Chapter Eighty-One: First Order of Business

Originally, Daphne had wanted to continue 'talking' to Pythia during History of Magic, but when she got there, she felt completely drained. Apparently having a mental conversation fueled by mind magic put on a very thick book was a tiring thing.

So, she settled for dozing a bit until the bell eventually woke her up again for dinner. Despite her nap in Binns's class, Daphne was still tired while she was loading up her plate.

"What have you been doing?" Hermione asked.

"I talked to my book during Divination, and it talked back," Daphne said.

"What?!" Ginny said sharply from next to Hermione. "After what happened to me in first year?"

Daphne shook her head. "It's not like that. It's a book that's been enchanted so Seers can get the information out of it in a way that suits them — in my case, by having a conversation in my head. Pythia — that's what I'm calling her — was quite clear that she couldn't actually tell me anything I didn't already know or that couldn't be found in the pages themselves. It's just…tiring to communicate in that way."

"That's how it began for me as well," Ginny said, not looking very reassured. "I felt tired and drained after writing in the diary for a while, and then later on I began to lose hours of my memory…"

She shuddered as she remembered the events. "Look, just…be careful, okay? I don't want you getting hurt," she said.

Daphne smiled at her. "I won't get hurt," she said. "But…thank you for worrying about me."

At that moment, Angelina came over to Harry and Ron. "No Quidditch practice," she said hollowly.

"But I kept my temper!" Harry said, horrified. "I didn't say anything to her, Angelina, I swear, I–"

"I know, I know," Angelina said miserably. "She just said she needed a bit of time to consider."

"Consider what?" Ron said angrily. "She's given the Slytherins permission, why not us?"

"Because she's a horrible hag," Daphne said. She looked at Angelina. "Go to McGonagall or Dumbledore. He forced her to abandon the blood quill, so maybe he'll be able to override this as well," she said.

Angelina nodded. "I was planning to; it's our only option. I hope that 'curse' on the Defense job will get her," she said savagely.

"You and the rest of the student body, I'm sure, save Malfoy and his lackeys," Daphne said.

"I guess you won't be asking for permission to continue S.I.N., then?" Harry asked when Angelina had left.

Daphne scoffed. "Of course not. We were never a real group to begin with. We are according to Umbridge's definition, of course, but she can hardly expel us for being in our own common room or at our own House table, and those are the only locations we ever see each other. Beyond that, we just do our own things with our own friends," she said. "Technically, I suppose the four of us, or even just you, Hermione and Ron, also count as a 'group' to Umbridge, so you better watch out she doesn't try to expel you for having the audacity to have friends."

The next day, it turned out that Angelina had, in fact, managed to convince Umbridge to let the Gryffindor team re-form, by going through McGonagall. While that news had excited Harry and Ron, the awful weather made Daphne very glad she could just stay inside to do her homework.

She sat in the library by herself, because at that time of night Malfoy was usually holding long-winded self-aggrandizing sermons in the common room to the admirers of his father's money.

She'd once asked Pansy what the others thought about those speeches, and Pansy had replied that even though many people in Slytherin genuinely felt the same way about Muggles, Muggleborns, and Harry — Malfoy's favorite subjects — as he did, they weren't really impressed with him.

According to Pansy, that was why he was always trying to so hard to rile up the Gryffindors, particularly Harry and Ron: he sought the approval of the other Slytherins, as well as his father's. Daphne supposed she should pity him, and on some level she actually did, but the problem was that, friendless or not, Malfoy genuinely did believe that blood purity mattered, and that was something Daphne would never have any sympathy for. Besides, he clearly loathed her every bit as much as she did him, so it would be pointless to reach out, at least as long as his attitude didn't change.

"Mind if I join you?" Daphne looked up at Ginny, who stood next to the table holding up her bag and smiling. "Our common room's a bit noisy at the moment."

Daphne cocked her head. "Aren't Fred and George at Quidditch practice?" she asked, clearing away some of her books and rolls of parchment so Ginny could sit down.

"They are, but they've left Lee in charge of holding a sales pitch while they're gone. You know what he's like during Quidditch matches, right? Well, now imagine that, but in the common room, and advertising all sorts of illicit candy. It's driving Hermione up the wall. She can't stop him, but she doesn't want to leave him unsupervised either, so she's sitting there glaring at him and everyone who buys stuff from him."

Daphne laughed. She could easily picture the scene in her mind. "Ron's going to be blamed for this when he gets back, won't he?" she asked.

Ginny giggled. "Probably. But I'm sure it'll be fine; Fred and George will get it worse."

For a while, the two of them worked in silence. Then, Ginny said, "So…read in your book anymore after last time?"

"Not yet," Daphne said. "I was thinking I might read some more before bed tonight."

Ginny looked troubled. "I'm really not sure if that's a good idea," she said hesitantly.

Daphne looked at her earnest expression, and then reached into her bag and pulled out the book, casting a Revelio on it to turn it into its normal form. "If it makes you feel any better, you can look at it. It's just a normal book to you, anyway, unless you're also a Seer," she said.

