreamily, but strangely serious. Luna being serious was scary. Pansy was looking uncomfortable.
"Well, does it really matter?" she snapped, unable to keep the nervousness out of her voice. "That's the way it is, and you'll all do well to follow the rules." There was the old sneer back!
"It does matter, actually, Pansy," Astoria spoke up. She had brought her head down from the clouds. "Because, while you're playing Hogwarts princess, the rest of the world is fighting the Second Wizard War."
That made everyone shut up. No one had actually said anything as definite as that. Kind of silly, actually.
"It's true! So it does matter, Pansy. They're taking away our Prefect privileges. Something else that they can control-"
"Who's side are you on, Greengrass?"
Whoa, this was going towards a dark place. I looked around and everyone had suddenly started to look uncomfortable, except for Blaise, who looked like he was enjoying it.
"Why do you care, Parkinson?" Astoria snapped, standing up, turning red with anger. "Are you actually wondering about someone else's well being?" She didn't let Pansy answer. "No, I thought not."
"Now, look here, Greengrass," Pansy started, boiling.
"Draco would love this," I heard Blaise whisper from in front of him. I looked at him with wide eyes.
"Look where, Parkinson? Because you need to get your head out of somewhere that isn't far up your own arse!"
OK, this was crazy.
"Hey, hey!" I said, standing up. "Stop it, both of you!"
They both turned at me, and I had just given them something in common – someone else to hate.
"Stay out of it, blood traitor," Pansy growled dangerously. Now she looked like a dog again.
"Get away from me with your muggle-loving germs!"
Really? Really? Was that the best that they could come up with?
"Hey, ladies, calm down."
I turned to see that Blaise had stood up behind me, and he didn't look amused anymore.
"Protecting the blood traitor, are you Blaise?" Pansy shrieked, her anger not doing wonders for her voice.
"I'm protecting your dignity… if that's still an option-"
"Hey, I don't need protecting!" I put in, turning red.
"She's right, she doesn't," Luna said from the sofa.
"Thank you," I said gratefully.
"Yeah," Colin spoke up enthusiastically. "Ginny's really good at casting stuff!"
Everyone looked at him, and he didn't seem perturbed until Blaise smirked down at him. I kind of felt sorry for him. Then my new best friend spoke.
"Well, I think that that's enough excitement for one night, am I right, Weasley?"
OK, I don't know why, but the fact that he called me 'Weasley' sincerely annoyed me. Surely he hadn't called me anything else. My anger was uncalled for so I clenched my jaw and nodded.
"Well, bed time kiddies," Blaise said around, and all the Prefects jumped to their feet, eager for a reason to get out of there.
Pansy and Astoria shared a look.
"This isn't over," Pansy hissed when Astoria started backing away. In response, Astoria made a rather rude hand gesture that did not seem to fit at all with her lady-like image. Then again, neither had the word arse.
"That was rather exciting, don't you think?" Luna said as we finally left the Head Dorm.
"Yeah. Exciting."
"You know, that was nice how Blaise stood up to protect you. Not that you need it, but it was still a nice gesture."
I shook my head.
"Luna, Blaise just stood up to calm things down, like me."
"You stood up to calm things down," Luna agreed. She didn't speak for a while and I was slightly confused. Then she spoke again. "But he didn't stand up to calm things down until you were standing up."
"Um… no, he didn't."
What was this? Has Luna just worked out that she has eyes? Or perhaps she finally truly understands the space/time-continuum thing after years of not knowing.
Then she laughed.
"I like how you say everyone else is naïve," she laughed fondly in her Luna-way.
"Um… Sure."
Because she was one to talk.
oOo
DRACO
Right. They're at it again.
Secret meetings and all that.
Well, at least they haven't decided to kill me yet.
I don't know where they're sleeping now because I've been stuck in the living room for days, the house elf bringing me meals and other sorts. I can't even go to the bathroom without permission! What the hell is that?
