Part II: Regency

Chapter II: In Which Corinna Accepts Numerous Invitations

Things should have been looking up for Corinna. She got her friend back, and they were spending study sessions in the library again. Although there seemed to be a lot more studying now since they had so much work piled onto them. It helped that they had virtually opposite schedules, so they could each warn the other what is to come. She was back into a routine that didn't make reading in the garden sound exciting.

The problem was Dolores Umbridge.

A week later, the Daily Prophet ran an article about how Umbridge was going to be Hogwarts' first High Inquisitor, confirming Corinna's beliefs that the Ministry was going to be interfering at Hogwarts. It didn't make her feel any better to be right about something like this.

She did as she should. She kept her head down and didn't say another word out of turn, no matter how much she wanted to make that woman choke on her own words.

It was a relief that their first Hogsmeade weekend was coming up. However, she did not expect Hermione to approach her a few days before.

They were sitting in Ancient Runes. Corinna was fretting over some of her mistranslations when Hermione leaned over. "Umbridge is not actually preparing us for what's out there," she said without preamble as Babbling had gone back to the front of the class. "I'm arranging something to help us get some practical experience."

Corinna waited until Babbling's back was to them when she started writing notes on the board. "Who will teach us?"

"Harry, of course."

She tried not to react when Hermione mentioned him. "Anything to piss off the Umbridge. When and where?"

"We'll be meeting in the Hog's Head around noon," Hermione said after it was safe. "I was hoping you could talk to Terry and the other Ravenclaws. I know some of them would be dying to get a chance to work on the practical side of things."

"Yeah, no problem," Corinna replied. "I'll pass the word along."

"Just to those we can trust," Hermione insisted. "We can't have her finding out about this. There isn't anything in the school rules against it, but this is the Ministry we are talking about."

So that night at their usual table in the library, Corinna told Terry about Hermione's plan. "Yeah, a few of us would definitely be on board," he agreed easily. "You have no idea how much we all need this."

"Just keep it need to know," Corinna reminded. "If they are leaning towards siding with Umbridge and the Ministry, you can't tell them."

"I am the king of discretion."

"Says the man who insisted on snogging in public areas."

"When will you let that go, Crouch?"

"Six months from never, Boot."

The morning of the Hogsmeade visit brought in an autumnal chill that threatened with winter. They had bundled up with their winter cloaks and various winter gear to brace through the paths up to the village.

As they were told not to gather at the Hog's Head until the time Hermione told everyone, Corinna and Terry decided to spend the morning with some of the other Ravenclaws that agreed to learned Defensive magic from Harry Potter. As much as they wanted to talk about it, they kept their talks to the mundane of classes and other gossip.

After loading up with sweets, they trudged down the lane and made their way inside the Hog's Head Inn. It was not a place where students gravitated towards as it appeared to be your standard pub that attracted more of the, shall we say, dregs of wizarding society.

It seemed that a lot of people were eager to learn from Harry. Some were on the skeptical side, like Corinna's favorite metaphorical punching bag, Zacharias Smith, but he was easily put in his place.

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" Harry asked, looking straight at Zacharias Smith. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone." He then looked at the others sitting there. "If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone, I can't help you. I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So, if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

When no one moved, Hermione jumped back in. "So, like I was saying. If you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to—"

She was interrupted by a Hufflepuff—Susan Bones—asking if Harry can produce a corporeal patronus, which got everyone excited all over again. And then it moved onto all the things that Harry accomplished from when he was eleven all the way to the final task last year. "Look," he said, looking embarrassed, "I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but…I had a lot of help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon, you didn't."

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer."

"Are you trying to get out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacharias Smith demanded.

"How about you shut up," Corinna muttered. "We saw him during all the tasks last year. You can't fake that."

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it."

Once the Weasley twins pulled out an odd-looking instrument that they claimed to clean his ears so he can hear what is actually being said, Zacharias finally kept his mouth shut.

"So, we agree to get lessons from Harry," Hermione said, looking relieved that they were finally moving on. "Well, then the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week."

That's when all the quidditch players jumped up to complain that they need to work around all of the house schedules. With three of them to coordinate, Corinna was glad that there weren't any Slytherins involved. Hermione reassured that they will find a night that will suit everyone, pointing out that it would be important towards defending themselves against the Death Eaters.

But then there came the problem of where to have meetings. There were over twenty students to have to coordinate, and since this technically wasn't legal, the library or an empty classroom was out, as was outside since winter was knocking on their doorstep. "Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," Hermione conceded when it was fruitless to come up with a place right then. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting.

"So, if you are interested, I think we should all sign the paper," Hermione said, stammering slightly. Although some of the students protested—particularly some of the prefects—one by one, each student wrote their name. Corinna couldn't help but look up at Harry as she wrote her name after Terry's. Since she was the last in the group to sign it, she handed the quill back to Hermione.