Ginny tentatively took the book and leafed through the pages. "It…looks normal, I guess," she said after a while. "But then, so did the diary…"

Daphne thought for a moment. "Most people aren't supposed to know I have this book at all…but at least Dumbledore and Snape do. I would guess McGonagall is at least aware of it, too, since Harry has Occlumency lessons as well…if you want, you can take the book and show it to McGonagall, if you think there's something odd about it. I mean, I'd rather keep it, since I really need to learn how to shift my focus in emptiness…but I don't want you to worry about me too much. I mean…in a weird way, you've been helping me with it for a while anyway…"

"Me? How?" Ginny asked.

Daphne smiled a bit sheepishly. "I…may have had a couple of weird dreams where you gave me cryptic advice on how to shift my focus in emptiness," she said.

"I, er…you have dreams about me?" Ginny asked, seeming a bit flustered.

"Not about you, more like…you're in them, telling me what I need to do," Daphne said, also feeling some heat in her face now.

"I, er…I'm flattered, I guess?" Ginny said. She sighed. "But you can keep the book. It doesn't look like there's anything else to it than what you say…but if there's ever any moment where you feel like you're…losing time, or something…just come talk to me, okay?"

Daphne nodded. "I will. Thanks…"

Like before, time seemed to fly while she and Ginny worked on their homework together, even though they didn't talk all that much, and it felt like only a few minutes had passed when Ginny said, "Well, I'd better get back to the common room before Filch decides to give me a detention for no reason. Good luck with the rest of your homework. Good night!"

"Yeah, good night," Daphne replied.

Now that she was on her own again, it was suddenly a lot harder to focus on her homework, but fortunately there wasn't that much left.

When she got back to her common room afterward, she considered talking to Pythia again, but, perhaps because of her conversation with Ginny, she decided against it and simply got ready for bed. There'd be enough time to talk to Pythia later, after all.

At breakfast, Harry told Daphne that Dobby had come up with a place for the Defense club meeting, and asked her to spread the word to the rest of S.I.N., which she quickly did.

That evening, she and her S.I.N. friends made their way to the hallway on the seventh floor that Harry had mentioned, finding a door there she'd never seen before. They entered the room, where Harry, Hermione, and Ron were already waiting.

"This room is amazing," Daphne said, looking around at the Dark Detectors on the shelves and the bookcases filled with tomes of spells.

"How did you find this place?" Adrian asked.

"Dobby the House-Elf told me about it," Harry said.

"You have a House-Elf?" Adrian asked.

Harry shook his head. "Dobby works here at Hogwarts, but he's a free Elf. I helped him get away from his old masters, and he feels indebted to me because of it."

"You and normalcy don't really go together, huh?" Lucy asked.

Harry grinned. "Not particularly."

At that moment, the other fifth-year Gryffindors arrived, minus Seamus, who still seemed to bear a grudge against Harry.

Slowly but surely, the rest of the people began to file in as well, and once the last person had arrived, Harry walked over to the door and locked it.

To pre-empt any questions about the room — because Harry had partially told the story about five times already — he began with a short explanation about how they'd found the location, called the Room of Requirement, and a short walkthrough of the various Dark Detectors on the shelves.

Hermione then suggested electing a leader, and Harry was quickly and unanimously selected for the role.

Then, Hermione said, "We should also choose a name, to promote our sense of team-spirit and unity."

"We already have one though, don't we?" Fred said with a grin.

"Yeah. We're the Order of the Lightning Bolt, of course," George said.

Daphne groaned. She'd come up with that name on a whim when she was annoyed. She'd never meant for it to stick around. Still, she supposed it did fit, considering Harry was now officially the group's leader.

"Where did that name come from?" Smith asked.

"You wouldn't get it, you had to be there," Ginny said with a grin.

"I think it fits quite well," Luna said.

"I like the name, but we should probably abbreviate it when we're talking about it outside of this room," Hermione said.

"So…the Order, then?" Tracey asked.

"That'll be a bit confusing for some of us, but we can probably manage," Daphne said.

"Why?" Elsie asked.

Daphne grinned. "Like Ginny said, you had to be there."

"So you're keeping secrets from us, then?" Smith asked suspiciously.

"Like it or not," Harry said, already seeing where this was going, "we're dealing with a situation that goes beyond Hogwarts. I saw Voldemort come back at the end of last year, and I and some of the others here know a bit more of what's going on, though not that much more than you do. Yes, we're keeping some secrets, and that's all I'll say on that subject. Trust me when I say that if we learn things we think everyone should know, we'll share it."

Smith didn't look happy with that, but he seemed to accept it, at least.

"Right then," Harry said. "Let's get to practice. I thought we could start with Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm–"

"Oh, please," Smith interrupted. "That's hardly going to help us against You-Know-Who, is it?"

"I've used it against him last year and it saved my life, but why take my word for it?" Harry said casually, yet Daphne could hear that he was getting really fed up with Smith. He wasn't the only one.

"You obviously seem to have some problems with what I want to do. Maybe you just…need to work off some of that energy. You think Expelliarmus isn't useful? Alright, let's put it to the test. We'll have a duel. You can use whatever spell you want. I'll only use Expelliarmus. Pick whoever you want as a referee; I doubt you'll trust one of my friends from Gryffindor or Daphne. I'd suggest Ernie, personally. He takes things like this seriously and I'm pretty sure he'd be impartial," Harry said.

