A/N. This is a response to a challenge by Nagini. It's challenge number one. Details of the challenge will be posted in the last chapter. Also, sorry in advance for any spelling mistakes, I'm trying my best to catch them all but some still manage to slip through.

If also figured out what it's like when you fics have a mind of their own.

Disclaimer: Everything still belongs to J.K. Rowling, even the characters Mandy, Orla, and Sally-Anne. The general plot line belongs to Nagini, and the extended plot line belongs to my twisted mind. I'm only mutilating the characters.

Rating:Well, this chapter could probably be rated G! That's a first and probably a last. Nothing dark, gory, sexual, etc. at all in this chapter.

Chapter 3

Bill's P.O.V

I hurried down the passage way to the Charms room, my hide boots making next to no sound on the stone floor, and walked in through the door just as the bell went. I went to the front of the room and faced my small class. "Sorry I'm late, I nearly forgot I was filling in for Professor Flitwick, and was having a late dinner." I glanced at my students as my brain scrambled around looking for something else to say. Having nearly forgotten I was supposed to be here, I hadn't planned anything to teach them.

"All right, I know that you have been focusing on the Summoning charm the past few classes, is that correct?"

A boy sitting in the desk closest to me nodded and so I continued. "Okay. When out on a mission, more often then not you'll find yourself with a partner. You'll usually have no say in the matter on who you will be going out with, being picked for your skills rather then who your peers are. So, one of the most important things you must learn, is how to work as part of a team. You must know your strengths, weaknesses, to learn to admit when you are wrong and you must be willing to listen to ideas other then your own. In some cases, only by working as a team will you ever get out alive. I don't care whether you like the person or not. I don't care if they annoy you by boasting about beating you at a chess game, or took your chair in front of the fireplace, or are just simply not nice to you. You must forget about that as soon as you are told you are to work with them."

"And who knows," I added with a smile, "maybe by the time you come back, you'll be friends, or at least have gained some mutual respect for each other."

"Now, the same goes for if you decide to become a healer. If you cannot put your negative thoughts about your co-workers aside in a crisis, you will not accomplish your job of healing the persons you are supposed to, and may in fact, only make them worse. The same goes for if you don't agree about what you should do when treating a specific injury, just because you can't admit you are wrong. You aren't working as a team then, and again will result in only worsening the injury of the person you are trying to heal.

"Now, all of you should be able to produce a strong enough Summoning charm to bring something light, like a thin book, all the way over to you. But," I picked up off the chair, one of the heavy books Professor Flitwick usually perched on to see over the top of his desk, "sometimes you'll come across something too heavy to lift by yourself. Right now, that'd be this book. This is where knowing how to function as a team comes into play. Not one of you in this class would be able to lift this book with a Summoning charm by themselves yet. That takes more practice, and the most you'd be able to manage is to perhaps drag the book along the floor. But, if you were to work together with someone else, you'd be able to lift this easily. That's easier said then done of course, especially if you let things like your emotions get in the way. If you felt dislike towards your partner and you let that emotion get in the way, you would always fail."

I looked around, and saw everyone staring intently at me, and I smiled. "So, for today's lesson, I'm going to pair you up with someone, and you are going to work together to summon one of these books from across the room. But first, any questions?"

No one said anything and so before speaking again, I paused to count how many students there were. "All right, there's twelve of you, so that's going to work out just right." I quickly matched them up, handing each group a heavy book off of Flitwick's chair, then, stepping well out of the way, sat down to watch.

There were a few wild books flung around the class room, and at one point a team missed the book with their spell and picked up Colin Creevy instead, but to my astonishment, by the end of the lesson all six groups had managed to succeed in doing it at least once.

I was sprawled out on a settee even later that night, in what used to be the Great Hall, watching Dennis Creevy lose horribly to Nymphadora Tonks at a game of wizards chess. Dennis wasn't a bad player, I myself had lost a couple of times to him. No, the reason he was doing so poorly was because of the fact that his chess pieces seemed to have. . . personality. A lot of it. Half the time Dennis was forced to make his moves depending on which pieces would listen to him and the other half, he had absolutely no say in the matter. Meaning, his pieces would move where they wanted to. It all just depended on the mood they were in. Needless to say, chess games taking place with Dennis usually always provided a good laugh, and brought quite a few spectators.

