Part Two: Chapter Twenty

"Well that couldn't have gone any worse!" Cho frowns when Danielle walks into the Ravenclaw common room and collapses into one of the blue chairs. The girl had already been busy taking care of Tracy and Luna. They both still looked pretty bad from enduring the cruciatus curse.

"I'd say it was a success," Luna declares before wincing a little when she adjusts herself on the couch.

"You guys were ratted out by Pansy Parkinson," Cho looks at Luna like she's crazy, "How is that a success?"

"We wouldn't have been able to get Harry the sword anyway even if we had been able to take it. Nobody knows where he is." Luna explains.

"I suppose your right," Danielle sighs. "At least now Snape knows that we aren't just going to sit back and let him dictate the school. It's the message that matters."

"Yes, but it still would have been nice to have the sword" Tracy points out, "If it really can help Harry defeat you-know-who, I would feel better if it was at least in our possession; not Snape's."

"I'm sure Harry will be able to find another way," Luna says optimistically, "Dumbledore was smart. He must have known that there was a possibility that Harry wouldn't get the sword. If it was that important, I think he would have given the sword to Harry in person before he died."

"That's an oddity all in itself," Cho looks up in thought, "Why didn't Dumbledore just give Harry the sword? The fact that it was left in the will almost makes it seem like he knew he was going to die." At this comment, Tracy sent a knowing look over at Danielle. This particular mystery had played on both of their minds. Draco had told Dumbledore of Voldemort's plan to kill him. For some reason, the great wizard didn't seem to have put much effort into avoiding this fate though since he ended up dead even after being warned. Danielle sometimes wondered if Dumbledore had died on purpose, which would be really peculiar if it were true.

"Well, all I know is that the cruciatus curse is no joke," Tracy looks between Danielle and Luna, "The pain was unbearable."

"Yeah, I didn't know it was possible to feel that much pain without dying," Danielle scrunches up her face at the memory.

"What did Snape want with you afterwards anyway?" Tracy asks looking concerned.

"He brought Draco here to 'have a talk with me'" Danielle tells her, "He's not going to tell his parents about me helping you guys though so I'm off the hook."

"He covered for you again?" Tracy asks in shock.

"He must really care about you," Luna smiles as if the engagement between Danielle and Draco was a truly wonderful and blissful thing.

"Sometimes it seems like he does," Danielle admits before looking to Tracy, "He's not looking so good though. I think you-know-who is really putting him through the wringer. He looks worse than he did last year." Tracy frowned as she remembered how tired and worn Draco had been when trying to work on the vanishing cabinet the year before. She wanted to ask Danielle to tell her more but knew that they'd have to wait until they were alone to talk about Draco further.

"Oh yes," Cho says sarcastically, "It must be so terrible to not have to come to school so that he can lounge around and do nothing all day in his gigantic home." Danielle had to hold back from launching into an argument with the girl. She wanted to defend Draco, but she knew she couldn't.

"I think he must be miserable living in a family of death eaters," Luna pipes in with a frown. "I've always felt a bit bad for those born into such unfortunate circumstances." Cho looked appalled by Luna's empathy, but Danielle felt admiration for it. Luna was definitely an odd person, but at least she wasn't so quick to judge like most of the other students at Hogwarts.


The next day, Tracy and Danielle walked into their 'dark arts' class with Cho and Luna. They had this class with the Gryffindors so they quickly found seats next to Neville and Seamus. Danielle had to sit a row away from her friends though. After she had claimed to not be a member of the DA, she decided it would be bad if she was seen hanging around the others by one of the Carrows. When Amycus Carrow walked into the classroom though, he was followed by a group of first years. Abby was among them. Danielle instantly had a terrible feeling about what might happen.

"We have a very special lesson today seventh years," Amycus smirked as he looked around the room. "We'll be learning about and practicing a very useful spell." Tracy and Neville looked at each other warily.

"A few of the students in this class have recently had some firsthand experience with this particular bit of magic," Amycus let his eyes wander over to where the DA members were sitting. "Mr. Longbottom, how would you like to be the first to demonstrate how to do the cruciatus curse?"

"I wouldn't like it at all," Neville says through clenched teeth. He did know firsthand how terrible the curse was and he definitely didn't want to subject a first year student to such a horrendous thing.