Ernie puffed himself up importantly at Harry's minor praise, and Daphne giggled at how dorky it looked.

"Y-yeah, Ernie's good," Smith said, suddenly looking a lot less cocky.

"Good, that's decided, then. Everyone, spread out so Zacharias and I have some room," Harry said.

Daphne stood next to Hermione and Ron and grinned. Harry was going to obliterate Smith. Ron looked just as excited as Daphne felt, and even Hermione looked grimly determined. Everyone else looked mostly curious.

Harry and Smith stood opposite each other and bowed, Smith nervously, Harry calmly. Ernie stood halfway between them, off to the side. Even he looked a bit nervous for what was about to happen.

"Both duelists ready?" he asked.

Harry and Smith confirmed that they were.

"Right then…Ready…go!"

Smith pointed his wand forward and began, "Taran–"

Harry, however, was much quicker. "Expelliarmus!"

Smith's wand was ripped from his hand and soared toward Harry, who snatched it out of the air almost disdainfully.

"Want to do best out of three? Y'know, in case this one was a fluke?" Harry asked, throwing Smith's wand back at him.

"N-no, this was enough…" Smith muttered.

Harry shrugged. "Fine with me. Thanks for the help, Ernie," he said.

"You're welcome," Ernie said, looking a bit pityingly at Smith.

"Now then, you've all seen how useful Expelliarmus can be. Why don't you all divide into pairs and practice it on each other?"

Everyone quickly got to their feet and partnered up. Daphne partnered with Neville, letting him do most of the practicing since she was already pretty experienced with the Disarming Charm from all of her own duels.

"Don't be afraid to hurt me, Neville," Daphne said after his third failed attempt at Disarming her. His spell had been so weak Daphne barely even felt it. "I've practiced dueling a lot. I can take it, I promise."

Neville nodded. "R-right." He aimed his wand. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted, and this time, Daphne's wand was pulled from her hand, falling to the floor a foot or two away.

"I did it!" Neville shouted gleefully. "I've never managed it before!"

"Nicely done," Daphne said. "Now, let's see if you can do it in a quickdraw situation…"

Of course, the next series of tries were all won by Daphne, who slowed herself down gradually until Neville managed to beat her again.

She noticed Harry looking at them and grinned at him, and he smiled back, giving her a thumbs-up. He blew a whistle — where had that come from? — and everyone stopped casting.

"Okay, everyone, that wasn't bad at all… Now let's switch partners for a bit and try again. You'll notice that your timing will likely be off on the first few tries in this next round. Now, I know not everyone has mastered the spell yet, but timing is such a vital element to the use of this spell that I think it's better to take it into account immediately…"

People began to switch partners, and Daphne felt someone tap her arm. She turned around to see Ginny grinning at her.

"Let's practice. I want to see how quick I am," she said.

Daphne grinned back at her. "You're on."

Ginny wasn't as experienced as Daphne, or even as experienced as Hermione and Ron, but she had good reflexes, and she definitely knew Expelliarmus.

They faced each other, both grinning in anticipation. Ginny blurred into motion, but Daphne was ready for her, avoiding Ginny's spell even as she shot back with her own. Ginny's wand landed neatly in Daphne's hand, and she threw it back with a smirk.

Ginny, far from looking put out by her defeat, looked even more excited now, and soon what should have been simple, direct exchanges had turned into full-blown duels.

Daphne won most of them, of course, but Ginny was faster on her feet and managed to win a couple of times in fairly spectacular fashion.

Then, just when Daphne and Ginny were getting ready for another exchange, Harry's whistle sounded again.

"I hate to interrupt the show," he said, and it was only now that Daphne realized everyone else had been watching her and Ginny, "but it's getting late, and we don't want to get in trouble. We don't know when the next meeting will be; too many of us have clubs and other engagements, so we'll let you all know when it'll be. We probably shouldn't all go back to our common rooms at once, so wait for my signal…I'll make sure you all get back without interference."

Several people seemed interested in how Harry would pull that off, and Daphne knew he'd use the Marauder's Map.

She talked with Ginny while she waited for everyone to leave. "That was fun," she said. "You're really fast; I could barely keep up."

Ginny grimaced. "Not fast enough, apparently. You got me way more often than I got you…"

Daphne shook her head. "It's not speed. I'm just more experienced than you, so I can guess what you'll do and anticipate it. You'll improve really quickly, I'm sure…"

Ginny grinned at her. "Trying to flatter me? What would Harry think of that?"

Daphne grinned back. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Do I want to know what you two are talking about?" Harry, who was just walking over, asked.

"Nothing," Daphne and Ginny said at the same time, and both of them laughed.

"Right… Daphne, you should probably head back down now with the second half of S.I.N. See you tomorrow at breakfast?"

Daphne nodded. "Of course."

She gave Harry a quick kiss and said good night to her friends, giving Ginny one last grin before leaving the Room of Requirement. It was too bad the lesson was already over. She'd have liked to continue her duels with Ginny for a bit longer…