I quickly lost interest in what was going on around me as Dennis (unsurprisingly) lost, and found my eyes slowly start to close; the heat of the fireplace I was lying near making me feel extremely drowsy. It had been over an hour since I had finished teaching that class; it was almost midnight, and I would have probably would have been sleeping up in the dormitory had I not been scheduled to be on watch duty of the grounds in about hour.

My eyes quickly snapped open as I felt someone flop down in a chair beside me, and, out of habit, my hand moved towards my wand.

"Sorry," Angelina Johnson apologized to me, "I didn't mean to startle you. Professor Dumbledore wanted me to let you know that he wants to see us before we go on duty."

I propped myself up a bit more on the arm of the settee, and turned to look at her. "What for?"

"I don't know, but he seemed a bit worried. Anyway, you know he wouldn't call us unless there was a good reason."

"When?"

"He said in about half an hour, there was something else he had to do first. We're all supposed to meet in the little room just to the side of the Head table."

"We all? Who else is going?"

"Just the usual. Snape, Tonks, Kingsley, McGonagall, and your father if he's here."

"No, he isn't. He's still at the Ministry debriefing them of Dumbledore's plans. I know that was part of the agreement with them, that if they put Dumbledore in charge of all the Aurors, they had to be kept updated, but it's driving dad bonkers. They're calling him out at all hours of the night wanting to know what's happening and he says it's more like they're interrogating him rather then listening to his report." I sighed and Angelina looked at me sympathetically.

"Well, on the bright side, better Dumbledore in charge of the Aurors then the Ministry. But at least they are beginning to listen to reason since Minister Fudge was killed. Sad that it took the death of the Minister to get them to see that though."

"Yeah..." I tugged on my earring absentmindedly.

"Anyway, I have to go find the others and tell them about the meeting. See you there."

I nodded, and as she got up and left, a boy of about eighteen who I had never seen before, took her place and challenged me to a quick game of Exploding Snap, the stakes being a large chocolate frog.

"I'm sorry for calling of you all here, especially at this time of night," Dumbledore began apologetically, " but you know by now that I wouldn't ask for you to be here unless I had a good reason. As you may know, fewer and fewer Aurors are returning from the missions they get sent on. In the past two months, out of the thirty-five people I have sent out, only a little over half of them have returned."

I saw Professor McGonagall shake her head sadly, and lean over to Kingsley to whisper something to her. I was rather taken aback myself, I had known that our numbers were decreasing, but I hadn't realized that it was by that much!

"You also know that I was awaiting the return of Mandy Brocklehurst and Orla Quirke, who were scouting around at the Malfoy Manor, hoping to pick up word of Voldemort's next move." Dumbledore paused then, glancing around the room and let out a small sigh. "Orla returned this early this morning. . .well, I supposed it would be yesterday morning now. The people out on guard found her, unconscious, which I believe was from exhaustion, and with only minor injuries. They took her up to the hospital wing, but she should be joining us shortly." I blinked in surprise. I hadn't been aware Dumbledore had sent any scouts out.

"What about Mandy?" Tonks spoke up, asking the question everyone else had wanted to hear, yet already had guessed the answer. I wasn't surprised when Professor Dumbledore confirmed my quick guess.

"Orla said that Mandy had been killed or captured. I don't know anything more then that." Dumbledore answered sadly.

The wooden door that we entered through gave a loud creak as it suddenly opened, making Tonks leap in surprise. I was just glad there wasn't anything for her to break in here. A brown head poked its way around the corner of the door before coming in.

Orla was almost seventeen, if I remembered correctly, and had only been out in the field for about six months, though she had signed up for Auror classes as soon as she was old enough. Even with only six months in the field she already bore the scars like the rest of us, though what was more noticeable as she limped ever so slightly across the room, was a long, fresh cut extending from beside her nose, going through her lip, and disappearing under her chin. She also had a bandage on her right arm.

"We were ambushed," she began slowly, but getting right to the point as she sat down, "they waited until we were through the anti-apparation charms. Not that it would have made any difference to me." She added as an after thought.

"It was almost if they knew we were coming. Actually, I believe the did know."

"What makes you say that?" Angelina asked.