"Well that is too bad," Amycus narrows his eyes, "Because you don't have a choice. Get up here." Danielle's heart began to race as she thought of her sister feeling the pain she had felt the day before.

"I won't do it." Neville wasn't backing down.

"You will." Amycus replies smoothly, "Or you will face the consequences."

"This is wrong!" Seamus defends Neville. "You can't make us do it!"

"Really?" Amycus grins and pulls out his wand. "Is there anybody who'd like to volunteer to demonstrate the torture curse?" Nobody raised their hand so Amycus points his wand at Tracy. "How about you Ms. Ross? IMPERIO!"

Tracy knew she was in trouble as soon as she heard that spell. The imperious curse gave the spell caster complete control over their victim's actions. Only someone who was extremely strong willed could fight it off. Tracy didn't know if she could. She heard Amycus' voice in her head telling her to stand up. She did. He commanded her to walk up to the front of the room and she obeyed. Tracy tried to fight it but it was really hard. Amycus was very strong.

"Ah, very good Ms. Ross. What do you think Mr. Longbottom? I don't think getting you all to cooperate will be as difficult as you think." Amycus laughed and turned back to Tracy. In her head she heard him tell her to get out her wand and point it at Abby. At this she began to panic. She fought as hard as she could to break through the imperious curse but she just couldn't. She could see herself doing what Amycus wanted her to but she could not stop herself. All she could do was look down at Abby who was keeping a brave face even though she still had silent tears of fear welling in her eyes. Tracy felt terrible. She fought with all her might to throw off the imperious curse's control on her but it was no use.

"NO!" Neville stands and yells. "Tracy don't do it!"

"She can only obey my commands you idiot," Amycus smirks at Neville. Tracy tries to stop herself as she feels her lips begin to move to say the spell. Danielle then stands and waves her wand at her best friend who immediately flies backwards into the group of first years. Her wand soars out of her hand, across the room, and into Danielle's outstretched palm.

"What is the meaning of this Emmings?" Amycus snaps and glares up at the girl. "Haven't you gotten yourself into enough trouble already this year?" Tracy groaned and rubbed the back of her head as she pushed herself off the ground. Abby asked if she was ok and Tracy nodded and said she was sorry for almost torturing her.

"Excuse me professor but that is my sister that you were about to send an unforgivable curse at!" Danielle glares down at the death eater before looking at Tracy. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Tracy mumbles. "Thank you for doing it." Tracy didn't mind getting knocked on her bum by a disarming spell. It was better than being forced to torture her best friend's little sister.

"Fair enough Ms. Emmings," Amycus grins, "Perhaps you'd like to swap places with your sister then since you're feeling so heroic."

"I don't care," Danielle says and walks down to the front of the room confidently. She didn't really want to be crucio'd again but she'd rather it be her than Abby.

"Ok Ms. Ross. You know what to do." Amycus smiles at the two Ravenclaw girls. Danielle hands Tracy's wand back to her and Tracy feels sick. She was not about to torture her best friend.

"Don't be shy," Amycus goads, "she deserves it for attacking you from behind. She practically volunteered for this."

"I…," Tracy looks at Danielle feeling hopeless.

"Just do it," Danielle whispers. It would hopefully be over in a minute and then they could all make it out of here without pissing Amycus off too bad.

"STUPEFY!" Seamus shouts and violently thrashes his wand toward Amycus who quickly turns and deflects the spell.

"Seamus! No!" Tracy felt her heart sink. This was bad.

"You'll regret that boy," Amycus growls and flicks his wand at Seamus who falls to the ground clenching his fists and screaming in agony. "You see class? This is how the torture curse works. It does well as a punishment and getting people to spill their secrets. You must be careful though. If one is subjected to this curse for too long they can lose their minds!"

Amycus laughed loudly as Seamus continued to squirm around on the ground. His eyes were clenched shut and there was blood coming from the side of his mouth where he was biting the inside of his cheek. Finally, after several agonizing minutes Amycus lifted the curse and the room went silent. Seamus' screams still echoed in everyone's ears as they watched him try to open his eyes which were rolling to the back of his head. Not even the other DA members had been put under the horrible curse for so long.