"I am so dead if my parents find out about this," Terry muttered as they left the Hog's Head and made their way back to the main drag. "But it's important. It's just like a study group, right?"

"Sure," Corinna said, as she saw a bright haired witch stumble over a fence by the Three Broomsticks.

"Wotcher!" she said as she grabbed onto the nearest thing, which just happened to be Terry, to prevent her from falling. "I swear to Merlin's pants that they move them around just to purposefully trip me up." She looked up at the two of them and smiled. "Name's Tonks. I was actually looking for you."

Terry and Corinna exchanged confused looks. At Corinna's shrug, she turned back to the witch. "I'm sorry. I think you got me confused with someone else."

"I don't think there are many Corinna Crouches roaming about Hogwarts," she said.

"Look, if this is about her brother," Terry said jumping to Corinna's defense.

Tonks looked between Corinna and she wished she could read minds to figure out what the witch was doing. But, just then, the Weasley twins along with their friend Lee Jordan were passing by and said their hellos to this Tonks. "What are you doing in Hogsmeade?" Fred (Corinna assumed) asked. "Is it for...business?"

"Family matters, actually," Tonks said with a slight wink to Corinna. "Go do something I would do." As they retreated back down the lane, she turned to Corinna. "Sorry about that. I know their family."

"It's alright, Terry," Corinna said, not putting much hope into the wink. "I'll meet you back at the castle."

Terry looked torn, but some of his Ravenclaw friends were calling after him, and he scurried to catch up, but he still looked back at Corinna just to make sure she was safe.

"Let's go in here," Tonks said as she motioned to the Three Broomsticks. It was much livelier in here than in the Hog's Head, and if was near impossible to find a secluded booth. They found one in the back and they slid inside. Tonks ordered a round of butter beers and paid for them on the spot. "Sorry for being tetchy earlier. I didn't know how you would react if I said anything about..."

"How do you know?" Corinna asked coolly. If Harry told anyone...

"Dumbledore told us about what happened last year," Tonks explained. "Us being a secret order he put together once You-Know-Who came back into power. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Why don't I start at the beginning and we'll work our way from there? Alright?"

Corinna still looked skeptical, but she slowly nodded.

"Family is messy," Tonks began as Madam Rosmerta placed a couple of glasses on the table. Tonks took a drink, but Corinna hadn't moved a muscle. "My mum has two sisters who she hasn't talked to since she married my Muggle-born father. See, she comes from a family who believed that their blood status was the most important thing about them. They both had married into pureblood families and she hadn't heard much from them. Later, I found an old tapestry with my mum burned out of it. I wasn't even on it!"

"All my mum knew was that her two sisters had children around the same age, but she didn't know much about that. This was during the height of the war and she suspected that they were involved somehow with the Death Eaters. I was also seven or eight at the time, so I didn't know much myself.

"I do remember when my mum first heard her sister and her husband were sent to Azkaban. She wasn't surprised as that lot were some of You-Know-Who's most loyal. She was worried about the little girl she never met. Except, she didn't have much to go on. All she knew was that they had a daughter and she would have been a year or two old, but that's it. At the time, the Ministry kept information about their prisoners under strict lock and key. But what was odd was that, by the time my mum and dad managed to get information out of the Ministry, it was like she never existed.

"Eventually, they just gave up. Well, they had to. They had no other leads. My mum even tried to talk with her other sister, but she kept ignoring the owls. All they could hope was that the little girl had gone to a loving family, just another orphan in a sea of them after the war.

"So, we lived our lives. I graduated from Hogwarts, went to train to be an Auror, and before the green even had a chance to rub off, here's my supervisor telling me that the Ministry is lying about You-Know-Who and that Professor Dumbledore is putting together a secret order to help fight him. 'Course I jump at the chance. Had a fair few classmates who had lost loved ones during the first go-around and I wanted to help.

"Part of it was getting an explanation on what really happened at the end of last year, not the Ministry revised edition. Don't worry, he had left a few details out when telling most everyone. But then Dumbledore had pulled me aside to give me the un-unrevised edition. The one involving an extramarital affair and a brother that wasn't quite so.

"That's putting it mildly." Tonks had drained her butter beer before Corinna even had a chance to take a sip of hers. She hadn't even paid attention to when Tonks had taken a drink as she was too absorbed in the story.

"When Dumbledore told me what Crouch confessed to, I knew I had to tell my mum, and he agreed. She might have moved on, but she was still worried about the little girl she never knew. She was so angry that someone within the Ministry got to you first. She had thought to march right down to where you were, but Dumbledore intervened. He said in his wise and infinite wisdom, that you needed to come to terms with what happened at your own pace and to leave family reunions until you were ready to accept them with open arms. So, we kept our distance, and Dumbledore sent some of the Order to keep an eye on you.

