MMM: Here's the new chapter, you guys! Hopefully, after being away for such long periods of time, I've got another good chapter that you'll all enjoy. I know it's kind of short, but I couldn't really stretch it any further than I did.
AC: Well, it's about time! For a sec there, I thought you died on us or something.
MMM: And leave you guys before it gets to the really good stuff? As if!
DM: It's good to have you back, Nancy.
AC: Why are you so nice all of a sudden?
DM: Because I know who's in control of this story.
AC: So you're being a major suck-up then, huh?
DM: Pretty much.
MMM: ANYWAY... Shall we continue the story? Yes? Good.
And as always, I do not own Harry Potter.
Ch. 55 Time to Fight Back
Things only got worse at the weeks went on. As if not being taught properly in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Umbridge was beginning to affect the other courses as well. Every day, there was one of her surprise 'inspections' where she would come into the classroom and begin shooting random questions at the teachers, mostly about their work at the school and personal things like that, taking note of it all on her clipboard.
And then there her new post as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts and with it came new rules and restrictions. First it was things like 'all Weasley products are to be banned', but it quickly escalated to stupid things like 'students are not permitted to be within eight inches of each other'. Anya was positive that this woman had been picked on as a child and was now taking revenge by making the children of those that mocked her miserable.
And why was all of this happening? Well, it wasn't hard to figure out. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, believed that all the talk about Voldemort coming back was Dumbledore's way of trying to shoulder his way to get Fudge's job. And so the paranoid wizard sent Umbridge to Hogwarts to be his eyes and ears while she kept the students from learning any real magic since he thought that Dumbledore would use them as some kind of army when no one believed of Voldemort's return.
When Umbridge decided to fire Professor Trelawney and attempted to ban her from the school grounds, Anya and the others had had enough.
So when the next Hogsmeade visit rolled around, the Golden Quartet had called a special meeting of a bunch of students, ones they knew didn't approve of Umbridge's controlling ways: the rest of the Weasley family, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang, Dean Thomas, Vi, and a few other students that Anya couldn't remember the names of.
"Umm… Hi," Hermione greeted them. "So… you all know why we're here. We need a teacher- a proper teacher. One that's had real experiences with the dark arts."
Of course, there were some who thought the idea was stupid and didn't believe that Voldemort was back because there was no 'proof'. One kid tried to weasel out more info about how Cedric Diggory had been killed last year, but Harry had none of that. Anya saw how Cho began tense at the mention of her late boyfriend's name, and she couldn't blame her. After all, Anya had talked to Cedric before he died and he had told her about his big plans for the future with the Ravenclaw girl.
Just as Harry was about to leave the little pub they were in, Luna spoke up about how Harry could produce a Patronus charm. And with that, more stories about the amazing things Harry had done in the past four years were told. How he fought the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets using the sword of Godric Gryffindor, how he took on almost a hundred dementors back in the third year, and other things like that.
"Listen, it all sounds great when you say it like that…" Harry began, stopping all the gossip and murmuring in the room. "But the truth of the matter is that it was mostly just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time and I nearly always had help from someone."
"He's just being modest," Hermione commented, but Harry stopped her.
"Facing this stuff in real life isn't like school," he continued. "In school, if you just make a mistake, you can always try again tomorrow. But in real life… when you're a second away from being murdered, or watching a friend die right in front of you… You don't know what that's like," he finished sadly as he sat back down.
Anya stood up and watched over to his side. "You're right- we don't know. And if we're gonna have any chance at beating Voldemort, it's going to be cause you helped us," she told him, squeezing his shoulder gently for reassurance.
And that's what did it. By the end of the day, everyone in that room finally believed that Voldemort was back, and 'Dumbledore's Army' was founded. Now all they needed was a place to train without Umbridge finding out.
And they did find a place, thanks to Neville. When he showed the Golden Quartet where this room was up on the seventh floor, Hermione called it the 'Room of Requirement', saying that it was magically designed for whoever was in real need of it, always equipped with the seeker's needs. The room they had was very large, containing bookshelves, cushioned seats, target dummies, and a bulletin board where Harry pinned the list of the DA members and the picture Sirius had given him of the original Order of the Phoenix.
They practised as often as possible, sneaking passed Umbridge's little Inquisitorial Squad, led by the sour old caretaker, Mr. Filch, who patrolled the halls in attempts to catch them. To prevent anyone outside of the DA from finding out about meetings, Hermione and Anya developed fake Gold Galleons that had serial numbers that would change to show the date and time of the meetings and would become warm to silently signal the members.
,:~:,
"I'm going to join the Inquisitorial Squad," Draco suddenly announced, causing Anya to stop in her tracks as they were walking through the school corridors. "Just hear me out," he pleaded.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Anya nearly yelled, gaining quite the stare from some of the older students. "Why the hell would you do something like that?"
"I could tell you, but you'd have to stop screaming at me first," Draco answered. He could tell that Anya was just about ready to hex him into next week, but she nodded curtly to allow him to do so. "Umbridge thinks that all the Slytherins are rooting for her ideas, so she wouldn't suspect if one of us is spying on her. If I join her Squad, I can figure out what she's up to and warn you about it while keeping her as far away from… wherever it is that you're having these meetings of yours."
Anya looked skeptical. "And how could you do that? Wouldn't she suspect something's up when you avoid the area where we are?"
