Elementals.
Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling owns all of Hogwarts, etc. My actual savings amount to 1euro 35 cents, so anyone trying to sue me has to be out of their mind.
Rating: PG13 for language, blood prejudice, evil pens and Death Eaters.
Summary: Ginny and Storm explain some stuff, a binding contract is signed, and four girls unite in the cause of equal rights for witches!
Chapter Seven: contracts and interior decoration.
Storm took them down a long, low passage-way, dripping with slime and illuminated by nothing but their own wands. The girls followed, grumbling about the mess of mud on their robes, until she stopped in front of an arched silver door. She tapped the door with her wand, and turned back to grin at them.
"Fifteen different password charms, sweethearts, so have patience." She started muttering at the door, and, a good ten minutes later, it swung open.
The room inside was long, with a high domed roof, silver wallpaper, a large fireplace, and innumerable chairs. It was lit by a strange green glow, and around the roof fluttered hundreds of green and silver butterflys.
Katherine flopped onto a chair, and gestured to the others to seat themselves. She giggled at their astonished expressions.
"This is my office, girls. It used to be an old classroom, but I think it got forgotten after about 1066, and I've been decorating it myself. Anyway, point is, I thought we ought to tell Willow and Frost. Ginny can start with her part- listen carefully, girls."
"Oh, er, OK," Ginny glanced round nervously. "Remember in first year, when the Chamber was opened? That was me."
"You what?!" Willow was staring.
"Err, yeah. We were shopping for books in Diagon alley, and Draco's darling father got into a fight with my old Dad, during which he slipped an old book into my stuff. It was Riddles diary. He used Dark magic to imbue the diary with part of his soul, kind of like the sorting hat. So when I wrote in it, he wrote back."
Frost laughed. "So, lets get this straight. You were pen palls with Tom Riddle? The Tom Riddle who became the Dark Lord?"
"Yeah, or more like a memory of Riddle. Anyway, the point is, I'm not the heir of Slytherin, Tom is. He just used me. A memory doesn't have a body, so he possesed mine. Then, you all know he took me down to the Chamber, and Heroic Harry came and rescued me. But Tom told me all about himself, and I was able to research him afterwards. He's a mudblood. His father was a muggle, who deserted his mother when he found out she was a witch. She died, and the Dark Lord spent the first eleven years of his life in a crummy muggle orphanage. He opened the Chamber when he and Lucius were in school, he's Slytherins heir, and Harry is Gryffindors heir. Slytherin and Gryffindor were cousins, so those two are related." Flame had said all that as quickly as possible, without pausing for breath. Now it was over, and she'd told them, she sighed in relief. The secret was out.
Frost was definetely upset now. "So you're telling me that that blood-prejudiced bastard is a mudblood himself? Bloody burning hellfire and eternal excruciating damnation! Why are we following him, then?"
Katherine grinned. "Well, personally, Anima dear, I'm not following him anymore, as of about last night."
"Hear hear! The cat's among the pixies for poor Tom now," said Frost with a grin. "We can't know this and not tell other people- I wonder how long it'll take for him to lose half his followers?"
Willow frowned. "We have to be careful, though. And organised. After all, we can't just run around announcing unproven things about the Dark Lord. I, for one, don't want people thinking I'm crazy, and besides that we'll find out alot more about both Potters and Toms plans if we keep quiet."
"Well, we already told Malfoy." Katherine looked guilty and a little pleading. "But we think he believed us. But there's more. You haven't heard my part yet."
The others grinned. "OK, we're listening."
"Right. The Potter boy's right- the Dark Lord is back. I don't know his exact plans, but he needs to destroy Heroic Harry first of all, and that involves the Department of Mysteries. The Death Eaters have been recalled- they suffered for deserting him, but they're back where their true loyalty lies now. The Dementors'll be ours- er, I mean theirs- soon, and then Bellatrix and the others will return, so we haven't got long. Tom gets his information through an extensive spy network. Only those at the top end even know they're reporting to Tom, so lots of innocent witches and wizards are involved. But the Death Eaters in charge of information are led by Narcissa Malfoy. They call it-" Storm paused, stealing herself. "They call it The Moonlight, because their agents are meant to disappear like moonlight on a clouded night. I think they actually got the idea when Montague said Narcissa's hair was like beams of moonlight. He was less than sober aat the time." Strom giggled shakily.
"Anyway, remember Professor Enshaw's been away lately? Malfoy told Ginny the Moonlight got her."
"Officially, Profesor Quint S. Enshaw was ill today, angel. But...well, lets just say the moonlight got her. I believe the moonlight disagreed with her, and that can be very painful." Ginny murmured dreamily, with a small smile.