Color drained from Corinna's face. "He knew I wasn't at Terry's?"

Tonks chuckled. "Nothing escapes that man. Nothing. But he understood. You needed space, and you weren't going to get that at your friend's place or with us. He did not, however, appreciate the fact that you went back to a place that You-Know-Who knows about without any sort of wards or protections. But since, again, nothing escapes him, he knew he wouldn't do anything and only had a couple of us on watch."

"So, why now?" Corinna asked, holding onto the glass to try to stop her hands from shaking so much. "Why are you telling me all this now?"

"Because you had your time," Tonks said. She sighed heavily as she set her empty glass to the edge of the table. "I get it. Like I said, family is messy. But we wanted you to know you have someone looking out for you. You do not need to make your decision right now, but my mum would have a cow if I don't offer it. Come visit us for Christmas. It will only be for a few weeks and we want to get to know you, my mum especially." Tonks hesitated a moment. "And I know what you might have heard about your own mum. If it helps, we aren't anything like her. Although my parents were never part of the Order, they have always been against You-Know-Who."

"I believe you," Corinna reassured as she shifted her hands to her lap, restless.

"But you still don't trust me," said Tonks and Corinna could not disagree with that assessment. "I don't blame you. I would not want to trust a perfect stranger who knows as much as I do. My mum said you can send an owl at any time with any questions you might have, and they'll do their best to answer them." She sighed heavily. "I know you are no longer that little girl, but that doesn't change how worried my mum is. Just think about it." She glanced at her watch. "Is it really that late already? I have to get back to work. It was good to meet you, Corinna." She shakily stood up and offered her a hand that she tentatively hand.

Hesitating a moment, Corinna stood up and accepting Tonks' hand. "It was good to meet you, too, Tonks."

"Next time, we won't leave as formally." As she turned to leave, she knocked into an umbrella stand and apologized profusely.

Corinna was lost in thought, nearly running into a group of third years as they all scrambled to make it back onto the grounds before curfew. The first thing she wanted to do was rush to Terry and talk to him about what had happened, but that would require having to tell him the truth of her parentage. Instead, she went to the common room to unwind and sort through what just happened.

At least the Christmas holidays were weeks away. At least she would have Defense meetings to look forward to.

Or so she thought.

When they woke Monday morning, they were greeted by Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four banning all groups unless okayed by the High Inquisitor. Having no doubt that the Defense meetings were still going to happen ("When have rules ever stopped them before?" Corinna pointed out to Terry), but Terry was also worried about quidditch. Although he wasn't on the team, he still cared about the sport and wanted to get the Cup from the Gryffindors.

Although she didn't care much for the sport, she knew for a fact that Umbridge would either drag her feet about allowing Gryffindors to play or just flat-out disallow them from playing. Besides, she liked the little interhouse rivalry she had with Terry, and that won't happen if her house wasn't in the running for the cup.

After Defense lessons that day, Corinna hung back and approached the desk. "Ah, Miss Crouch," she said. "What do I owe the pleasure?" She looked at her almost hungrily.

"I'm sorry if I am bothering you, Professor," Corinna said, channeling her inner Barty Crouch, Sr. "I just wanted to congratulate you on another wonderful decree. It is bringing us one step closer to a much better school and learning environment." She tried to make her voice drip with honey, but she was afraid she had gone over the threshold into venom instead.

"Thank you, dear," Umbridge said. If she could tell that Corinna was being fake, she gave no indication. "I know some of your peers do not see it as such. Why, I just had to turn your quidditch captain away from resuming practices. I don't believe all on that team are deserving of the privilege."

She could have just said Harry. It was quite plain who she was talking about. "Completely understandable," she said with an easy smile. "People need to learn that there are consequences to their actions."

"Precisely. I knew you would see things my way, unlike some of your lot." She had tucked her quill and papers she was grading into her bag. "In fact, there is something I wanted your help with."

"Name it," Corinna said without hesitation.

"I have a credible source who told me about a clandestine meeting that Mr. Potter ran in the Hog's Head." Corinna nodded and tried to look surprise to make it seem that this is the first she is hearing about it. "It was actually what gave me the idea for the decree. We cannot have order if students are free to do such things without consequences."

"Now, this is where you come in, dear. As you are a Gryffindor, you could ease your way into the group. If you could relay any information about what they are doing, I may be inclined to not only give the Gryffindor quidditch team my assent to play in November, but there may be something more in it for you too, Miss Crouch. Yes, I can see you are just like your father. You may even become Minister just as he wanted, as long as you stick with the right crowd."

I would rather jump off the Astronomy Tower. "I won't let you down, Professor," she reassured, her heart pounding very hard in her chest. "No one will be the wiser."