I haven't seen a thing of the trio since the whole Veritaserum thing, which, thankfully wore off.
The past few days have been horribly lonely and, if anything, boring.
On the bright side, I've been learning to play the piano.
oOo
HERMIONE
"So, using the cockroach clusters, we- ugh!" Ron broke off as soon as we heard a loud dong noise from upstairs. "It sounds like he's bloody murdering it, not playing it!"
"He's probably hungry," Harry said, putting his face in his hands as there was another loud ding.
I shook my head in shame; it felt as if I were embarrassing myself. Why was he embarrassing me with his terrible piano playing?
"Kreacher, go get Malfoy to shut the hell up," Harry said, massaging his forehead.
Perhaps before we could have suffered it before (I mean, maybe…) but lately the three of us felt nervous enough as it was. I mean, how would you feel if you had to break into theMinistry of Magic?
I know. We're all crazy. We know that. Oh god, I could hardly sleep - none of us did. We stayed up all night planning and fell asleep at the kitchen table... only to wake up and keep on planning again.
We waited as we heard Kreacher's footsteps go upstairs, and Ron closed his eyes, as if to calm himself down. Harry sighed, looking at a strand of his hair - which was now dark green... though it was supposed to be dark blue.
See, I hadn't been able to fix it with my wand, so I thought, why not use a Muggle method? Using the Invisibilty Cloak I went into the nearest Tescos and grabbed some black hair dye. But I had been so nervous about being caught (shoplifting was never going to be my thing) that I hadn't really checked the label. We had only found out what color it really was when I had put it on - you weren't supposed to use that dark a color on blond hair as it was, so it just looked horrible. And now, Harry said that he was never letting me near his hair again. I suppose I deserved it, but still... if he would just let me near it one more time...
"No, Hermione," Harry said aloud, reading my mind.
Kreacher came back into the room.
"What did he want?" Harry asked.
"Food, to go to the bathroom and Granger," Kreacher recited with a malicious grin.
"Oh dear," I said, sighing and sitting back.
"Let's have a break," Harry announced. "I need to go to the bathroom too."
Or just look at his hair. Or his scar hurt.
He got up, and there was yet another loud DOOOONG.
"Oh, and Hermione... Go make him shut up. Please."
I tried not to groan. His scar did hurt, and he didn't want me sticking my nose in.
"OK, fine. I'll make him be quiet!" I said angrily. Sure, Harry, let your scar hurt, it's OK, let Voldemort roam around in your mind if you want to, that's just peachy! "Ugh!" I said as I stomped out of the room.
oOo
DRACO
DONG. Do do do do do, mi mi mi mi mi...
The door burst open but I didn't look up.
"Stop making such a ridiculous noise or... or learn how to play the piano properly!"
I gasped indignantly, looking up at Granger who was in the doorway, looking angry.
"Be quiet!" she said loudly again, but this time out of the door. I think that she was supposed to be telling me to shut up, but she was failing because she wasn't even looking at me. "I said, be quiet!" Alright, alright, I get it! Sheesh! But I kept my mouth shut. And she slammed the door behind her.
I watched her stupidly – I mean, cleverly as she walked over to the sofa and plopped herself down on it, and then she started massaging her head. You'd think that she didn't know I was here. But I didn't make my presence known. Instead, I closed the piano lid and sat next to her. We sat in silence for a few minutes, which was alright because I had been stuck in this room alone for four days and I needed human company. The fact that it was her company made it worth the wait when she finally looked up and sighed.
"We have to break into the Ministry of Magic," she whispered resignedly.
I blinked, thinking that I had misheard.
"What?"
"We have to break into the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron and I."
"Why?"
It was the only thing that would come out.
Break in to the Ministry of Magic? They were insane, surely. Why the hell did they want to do that? Perhaps they wanted to be caught – but that was just stupid. And Hermione wasn't stupid.
She looked thoughtful, and then she shook her head.