Draco shook his head. "I'll make sure that I'm the only one who's patrolling that area. She'll never even know." He could see the hesitation in her eyes. "Come on Anya, don't you trust me?"
Anya sighed before she walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. "I do trust you Draco, but my friends… they still think that you're going to break my heart one day."
Draco held her close as he kissed her hair. "I promise you Anya, I will never do anything to hurt you. I love you."
Anya looked up at him with her big violet eyes and he felt every bone in his body turn to jelly. "I love you too," she whispered.
Just as they leaned in to kiss each other, a loud 'ahem!' sounded behind Draco, causing them to break apart. Looking over his shoulder, Draco saw Pansy standing there with her arms crossed, that stupid Inquisitorial Squad badge of hers gleaming in the light from the torches. "You know the rules, Collins," she sneered at the American witch. "I'm going to have to report this, you know." She took out a small pad of paper and a quill. "Let's see now… How many decrees did you just break?"
"Do I look like I'm scared of you?" Anya huffed at the Slytherin girl. "Why don't you just take that dumb piece of brass on your chest and shove it up your ass, Parkinson? No one listened to you before, and that hunk of metal isn't going to change anything."
"Foul language, public display of affection, improper dress code," Pansy jotted down on the paper, eyeing the light blue sneakers on the other witch's feet. "Ooh… so many decrees broken. You'll be lucky if you don't get expelled." The glee in her voice was clear that that was exactly what she was hoping would happen.
"Sod off, Parkinson!" Draco hissed at the other Slytherin. Pansy just shrugged before tucking the pad and quill back in her pocket and walked away, making sure to blow a kiss in his direction before she left.
"God, I hate her so much!" Anya growled, violet eyes blazing with fury. Draco was sure that if he hadn't been holding her hand, she would have gone after the other witch to possibly rip her limb from limb, and as sexy as Draco thought his girlfriend was when she got jealous, he didn't want to see her stoop down to Parkinson's level. But instead, she just turned back into his arms and hugged him again. "I'm trusting you, Draco. Please don't make me regret it," he heard her whisper the last part to herself.
'Never,' Draco silently promised her.
And so that's how it went. Draco joined the Inquisitorial Squad under the pretense that he just wanted to see Potter get into serious trouble, while he secretly kept the other Squad members away from where they should have looked. Anya had given Draco one of the special Galleons so that he knew when especially to stay away from the seventh floor.
Surprisingly, Pansy said nothing on the fact that Draco was now a member of the Squad. Was it because she still feared Draco after the threat he made to her last year when she insulted Anya? Or was there another motive behind her actions, one even more troublesome? Whatever it was, Draco didn't like it one bit. But he couldn't so anything without provoking her to go to Umbridge with what she knew about him. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
,:~:,
"Today, we're going to be trying something a little different this time," Harry announced once everyone had gathered for the DA meeting, his friends ranking on either side of him. He swept his arm back to the area behind him to the large training course. First there was a rope net hanging down from a high platform where swinging ropes were set across from a landing mat. After that, there was a series of swinging sandbags going back and forth at a balance beam over one of the Weasley twins' portable swamp wheezes. A large rock climbing wall was at the end of that and on the other side was a large group of the target dummies disguised as Death Eaters, each spelled to fire hexes and jinxes at a moving target in the ring.
"How do you expect us to do that?" one of the Ravenclaw students asked. "That's worse than Lupin's final exam back in third year!"
"Yeah?" Anya questioned. "Well here's a newsflash for you- in real life, the bad guy isn't going to just stand there and let you hit him. You've got to learn how to be quick on your feet and know how to use your surroundings to your advantage."
"And I suppose you're excellent at that," the student scoffed.
"Why don't you just watch and see?" Harry challenged before turning back to his American friend. "Ready Anya?"
"Born ready," she smirked, shedding off her outer robes and tying her hair into a messy bun. With a confident strut, she walked over to the beginning of the course with her wand in hand, getting down in a crouch runners use when they're about to do a hundred meter dash.
"On your mark… get set… GO!"
Anya was quick. She flew over to the rope net, easily pulling herself up to the top, where she grabbed one of the ropes and swung to the mat, letting go half way so that she could add in a full body twist before she landed. She ran over to the balance beam and hauled herself up onto it. She then began a series of elaborate back flips and cartwheels, the sandbags hardly ever coming close to her. If they did, she sent a powerful kick or spell its way to knock it back. She climbed the rock wall with ease and jumped off the top, using 'Spongify' on the ground below her so it became like a trampoline, sending her flying into the center of the ring of 'Death Eaters'. There, she began sending jinxes and hexes at the targets on their chests, sometimes grabbing the arm of one and twisting her body so that she could aim the spell about to be fired at another target before she took that one down. By the end, she was out of breath and her hair was everywhere in her face, her stance tense as she looked down at the fallen targets laying around her.
"Still think you could do better?" Vi asked the Ravenclaw student with a smirk.
"That doesn't look so tough," he scoffed, but the look in his eyes clearly showed that he was intimidated by the girl's ability.
The next hour was spent walking the other DA members through each part of the training course. Some ended up flat on their face when they tried swinging on the ropes, some covered in the slimy green goop from the swamp at the balance beam, or some affected by whatever spell hit them in the fighting ring. It was hard work, but they eventually got through it.
AC: You seriously made me bad ass. I like it!
MMM: *shrugs* I try.
Don't forget to review people!
Nancy (aka megamatchmaker)