"Good girl," Umbridge said. "There might be hope for you yet."

Umbridge headed down the hall back to her office and Corinna went the opposite way to the Gryffindor common room. "What the hell did I just get myself into?" she scolded herself.

"Talking to yourself again?" Terry teased as he joined her. "What did Umbridge want?"

"I'll tell you later," Corinna reassured. "I just need to talk to Harry, Ron, and Hermione first. Okay, yeah, we really do just need one name for them."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Terry said. "Is it going to interfere with our study date?"

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

She broke off from Terry and made a beeline to the Great Hall, a bundle of electric nerves as she looked about and tried to spot Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were seated with some of the other fifth years, but they were only talking amongst themselves. With a steadying sigh, she straightened up in hopes to appear more confident than she actually felt. She managed to squeeze her way next to the three of them. Much to her slight annoyance, it was right next to Harry. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she loaded up her plate with food she did not intend to eat. "Just pretend that I always have dinner with you all." She really hoped that she only sounded nervous to herself.

"Why?" Ron asked. Hermione nudged him and subtly motioned to Umbridge at the staff table, who had a wide grin as she watched Corinna. "Why is she giving us that look?"

"I can't really say right now," Corinna said, pretending as if she couldn't see Umbridge. "Suffice to say that I need her to think that I am cozying up. I'll explain in the common room later." She shoved a piece of bread in her mouth. "So, what do you normally talk about? What school rule you're going to break next?"

The three of them looked unsure as they watched Corinna now. "That's not how it usually goes," Harry admitted. "Breaking the rules kind of happens naturally."

"Er, of course," Corinna said easily. "Just talk about whatever. I'll pipe in once in a while with an on topic but witty remark. And you'll want to deal with it if you want even a sliver of a chance of Gryffindor playing quidditch ever again."

"And what can you do about it?" Ron asked.

"I'll explain myself later when we can't be overheard," Corinna muttered.

After an awkward dinner, the four of them left early and headed back into the common room. "I'm sorry for doing that," she said as they chose a secluded corner away from everyone else. "I had to make sure Umbridge saw me talking with you."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because I am such an idiot," Corinna said honestly. She quickly explained the conversation she had with Umbridge after class. For the most part, they had stayed quiet, except for when Hermione wanted some clarification. "So, yeah, what started off as trying to butter her up to try to get her to let Gryffindor play turned into me promising her that I would spy on Harry about the secret meetings."

"This is perfect," Hermione said with a wicked smile.

"How is that perfect?" Ron asked. "She knows about the meeting."

"We had already figured that," she said dismissively. "Now we know for sure, and we have someone on the inside. Well, kind of."

"You want me to play the double agent?" Corinna asked, making sure she heard Hermione correctly.

"It's brilliant really," Hermione said. "You can feed her false information. Get her off our scent. And in turn, you might be able to find out information about what she is doing that might help us."

"Are we sure you can do this, Corinna?" Harry asked. "That's a lot to ask. And you could get into huge trouble if you're caught."

"About as much trouble as teaching a bunch of students Defense since she's a shite teacher?" Corinna challenged. "I can handle myself just fine, thanks. I just have to act like the perfect little tattle tale."

"We're going to have to give her something so Corinna can get into her good graces," said Hermione as she turned the thought over in her mind. "Actually, I think I might have something. I can give it to you tomorrow to give to Umbridge."

"Yeah, alright," Corinna said as she stood up. "Have a good night." She took her bag over to a free table to study and left the three of them to plot or plan or whatever it was they did when other people weren't around.

In their dorm room the next morning, they had waited for Lavender and Parvati to go down to breakfast. They were part of the group, but they all thought it was best to keep this between the four of them. Hermione handed Corinna a blank bit of parchment. "I'm waiting for the cleverness to kick in," she said plainly.

"I've linked this piece of parchment with one I have in my bag," Hermione explained in a low voice. "I got the idea from the…well, from something I read about. See, it's charmed. Whatever I write on my piece of parchment, it will show up on this." She shook the parchment. "It also works vice versa. Whatever Umbridge decides to write, I will also see. The messages will disappear after a few seconds. I figured Umbridge would have quite the time trying to confiscate everyone's spare parchment. We can feed her lies and lay her astray."

Corinna nodded and put the parchment in her bag. "I'll give it to her between classes so I can't dawdle too much. I'll just say I nicked it from some unknown third year, and say I got nothing from the three of you. It won't completely get her off your scent, but it's a start."

Hermione bit her lip and her brows knit together with worry. "I just…I hope this is all worth it in the end."

"It's like you said," Corinna said as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "In a way, this is bigger than school. And coming from someone like you, Hermione, it speaks volumes." She glanced at the time and they both headed for the stairs. "I'll get this parchment to Umbridge. Find us a room so we can learn to kick Death Eater arse."