"I can't tell you."
"Listen, I've been stuck here for days, without doing anything. I am bored out of my mind, and I've been trying to eavesdrop on your secret meetings – I'm not an imbecile. But I don't have any idea of what your doing but surely… The Ministry of Magic? That doesn't make any sense."
"Oh, it makes perfect sense," she sighed. "My life is supposed to be screwed up."
I couldn't help but take it personally.
"Do you think I screwed up your life?"
She looked surprised at first – but, who didn't see that question coming? – and then she laughed.
"Yeah. You did."
I frowned at her as she stood up, seemingly pleased with her answer.
"Ahem," I coughed loudly.
"You completely screwed up my life," she sighed happily. I stared at her and stood up too – maybe to get her to sit down. "I mean, you're not the only thing that screwed up my life, but you're definitely a contributing factor. Loads of other things screwed up my life… like Harry-"
"Don't compare me to him," I warned.
"But," she continued, "I don't care! Meeting Harry was amazing – I wouldn't give his friendship away for anything in the world… Or Ron's."
"Friendship," I frowned.
"And you," she said, putting her hands on my shoulders. "You ruined my life royally, but I'm glad for it."
And she kissed me on the cheek and skipped out of the room.
I suppose I just stood were I was for a while, my brain muddled.
Then I lay down on the sofa, my head hurting a lot.
Wait… I had forgotten to tell her to not go.
oOo
GINNY
Luna was skipping at my side happily. I was confused as to why she had ever been made Prefect, but I was glad for it.
We'd had some nasty situations.
Some times, you'd walk into a corridor and you'd find someone crying because their family has been found dead, or because their parents have been tortured. And we comfort them.
Every time that that happens, though, I get reminded of the end of fourth year, when I had found Harry sitting in the middle of the corridor, and he had asked me to stay, and I had. And then I'd be thinking of Harry and death all mushed together (not a good combo) until something really horrible comes up, like the Carrows torturing students or something. But even then I lie awake at night, just listening to my heart beat a bit too loud every time I think of his green eyes…
Snap out of it Ginny!
"Hey, Ginny," Neville said carefully at dinner, sitting next to me.
"Yeah?"
He obviously needed to talk about something.
"We need to talk," he whispered. "You, me and Luna. After dinner. The usual place."
I had to think for about half a second to understand what he meant.
"Sure. I'll go tell her."
"OK."
His eyes flickered to the Professor's table, then he got up and left. Wasn't he hungry?
I frowned, looked up at the Professor's table and, to be honest, looking at the Carrows and Snape made me lose my appetite too.
I waited until I saw that Luna had finished to get up though.
"Hey, Luna… patrol time."
We didn't have patrols, but the other Ravenclaws and Carrow spies probably didn't know that. Probably.
Luna nodded, and I hoped that she didn't think that we had patrols. But when we got out of the Great Hall, she said nothing and followed me blindly. Somehow, I knew that she knew that we were up to no good.
When we reached the familiar tapestry, I paced three times in front of it without any exclamations of surprise or confusion from Luna. The familiar door appeared and I couldn't help but feel a surge of relief and hope. It brought back so many memories, and most of them of fighting, and staying strong.
But I was pretty aware of the fact that I couldn't stand there and stare for too long in case we were caught, so we quickly entered and found Neville already in there, playing with his Mimbulus Mimbletonia.
"Hey guys," he said, without looking up. It was kind of creepy. "They won't let me keep it, you know."
I did know. He had mentioned it a lot of times. The school didn't like his freaky plant, and I couldn't blame them… but I hated them, so then again, I could.
"You've been keeping it in here?" I asked.
"Yeah. It doesn't seem to die. It's like it's getting the right amount of sunlight and everything…"
"That's nice," Luna said.
"Yeah…" Neville looked distant.
"Why did you ask us here?" I said, maybe a bit louder than necessary.