"Very well. I think that will be all for today. Everyone may proceed to their next class now. Except for Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Finnigan." Amycus folds his arms as he watches his class pack up, daring one of them to try to say anything. Danielle fought her urge to run over to where Seamus was lying on the floor. She didn't care if the boy had been a bit of a jerk to her lately, he hadn't deserved this. But, she would probably get herself and Seamus into even more trouble if she did go to him. At least Neville would be staying back with him. Nobody got a chance to say anything about what happened before they were taken out into the hall and escorted to their next class in silence.


"Bring him here!" Danielle says quickly as Neville pulls a half conscious Seamus through the door of the room of requirement. Tracy had used her DA coin to call an emergency meeting after what had happened in Amycus' classroom just the hour before. She and Danielle had been worried that they might need to put together some sort of rescue mission in case things got too ugly for Seamus and Neville.

"They wouldn't let me take him to the hospital wing," Neville groans in agony. He had obviously been punished severely as well for speaking out against Amycus in class. The two Ravenclaw boys, Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein rushed over to take Seamus' weight off of Neville so that they could take him to Danielle.

"But they let you bring him here?" Cho asks in shock as she looks at Seamus in horror.

"No," Neville shakes his head, "Snape had Filtch follow us to make sure we went straight back to Gryffindor tower, but I stunned him so that I could get Seamus help. This was the closest place."

"He needs to go to the hospital!" Parvati frowns, "And so do you!" Neville merely shrugged even though he was bleeding from his split bottom lip and squinting to try and see through his swollen right eye. He also looked to be cradling his arm in pain.

"You can help them, right?" Tracy asks Danielle, who was examining Seamus' wounds.

"I'm no Madam Pomfrey," Danielle says honestly, "But I can do my best. I only have my wand though. I could do more if I had other supplies." A grinding noise suddenly began echoing throughout the room of requirement and everyone gasped when a large white metal cabinet emerged right out of the wall to their right. Luna walked over to it and threw the doors open.

"Hogwarts says your wish is its command," she smiles as she examines the contents. It was filled with bottles of pre-brewed potions, jars of herbs, and boxes containing cotton balls, gauze, and other medical items. "What sort of supplies did you need?"

"That depends on what happened exactly," Danielle was still kneeling at Seamus' side but turned to look at Neville. The boy began to explain everything that the Carrows had done to him and Seamus while Tracy transfigured a table into a hospital bed for Seamus to be laid upon. Once Danielle knew all the details, she got to work on fixing up the two broken boys. She was worried though since she had only ever dealt with minor injuries. She wasn't anywhere close to being a professional doctor. As promised though, she did the best she could.

"Maybe restarting the DA wasn't' such a good idea after all," Padma sighs sadly once the fear and shock in the room had died down a bit. "We don't stand a chance against the Carrows."

"We can't give up now!" Ginny crosses her arms, "This is war! We knew it wasn't going to be easy!"

"But look at Seamus! They could have killed him!" Hannah Abbot cries in disbelief.

"So what?" Neville challenges the group as Danielle tries out a spell to heal his arm, "We just sit back and let them force us to use unforgiveable curses on first years? I don't think so!"

"Well then, what are we supposed to do?" Parvati asks warily.

"Strike back!" Tracy declares, "Let them know that they haven't scared us off."

"And what if they catch us again?" Padma questions, "They're going to come down on us even harder. Neville's already going to have to watch his back once Snape finds out he stunned Filtch!"

"Snape should have been smarter than to send us off with that old coot anyway," Neville defends.

"How can you guys want to keep fighting?" Hanna Abbot asks then looking between Neville, Luna, Tracy, Ginny, and Danielle, "You guys were tortured for trying to steal the sword. You can't possibly want to relive that."

"You need to stop letting dark magic intimidate you," Danielle then speaks up as she pours some type of potion into Seamus' mouth for him to swallow, "Just because it's dark and evil doesn't mean it's stronger than us. We're not incompetent. Harry taught you guys a dozen or more different spells a couple years ago that are both strong and effective, and I know we've been working on even stronger spells this year. This battle isn't one sided. It only looks that way because you guys are looking at Snape and the Carrows as your superiors when they aren't."

"That's right," Tracy nods her head, "If we back down now that means that they've won."

"So, when are we supposed to do this strike back?" Terry Boot asks.

"Tonight," Ginny declares and Tracy nods her head in agreement.

"I have an idea of what we can do," Luna then pipes in before going into an explanation of her plan.