Corinna went in between her morning classes to give the parchment to Umbridge. Although she kept pressing Corinna to explain herself, she stuck to the script that her and Hermione came up with, and rushed out of the room before she could be late for Charms.

That evening, when Corinna made it back to the common room after talking with Terry and telling him all she could about what had transpired, Harry came up to her. "We are allowed to play quidditch again," he said, but he looked hesitant. "Angelina thinks that McGonagall may have gone to Dumbledore and he forced her to accept."

Corinna was a little miffed that her efforts may not have been what helped the Gryffindor quidditch team get their fair shake, but the effort wasn't for naught. "At least we have something that can throw Umbridge off our scent when we finally start to have meetings."

He glanced around a moment before shoving his hands in his pockets. "We never really talked about last year."

"To be honest, I don't want to talk about it," Corinna admitted. "I've done my soul searching, I've come to terms with it. Just…please don't tell anyone who my parents are. That is not a fact I really want advertised."

"You know, I have a godfather who came from a family of Voldemort sympathizers and Death Eaters," Harry said, moving on from the slight squeak Corinna gave. "He turned out to be the bravest and strongest man I know." He cleared his throat. "I'll see you around, Corinna."

"You too, Harry," Corinna said as she watched Harry retreat to his friends. She tried to ignore her flip-flopping stomach as she thought about what Tonks had told her in the Three Broomsticks. Family really is messy.

Instead of finishing up her Charms essay, she grabbed a fresh piece of parchment and began to write.

When Corinna went into the Great Hall the next day, she did not expect Harry to motion to her. "We have a meeting tonight," he announced. "Eight o'clock. Seventh floor opposite the tapestry of Barnebas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. Pass it along to Terry and have him pass it along to the other Ravenclaws."

"Gotcha," Corinna reassured. She grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it in her mouth. Even though it was an obvious detour, she stopped by Terry to tell him about where and when the Defense meeting would be. He promised to pass it along and she made her way to the owlery.

Although she hadn't personally brought the owl with her as her official pet, it seemed her father's old owl followed her anyway. He came down from his nest and accepted a bit of crust that Corinna offered. "I need you to send this to Nymphadora Tonks." Now she completely understood why she only introduce Corinna with her last name. When she asked Fred and George in the common room that morning, they explained that she loathed her given name. "You don't have to wait for a reply unless she says to." The barn owl spread its great wings and flew off.

Once she sent the letter, she felt much lighter. It was a very difficult letter to write, even if she kept it as simple as possible. She couldn't make any promises, but she was willing to spend the break with them. It at least gave her something to look forward to besides Defense meetings, even if she was nervous about meeting her family.

She met with Terry at their usual spot in the library after dinner. They kept their conversation focused on their schoolwork even though all they wanted to talk about was the meeting. Although they usually waited until curfew, this time they left a few minutes before eight o'clock so they could stash their things sans their wands in their respective dormitories. They met outside the door that Corinna knew hadn't been there before and walked in together.

A few others had already gathered for the meeting, chatting away happily. Once everyone had gathered inside, everyone turned expectantly to Harry. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we should practice first…" He glanced over at his friend who had raised her hand, in a much similar manner to what she used to do in Umbridge's class until she gave in and reread whatever chapter they were on. "Yeah, Hermione?"

"We ought to elect a leader," she said plainly.

"Harry's leader," Cho said and Corinna tried not to scoff.

"I think we ought to vote on it," said Hermione. "It makes it formal and gives him authority. Everyone who thinks Harry ought to be leader?" Once everyone had their hands raised, even those who were reluctant, she continued. "We should also have a name," she continued after Harry's quick thanks. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

After dismissing anything that was obvious Ministry bashing, Cho came up with the Defense Association. "Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" There were quite a few chuckles at that, even with Corinna joined in. It was put to another vote, and although not everyone was in favor, it was still a majority. Hermione took the slip of paper they had all signed and put "Dumbledore's Army" at the bottom where there was room.

Now that they were finally done with the decision-making part of the meeting, Harry had moved onto actually teaching them defense, starting out with the disarming charm, Expelliarmus. Although Zacharias put up a stink (as usual), Harry put him and others who were skeptical but less vocal in their place by telling them they can leave. Since no one wanted to do such a thing, although Corinna was certain if this were a normal lesson with one of the usual professors, someone would have actually left after that sort of invitation. Harry showed them the pronunciation and the wand movements and the split them all into pairs.

Corinna immediately paired up with Terry. They had their wands trained on each other. "I promise to go easy on you, Crouch."