"Yeah, right," he coughed. "I've been thinking…"
"Dumbledore's Army," Luna said suddenly. We both looked at her. "We need to do it again."
I looked back at Neville, who was scratching the back of his head.
"Well, yeah. That's pretty much what I was…"
"You're right. You're both right."
I had been thinking about that for a while too. I mean, it's not like I could not think of it, what with all this horrible stuff happening…
"But it's going to be harder than last time," I said. "There are less of us and more of them. We'll have to be more careful as to who we choose and-"
"We can do this," Neville said surely. "We can do this."
oOo
DRACO
"Heyy," I said, banging on the door. "Hello. I need a female in here now!"
Not a great argument, I suppose. Maybe that's why it wasn't working.
"Granger! GRANGER!"
Nope. Nothing.
They can't have gone… could they?
I was about to kick the door in frustration, but then I realized that it was reinforced and would blast me across the room.
I ran to the piano in frustration and started banging on the keys mercilessly.
Then the door opened.
It was Hermione… she looked mad.
"You don't want another kiss on the cheek, do you?" she demanded angrily.
"Ye-no. No." Not when she was glaring at me like that I didn't.
"Then what on Earth are you doing?"
"I've got a headache," I said.
"So you're banging on a piano? How would that possibly help?"
"I… don't… know. Listen," I added quickly, changing subject. "You can't go. Not to the Ministry. Let Potter and Weasel go."
"Without me?" she asked, amused at the thought. "I don't think so. I'll get you something for your head if you promise to stop banging on that thing. We're all nervous as it is."
"You're all stupid!" I protested.
Her expression suddenly turned hard.
"Mad, possibly, but I'm not stupid."
"Fine then! You're all mad!"
But I could tell that she was still pissed.
She came back five minutes later with another little bottle. I had the horrible feeling that this was my last chance.
"I'm sorry for calling you stupid. But you have to admit that this is madness."
"Does it really matter?" she asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "It can't take too long, we'll be home before dinner," she said, not very convincingly.
"You're leaving now?"
She nodded.
"Fine," I said angrily. "Go and get yourself killed, see if I care."
She raised an eyebrow, but I said nothing.
"Take this, it will make your head better."
Fine. Sure. It wasn't the best last thing to say to her, if I thought that she might get herself killed. But, oh, the answer? DON'T GO.
oOo
I immediately regretted my last words as soon as I heard the front door close. I know, a bit late, and it sucked.
Those hours were the most interminable of my life. And I've had a lot of interminable hours.
I tried to get out – I tried pushing the piano against the door, hoping that it would knock it down. Instead I got knocked out and had a lot of creepy dreams.
Some of them were of You-Know-Who torturing my mother, but most of them were feelings and memories fighting to get to the surface. They were hardly dreams, and they went on forever. When I finally came to, I saw that only four hours had passed, and it had seemed like an eternity.
I was lying underneath a broken piano on the opposite side of the room and I had a searing pain in my legs and my head.
I took a while to get the piano off of me – I was now depressed, and various times I stopped to think 'What's the point?' Then I'd remember who exactly was in charge of the Ministry without needing to remember my memory-dreams.
Another hour had passed when I had gotten out from under the piano (please don't ask me how I did that, I have no idea, I'm just cool), and I was sure that my leg was broken. I felt complete liberty in calling Granger a Mudblood out loud, even though I regretted it seconds after.
Get yourself together!
But my leg hurts…
I tried moving and it hurt. A lot. A pain shot up my leg and I nearly blacked out again when I heard the door open.
And then I heard a yelp.
"Hermione!" I shouted, but there was no answer. I try to move, and it hurts – but this time I make it. I force myself to my feet, leaning on the piano wreckage, and try not to use my right leg at all. "Kreacher!" I hissed, but it was no use. He wasn't allowed to come to me anymore. "Dammit, Potter!"
Then I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. For a crazy pain-induced second I though that it was the house-elf, but then I heard some strange sort of grunting.