"They knew exactly what part of the Manor grounds we were going to be coming in. They knew what time, and what for. And they knew how many."

"I had just given Mandy a boost to on top of the wall on the ground perimeters on the east-side of the manor and she got pulled over the other side. She did check, of course, before climbing up on top of the wall, but they must have ambushed her when she turned around to pull me up. I don't know how many there were, but one yelled to another that there should be another person, and one climbed over the wall after me."

"Did you see who it was?" Snape interrupted her suddenly.

"No, he had both his hood and mask on." She answered him before continuing.

"He chased after me for a bit, throwing curses as he ran, but I performed a disillousionment charm, and hid in the trees, and he missed me doing it because it was dark. I stunned him as he ran by, and then ran and hid in the meadow where we were supposed to await for our portkey to leave. Then I was transported to just outside of Hogsmeade, and I walked here." She finished up.

Dumbledore sighed, and walked over to the window, looking out over the second story view of Hogwarts grounds. Everyone else waited patiently as he gazed out thoughtfully, for what must have been five minutes, but I felt my eyelids start to droop again. Dumbledore suddenly turned around, and addressed us, "For now, we will do nothing. We'll cease all attacks unless they attack first, and no more scouts will be sent out until further notice." Thanks Orla. Go get some more rest." It was a subtle command, but Orla caught it and frowned darkly as she turned her back and headed out the door.

"Now, before I let you get back to what ever it is you were doing, does anyone have anything else to day?"

"Yes," Professor McGonagall spoke up opposite me, "we're going to have to open up another dormitory. It's simply too crowded in both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw dorms, people have been forced to sleep on chairs and the floor. I haven't had a chance to say anything to you before now."

"Right," Professor Dumbledore nodded, "re-open the Hufflepuff dorm. It's closer then the Slytherin dorms to the Entrance Hall if anything happens, as well as closer to the other two already open. Anything else?" He looked around, but no one spoke up. "All right then, I won't deter you any longer.

With the meeting finished, Snape abruptly got up and exited though a passage hidden underneath a large tapestry hanging by the window. Kingsley, Professor Mcgonagall, and Tonks, left the same way I'd come in. Angelina came over to me and I realized it must have been nearly time for our guard duty.

"Bill," Professor Dumbledore stopped me as we were just about to walk out, "could you wait a minute, I need to have a word with you."

I gave a questioning glance to Angelina, and she nodded. "I'll meet you out there in a couple of minutes by the stone gargoyles at the front gate."

"Thanks." I told her gratefully, and turned to Professor Dumbledore as the door closed softly behind her. "What's the matter?"

"It's not right Bill. I agree with Orla, the Death Eaters knew they were going to be there. They knew too much about their mission. . .and I can only assume now, that we have a spy in out midst."

I stared at him, dumbfoundedly. "But why are you telling me this? How do you know I'm not the spy?

"Why, are you telling me you are?" He smiled briefly before his expression once again turned serious. "No, you are right to wonder this, of course. But if I remember correctly, you were up in the hospital wing after a stunning spell went wild in a class you were teaching, and hit you instead of the balloon that it was supposed to. You couldn't attend the meeting that day, you weren't even conscious. You didn't know Orla and Mandy had been sent out."

I winced at that memory. The trainees had laughed at me for days; after all, it's fun to embarrass the teachers sometimes. They may have found it funny, but I was furious with myself. What if I had been in battle instead and that had happened? I'd be dead, or worse!

"So, do you have any suspicions as to who it is?" I asked, returning my attention to the matter at hand.

"A few," Professor Dumbledore replied sadly, " Not that I like to admit..."

"Who?"

"Severus Snape, Tonks...Orla herself."

"Tonks...Professor Snape?" I repeated in horror and my eyes widened, "But I thought you had proof that he was on our side! How do you know this?"

"He had me convinced that he was. And I have my contacts outside of Hogwarts." Dumbledore sighed. Then he changed, his eyes looked straight into mine and his voice was filled great urgency. "We'll see. But Bill, that's now beside the point. I know I can trust you now, so I need you to do something extremely important but very dangerous for me. . ."

Thank-you so much for the reviews everybody, and I hope you stick with me on this. Also a big thanks to anyone who reviews today, it's really going to make up for having to go to school. . .

Dalamar