"Shove it, Boot," Corinna muttered. After Harry's countdown, they both shouted Expelliarmus along with everyone else in the room. It was a chaos as some wands flew everywhere. Much to their confusion, both Corinna and Terry lost their wands. They laughed as they went to collect their wands, and Corinna got annoyed when Zacharias grabbed her wand that landed close to his. "Can't even manage with your own wand so you thought you'd try mine?"

"How are you even doing that?" Zacharias asked, but he was looking over at his partner, Anthony Goldstein, who was just standing there with his wand limply at his side.

Corinna glanced over at Harry was making his rounds and they both noticed Fred and George using the charm behind Zacharias's back. "Sorry, Harry," said George. "Couldn't resist."

Corinna grabbed her wand from Zacharias and went back to where her and Terry were standing. It only took one more attempt and Terry's wand went flying straight back and nearly knocked into the Creevey brothers. She decided to be nice to him and summoned it back over to them. As they continued to practice, it seemed that Terry was a better spellcaster as he was more successful when he did hit, but Corinna had better instincts and was quicker to react.

"If only we could somehow combine forces," Terry said when her wand went flying when she decided to not say it right away and he easily caught it. "We would be unstoppable."

Harry had reshown them how to do it properly and then went around to each group to correct their technique. After a couple of tries, Corinna was able to successfully, not only be faster than Terry, but was able to successfully disarm him with a perfect arch. "That was brilliant, Corinna," Harry said, coming up from behind her, and she tried to ignore the fact that her cheeks began to burn. It came to a surprise to everyone when someone had realized it was past nine o'clock. They all pocketed their wands and excitedly hoped they could meet sooner than a week from now, but nothing was set in stone. They were all sent out in smaller groups, and Harry used his curious map of Hogwarts to keep an eye on things so they wouldn't get caught. Corinna said goodnight to Terry as she left with a small group of Gryffindors.

As she wasn't one to do extra-curricular activities outside of classes, Corinna didn't realize how much easier it was to look forward to the next week when there was a goal at the end of it that wasn't just another weekend of studying and hanging out with Terry. Although she wasn't the biggest fan of how unpredictable the meetings were, she knew it might be best to do it as such so it was hard to see a pattern. It also helped that Hermione, enlisting Dean's help as he was good at forging handwriting, had wrote down nonsense on the piece of paper that, if the code was cracked, would just be a silly joke. But, as there wasn't much time to copy or memorize the nonsense, Umbridge would be left scrambling to decipher it, if she could even get to that point.

It was hard not to talk about the meetings when she met up with Terry in the library. They decided not to say anything in case Madam Pince was around and overheard them.

Although Corinna appreciated what she was learning as it would be invaluable, she also couldn't help but enjoy the fact that it also meant that, in a way, she was defying what her father stood for. He was a sycophant to the very end, and with what the Ministry had done about her brother, she had no qualms in doing something like this. It was a much more effective middle finger than she could have come up with on her own.

And then there was Tonks. She had received a letter just a couple days later stating that Tonks would meet her on the Platform when the train went to London at the end of term. It was something to look forward to when she wasn't sure when the next meeting was going to be.

Inspired by her own Protean charm on the parchment she gave Umbridge and by the Dark Mark that the Death Eaters received, Hermione came up with a way to communicate the time and date of the meetings to the various members. She had created some fake galleons that looked almost exactly as the real deal, but Harry could change the numbers on his and all the others would grow hot and the numbers would reflect the change. Terry, of course, had to ask her why she wasn't in Ravenclaw is she was able to cast such a powerful charm as a fifth year.

Corinna was also annoyed that the meetings were put on hold for quidditch. Since the quidditch cup wasn't held during the previous year, it was much more exciting than it normally would be. Even Terry was excited, even though the first match of the season was always Gryffindor versus Slytherin. "I am looking forward to my house wiping the floor of you lot," Terry reassured. "I just don't want Slytherin to get a chance to win the cup, even if we will beat them, as well."

She also didn't like walking with all the other excited students down to the quidditch pitch on that calm and cool Saturday morning. It reminded her too much of what happened at the last quidditch game she had gone to. Terry had borrowed a Gryffindor scarf from Corinna as his way of showing support, which was much more subtle than the way Luna decided to show off with a large lion's head on top of hers like a hat and, whenever she tapped it with her wand, it would roar. Terry mumbled something about not claiming her for his house as they took their seats. Although it was a clear day with the sun shining brightly, there was still a chill for those sitting in the stands. She took the bedspread off her four-poster and draped it over her and Terry to give them a little bit more warmth.

Corinna joined in with the cheering when the teams walked out onto the pitch and mounted their brooms. Although he was quite a few meters away, she could tell that Ron looked like he was going to be sick as he made his way over to the Gryffindor goalposts.

"Let's hope Potter catches the Snitch quickly," Terry said, and Corinna barely heard him over the roar of the crowd.