I made my way to the door, but I was very careful not to touch it. It's not Granger, it's not Weasel and it's not Potter.
Whoever it was, they were right outside. I don't make a sound out of instinct.
"I heard you, whoever you are," a voice said, and then the door lit up and I heard a thud – whoever it was didn't know about my precious door, and had just gotten blasted into the wall behind him.
This definitely wasn't good. I was stuck alone in the house with a stranger who was now pissed.
Then I heard even more footsteps downstairs.
"Ministry!" a voice shouted.
"Up 'ere!" the same voice from before shouted gruffly. I supposed that it was too much to hope that he had broken his leg too because there was a lack of piano on the outside of my door, but it's not illegal to hope.
I, however, was in trouble.
At least, I thought so… the Ministry. The Ministry worked for him. I might be taken back to him.
Was that a good thing?
The footsteps grew louder and soon I knew that there were about ten men standing outside of my room.
"There's someone in there," the voice said. "I heard them shouting."
I instinctively backed away from the door, momentarily forgetting about my broken leg. Was that even possible?
"Shit!"
"Hear that? There's someone in there!"
Oops.
"Don't touch the door! It's enchanted."
Oh, please touch the door. Don't listen to him, he's a liar.
I was at loss for what to do.
And then I heard my favourite voice to hear, saying the kind of thing that I loved to hear at that particular moment.
"Stupefy!"
It was Hermione. I backed further away from the door, this time remembering my leg, and found something large and heavy that I thought would be good to hit someone with – the piano leg. A leg for a leg seemed pretty fair to me, and that was lucky for the piano, because I normally didn't play fair.
Seeing that broken was kind of sad, but I didn't mind missing it's funeral.
"Granger!" I shouted. "Get me out of here!"
Within seconds – the fastest service I'd had in weeks – the door was open, and there stood Hermione, looking more beautiful than I had ever seen her – maybe that had something to do with the fact that I knew that I was finally getting busted out of that crappy little room –, standing amongst a lot of unconscious Ministry goons.
"We need to get out of here, before more come," she gasped.
I started to walk towards her, but I yelled out in pain.
"What's wrong?" she asked, running towards me.
"I think it's broken. Can you fix it?"
She looked worried – I couldn't help but notice that she was wearing something different than what she had gone in. What their plan had been was not something I ever wished to know.
"No, I'd just mess it up…" she said shakily.
"Mess it up? I was kidding when I called you stupid!"
But we heard a lot of footsteps.
"More?" I hissed. "Where do they get these people from?"
"Oh, we're so dead… this is all your fault!" she said, pulling my arm around her neck and helping me up.
"My fault? It was you're stupid charm that broke my leg!"
"What's happened here?" a voice said, and as soon as they peered through the door Hermione set a shot of purple light at him, and then we were stepping over unconscious bodies at an alarming speed that did not do favours for my leg.
"Accio," Hermione muttered, and handed me a wand – it had been a while since I had touched a wand – but I got it just in time, since as soon as we were looking down the staircase I saw about four people there.
I couldn't help but smile as I cursed all kinds of horrible things that normally I wouldn't even mention in Grangers presence, but she didn't seem to show any signs of protest.
"Protego!" Hermione said, pulling up a force field around us. That would have been really great if these guys had friendly spells in mind. I dodged – heroically – a spell that looked suspiciously like a Crucio. "We just need to get to the front door!" she gasped at me, trying to keep her voice down. I threw the piano leg at someone's head – it did the trick. When we got to the foot of the stairs, I picked my piano leg up again.
There it was – the door to freedom, the one that I had rejected a week ago. Well, not this time.
There was no one there – I couldn't help but feel as if the actual reinforcements hadn't come yet. That thought made me sick, but, now that I think about it, that was probably my leg, that was bleeding. Do broken legs bleed? Something unpleasant went on in my stomach and I decided that I really didn't want to think about my leg just then. Though ignoring it was pretty hard.