"Yeah," she said as she looked around. She glanced over to wear a group of Slytherins had taken up a section of the stands, swaying in time with each other. "Are they…singing?"

Sure enough, it seemed that they were coordinated enough to put together a few verses of a song of their own design, the main theme being "Weasley is Our King." "Despite some of the slant rhyming, it is quite clever," said Terry.

"Yeah, but look what it's doing to Ron." He had let the Quaffle through a couple of times and, each time, the singing grew louder and Ron grew more frustrated. Corinna had to resist the urge to hide her eyes as she could not stand the scene in front of her. "It's honestly so pathetic."

"He's just nervous."

"Not Ron," Corinna muttered, rolling her eyes. "The Slytherins. Don't they have better things to do than come up with a bloody song like that?"

"You know they don't."

It was an uncomfortable scene as the Gryffindor team did their best to keep the Quaffle on the Slytherin side for Ron's sake. Harry circled around the pitch, looking out for the Snitch. Malfoy, as the Slytherin Seeker, seemed to be jeering. It was a relief when she saw Harry dive towards the ground, but Malfoy was hot on his tail. Terry was literally on the edge of his seat as he watched the two of them vie for the snitch. Before Corinna could process what she had just witnessed, Terry, and everyone else in the stands who weren't supporting Slytherin, were on their feet and cheering. Despite the lead that Slytherin had, Gryffindor had one with the hundred and fifty points the Snitch gets them.

After the whistle calling the end of the game was blown, Corinna saw one of the burly Slytherin beaters (she honestly couldn't tell if it was Crabbe or Goyle from where she sat) had hit the Bludger in Harry's direction and it hit him in the back. Corinna was now on her feet as she saw Harry fall to the ground. It wasn't far for him to fall, but it was still uncalled for and Madam Hooch was giving Crabbe or Goyle a sharp scolding. Corinna only relaxed when she saw Harry stand up with the help of his teammates, who had landed by him.

Unfortunately, as did Malfoy. She could not hear what was being said, but it was enough that Fred and George had to be held back by their teammates, with the three beaters handling George and Harry single-handedly holding Fred back. Ron had flown from the goalposts and immediately headed into the locker rooms, unaware of what his teammates were dealing with just a short distance away.

"What are they…" Terry peered down at the field just in time for Harry to release Fred and they were both going after Malfoy. "Oh, shite!"

Corinna was left speechless as she saw Harry and Fred go after Malfoy the muggle way. When she saw McGonagall rushing towards the scene, she relaxed a little. They would not get off scot free, but at least she would be fair to their punishment.

However, the teacher who was following after her, was not.

"Merlin's pants, they're screwed." When Corinna went into the Gryffindor common room after the match, forced out of their seats by various professors so people wouldn't dawdle at the scene on the pitch, her suspicions were confirmed. Harry, Fred, and George (even though he did not throw a single punch thanks to the chasers' efforts) were kicked off the team with a permanent Quidditch ban. It was all anyone would talk about all weekend, and Corinna was tired of talking about it with Terry, who admitted that he was glad that Harry wasn't going to be playing seeker when Gryffindor played Slytherin. Corinna had left their table and went to study in the common room, after that.

It also didn't help that, come Monday, Umbridge was willing to gauge Corinna's opinion on what happened after the Quidditch game. She asked her point blank after class. "As much as I am disappointed that Gryffindor is losing some of their best players," Corinna managed to say, trying to sound normal despite the fact that her jaw was clenched the entire time, "they should not have attacked Ma—Draco like that."

Corinna ran to the bathroom to Scourgify her mouth out.

Tuesday morning was their first lesson with Hagrid this year as he was inexplicably back. Corinna thought the lesson was fairly tame compared to some in the past, but it unnerved her that she couldn't see the creatures. This seemed to confuse Harry as he was put in charge of showing some of the students who hadn't seen death where the creature was they were supposed to observe.

"I didn't actually see the dementor take his soul," Corinna said, keeping it slightly vague on what he called Barty in her own head. "He died hours later, alone."

Harry just nodded, his mouth a thin line. She thought it was about her answer, but Corinna turned and saw that Umbridge had found the class and was there to inspect Hagrid. "Oh no," Hermione gasped. They had sat through a few of her inspections, with McGonagall's standing out to Corinna as the professor did not tolerate Umbridge acting like, well, an Umbitch.

Although Corinna didn't have a soft spot for Hagrid like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, she liked him well enough. Always had a kind thing to say whenever she said hello to him, and he wasn't the worst teacher. Sure, his lessons were rather lackluster, and he did assign a biting book during their third year, but she wouldn't want Hagrid sacked solely on the principle of the matter.

As she went around to the students (mostly the Slytherins, naturally, and skewing whatever the Gryffindors said anything somewhat positive), she was also mocking Hagrid's intelligence, which was making them grow angrier. Her leading questions had the desired effect as it made Hagrid lose confidence in himself as he started stammering and had a harder time coming up with the information about the thestrals.