We were a meter from the door when things got complicated – again.
The long blond hair was unmistakeable.
"Father?"
oOo
GINNY
"Hey, hey, guys, you guys!" Colin ran up to Neville, Luna and me. I immediately started shaking my head and miming for him to shut up, but he wouldn't.
"We're not supposed to be out at this time, Colin!" I said when he didn't get the gist of things. He waved his hand.
"We can say that we're patrolling-"
"What about Neville-?"
"Harry, Hermione and Ron have been spotted at the Ministry!"
I immediately stopped trying to reason with him. My stomach dropped about forty feet – and some.
"What?" Neville asked for me.
"They've been spotted, there-"
"Were they been taken in-"
"No! They broke in! And they got away!"
Relief washed over me.
"Amycus came running up to the Staff table, babbling like some sort of idiot," Colin laughed in a silly kind of way, "and then Snape – he went even paler than he already is! All the teachers just left the Great Hall, and I came to find you, since you're Harry's-"
"Ron's sister!" I put in quickly. "And Harry and Hermione's friend."
"Well, yeah," Colin said in a voice that made obvious that he didn't believe me. "But isn't that exciting! So I got thinking, what about Dumbledore's Army? If they're fighting, we should too!"
I exchanged glances with Neville and Luna. We all shifted uncomfortably, and maybe that wasn't the best move.
Colin's eyes widened.
"Wait a minute… seventh floor… This is what you're here doing, isn't it! Just the three of you! It makes sense, because you can't trust anyone anymore. Dennis's friend was sent home the other day because he had been feeding information to like, him."
"Colin, you really have to keep your voice down…" I said uncomfortably. I wasn't sure if Connor was a wise choice of member. His expression fell – could he read minds? Wait a minute, he couldn't, otherwise he'd know when to shut up.
"You've got to let me help you, I promise I won't say a word-"
"But you've already said so much."
I felt my stomach drop for the second time in five minutes – this couldn't be healthy.
Neville whipped out his wand, and Colin followed suit, but Luna and I couldn't be bothered – well, actually, I don't know about Luna, but I wasn't bothered, because it was my new best friend, coming out from his hiding spot (I'm sure that he knew how to make himself invisible), lighting the way with his wand, wearing a somewhat evil smirk.
"Hi, Blaise," I said. Obviously my day had to be completely screwed up.
"Hello, Weasley," he said. Once again, that annoyed me. And I have no idea as to why. "Lovegood, Longbottom. Creevey. What are you young things doing around the Seventh Floor at this time at night, when the Professors explicitly ordered everyone to go to bed?"
I shot Colin an accusatory look, but he was still holding out his wand.
"Well, we were-"
"Actually, don't answer that. It pains me to hear you lie, Weasley."
"Who said that I was going to lie?" I asked confusedly. He studied me.
"Well, I'm in."
OK, I was definitely missing something.
"Pardon?" I asked.
"I said, I'm in," he repeated.
"In where?" Colin stuttered.
Blaise looked at him, amused.
"Why, Dumbledore's Army of course."
"No!" Neville said at once. I just frowned at him.
"Explain yourself, Zabini," I said in an in-charge way.
"Well," he started, "I'm getting rather bored of the Carrows, and of all of those children crying in the hallways. I never did quite enjoy casting Unforgivables-"
"We're not just going up against the Carrows, Zabini," Neville said. I didn't want to point out that, for now, yes, yes we were.
Blaise smirked, amused – again. "Well, that will be my reason for joining. Amongst the fact that I'm bored. And Head Boy may be a valuable addition to your… army."
He did have a point. But I didn't like the way he said 'army'. He said it with that voice that you use when your just playing along with a child's game. I might not let him in on that alone.
"Besides, if you don't let me join, I could always let this meeting… slip," he said. And then he flicked his wand and a nearby suit of armour dropped to the floor making a lot of noise. He frowned. "You don't suppose Filch heard that, do you?" he asked innocently.
Anger boiled inside me – I could feel myself turning red. Blackmail was my thing! He couldn't blackmail me!
I looked at Neville, who was practically shouting at me with his eyes not to let Blaise join.
"Now, you look here-"
"Who goes there?"
Yeah. Filch had heard that.
"Quick!" Colin said as I saw the door appear. Blaise smiled triumphantly. He knew our hiding place.
"Fine!" I said quickly. "You're in!" And with that I followed Neville, Luna and Colin into the Room of Requirement, Blaise right behind me.
oOo
HERMIONE
I knew that leaving Harry and Ron in the middle of a forest and then coming back for Malfoy was a bad idea! I knew it!
But I couldn't leave him!
And now look!
How was I supposed to know that his own father would show up at our doorstep?
"Son?" he asked, surprised. I looked at Malfoy, panicked, but he was staring at his father amongst another whole lot of Death Eaters. And then he wasn't.
"Stupefy!" he shouted suddenly, and I didn't hesitate to step onto the doorstep and apparate us the hell out of there. I'm sure that by doing so I very narrowly missed the Killing Curse.
Malfoy buckled over as soon as we reached the forest. I was expecting to see Harry and Ron where I had left them – I had barely been gone a minute, right?
But I couldn't see any sign of them.
"Oh no…" I said as I walked forward, leaving Malfoy on the floor behind me. "Harry! Ron?" I shouted, but there was no answer. "Oh no, oh no, oh no… Harry!" I ran around the small clearing but saw no sign of them. I turned back to Malfoy. "Oh no!" The last 'oh no' was a high and squeaky one. The sight of his leg positively horrified me. His trouser leg was soaked in blood and I'm sure that there was snapped bone poking out of his skin. I rushed towards him and fell at his side. He was pale and he looked quite ill.
"Remember me did you?" he asked with a dry laugh, and then he groaned.
"Oh dear, oh dear," I said, tears stinging my eyes. I had left my bag of supplies with Ron and Harry, because Ron had splinched… oh god! Ron!
"Fix my leg now," Malfoy said between clenched teeth.
"I…" My breath was shaky, and there were tears flowing down my cheek. Pull yourself together, Granger! I wiped my cheek with the back of my hand and ripped Malfoy's trouser leg off. He let out a gasp of protest, and I realized that I probably should have warned him about what I was going to do. "This… this may hurt a little."
I started healing him with all spells I could possibly imagine whilst he swore at me a lot, but I knew that he didn't mean it. At least, that's what I told myself, because if I chose to believe that he did mean all the swear words I had never heard of I probably would have stopped trying to fix his leg.
I had never been good at healing, since I couldn't stand the sight of blood. I was doing a good job of ignoring that there was blood all over my hands… his blood. And Ron's blood was mixed somewhere there too. I decided not to share that piece of information with either of them – ever. I also decided to stop thinking about unrelated things.
At one point, Malfoy passed out, but I kept on going. I wasn't going to rest before I fixed him.
Finally, he woke up with a sharp gasp, and looked down at his leg. I looked at his leg too. When he passed out again, less pale and more relaxed, I couldn't help but feel proud and guilty at the same time. Where were Ron and Harry? Had Harry been able to manage Ron by himself, or was Ron in pain?
Oh, where were they?
I know, I'm evil – I can't update for sure and I'm leaving you guys on a cliffhanger?
Arg, you're so evil, I bet you have a Dark Mark and everything!
But your angry reviews amuse me so much, and I'm ill, so I need all the amusement I need XD (dance monkeys, dance! Joke… [see? I desperately need amusement!]) (So no pressure then...)
Oh, and whilst I've been gone I've read ALL the Percy Jackson books + The Lost Hero and the first The Hunger Games book! Everyone go and read them! Now!
I'm looking forward to reading your reviews!
Amy
xxx