A wide grin broke out as she approached Corinna. "What do you think of the lesson, Miss Crouch?"

Corinna froze. It was so much easier to be a double agent when it was just her and Umbridge talking after class. It was easier to pretend that what Corinna was saying wasn't the equivalent of smacking herself in the face. "Thestrals are interesting creatures," she said simply, knowing she had to quickly decide how to play this. She was never good at chess; having to think three steps ahead and have contingency plans for the contingency plans. "I did not know that there were any tamed ones before this lesson."

Umbridge shook her head as she marked something on her clipboard. Apparently, she hadn't caught on that Corinna was trying to save face in front of the people that Umbridge had asked her to spy on. "She is so dense," she muttered to Harry, Ron, and Hermione when Umbridge had moved on.

"You were damned either way," Hermione said, looking as if she wanted to hex Umbridge into oblivion. "And you played it wrong. She wanted you to show your true stripes, even if it meant we would distrust you."

"You reckon she suspects what Corinna is doing?" Harry asked.

"Let's hope not," Corinna said, refusing to look over at him. "Do you think she realized that the parchment was just a hoax?"

"We've been sending her messages just like the first, just coded jokes with different handwriting each time," said Hermione as Umbridge left the paddock looking as if she had won the Witch Weekly sweepstakes. "It's not going to stop the D.A. If anything, this confirms that we are doing the right thing. Anything that undermines what her and her precious Ministry are doing."

As the holidays approached, Corinna's initial excitement morphed into panic as she realized that she was so close to meeting her family. It felt strange. She used to be indifferent about holidays. Her family never did anything special. Corinna, Barty, and Winky used to sit around the wireless while Corinna read whatever caught her fancy while their father was locked in his office, no doubt working. The only thing they did outside the home was the Ministry's New Year's party, which was so stuffy and so boring to Corinna she usually ended up in the corner with the other kids that were dragged to those events. She didn't know what to expect with this new family. She supposed she should have bought something, but there wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend planned until the next term.

At least she had one last D.A. meeting to look forward to. Granted, it was just a review session, but Corinna appreciated it as her spell work could use some practice. It didn't help that Harry seemed to be hovering around where she was supposed to be freezing Terry, and she was losing concentration. To make things worse, he kept making eye contact with Cho, and jealously made her heart pound. Of course, Harry would have a thing for Cho. She was everything Corinna wasn't. Beautiful hair, cute button nose, no pimples to speak of.

"Er, Corinna?"

Terry tore her from her reverie. Her spell had gone wide, hitting Cho's partner. If only it had gone further to the left, she thought darkly. "Sorry, Marietta," she called out.

Marietta gave Corinna an annoyed look once she unfroze. She turned sharply back to Cho and whispered quickly.

"Just keep your mind on your wand," Terry said with his signature goofy smile, "instead of someone else's."

She was about to ask him what he meant by that, but Harry switched them onto stunning spells. Corinna and Terry observed first and then they switched to practicing. She did her best to focus, but she could constantly feel it whenever Harry looked in their direction.

Stop it, she scolded herself when she felt back onto the cushion from Terry's blow. He likes Cho. There's no way he could like someone like you.

"What's with you tonight?" Terry asked as they headed out of the room. Since it was before curfew, as long as there wasn't anyone around, they could leave as they would like. "You're normally not like this when he's around."

"What are you talking about?" said Corinna.

"Don't play dumb," said Terry, glaring. "I know you, Corinna. You kept looking at Potter."

"He's the teacher," Corinna reminded, but even that argument sounded weak to her.

"And you kept messing up around him? He's not that scary, even if his temper is a force to be reckoned with."

"You know my spell work is shoddy."

"Then how do you explain the Quidditch match?" When Corinna continued to look confused, he explained. "You were sitting when Gryffindor won. You had only jumped up when you saw something happen to Harry."

"Well, yeah, I wanted to know what was happening."

"Do you like the bloke or not, Crouch?"

Corinna did not like the blunt Terry. She was used to easy going, reassuring Terry. Not whatever this was.

"What if I do?" she asked in a small voice.

Terry softened slightly when he heard Corinna's tone. "I'm sorry. I was annoyed you were being dodgy. I shouldn't have been tetchy with you over something like this."

"Thanks," Corinna said with a sigh. "I just…he likes Cho. I can tell."

"He likes the bird whose old boyfriend he watched die?" he clarified. He put his arms around Corinna's shoulders as he nudged her over to the portrait to take her to Gryffindor Tower. "That's just a disaster waiting to happen."

"Thanks, Terry," said Corinna as she shoved his arm away. "Go solve a riddle. Have a good night."