"Malfoy called you angel?! Flame, you already have half the boys in school at your feet. Don't add Malfoy, it'd be too depressing for the rest of us." Frost exclaimed with a comical look.
Willow, however, was not to be distracted from the essential point. "I knew lots of Ministry officials are spying for Tom, I just didn't know the name of the organisation, or theDeath Eaters in charge. Who else is there?"
"Lucius Malfoy, of course, Zabini, Goyle, and Dolores Umbridge are the Death Eaters at the head of things. Of course, after that there's loads of people working under them, some of whom know it's for Tom, and some of whom don't."
Flame had by this time recovered from her abstraction. "Funny the way you've all picked up the habit of calling him Tom from me. Its a lot less risky- he might be aware when people say his title, but he doesn't listen for his old name any more. And it shows where loyalty lies- after all, he's not our lord, is he."
"How do you know what he listens for, and what he's aware of?" Frost asked, curiously.
"I don't know, really. But he feels it when someone says his name, and so do I, to a lesser extent. Bit like Harry. I mean, Harry and Tom are connected by a failed curse. But I've actually had him inside me."
Storm giggled. "Flame, dear, that sounds so dodgy! I don't suppose you ever did?"
Ginny shook her head. "No. I wouldn't mind now, though- he really is one of the best looking boys you ever saw. It'd be nice to have him as my first. Ah well, no use crying over spilt potion, or missed oportunities. But he's got charisma, and this odd sort of charm. I know why people who knew him as a boy follow him. "
Willow looked surprised. "What, you mean you've never...?"
Flame shook her head again. "What do you think my future, anonymous but extremely pure-blood husband'll say if I'm not a virgin? For me, its not a question of sex before marriage, or marriage first. Its no sex before marriage, or there'll be no marriage. I can't take that risk."
The other girls could all understand this- they had much the same problem. But Storm frowned. "Well, you came very near to chosing no marriage last night with Malfoy, dear. Lucky I saw you- what happened, anyway?"
Flame suppressed a shudder at the memory, whether of fear or pleasure she couldn't say. "I was drunk, all right, that's all. It was nothing. Anyway, I thought we were discussing Riddle?"
"So, we've established that he's back, that its safest to call him Tom, and that we're all against him. We know the name of his spy organisation, and which ministry officials to watch." Susan Bones, aka Willow, was, characteristically, coming straight to the point. "We know that The Moonlight has got Professor Enshaw, but we don't know why. I think we should get our aims straight, and swear some sort of an oath. That way we'll know we can trust each other, and we won't be able to let things slide. First of all, we need to find out what Enshaw knew, and get her back. We can't leave people in ignorance of what we know, so the next thing is to start an information campaign. But it'll have to be very subtle, because we're all well placed for spying on both camps- no one needs to blow their cover right now."
"Hey, hey, slow down!!" Frost had, as always, started paying proper attention only just in time. "Have we even agreed we want to fight Tom, yet? I mean, sure, I don't want any mudblood ordering me around, but I'm not too keen on Potty boy, either."
"No one said we were for Heroic Harry. We just happen to have one thing in common with his group- the fact that we're both against Riddle. But I have no intention of submitting to Pottys rule either- we just form a third group: purebloods against mudbloods, both Tom and Harry. Only we get rid of Tom first." Flame was flushed, grinning. It had never occured to her, until just now, that there could be any but the two options. She was definetely liking her new idea, though.
Willow nodded. "So we cooperate with Potty until Tom's gone, and then go from there. I could do that. Also, has it occured to you that both other groups are led each by a single person, and that those two people are wizards? We, on the other hand, represent the democratic distribution of power, and equal rights for witches!"
"Hear hear!!" Storm waved her arms in wild approval. "Lets draw up a contract!" She produced parchment, and an ancient looking black quill.
"The quill belonged to my grandmother," she explained."It cuts into your fingers where you hold it, and uses your own blood instead of ink. Grandmère Duprée always made sure all her contracts were signed with it. They're twice as binding that way, and even more so for a pure-blood than a half-blood, so I'd watch what you do, girls. I believe there's some highly individual curses on it." So Frost drew up the contract, with clamorous contributions and corrections from the others, and Flame was the first to sign. (See contract here.)
While Willow whipped up a simple healing unguent over the fire, the girls gossiped and chattered.
"So anyway, Storm, are you sure the school rules allow you to appropriate a classroom for your own purposes, never mind redecorate it?" Ginny asked, grinning.
"Oh, Flitwick said it was OK," Katherine said, with an airy wave of her hand. "You know I'm in that Charms club of his? Well, my speciality is actually interior decoration, so I told him I needed a room to practise."
They all laughed- little Professor Flitwick could always be depended on to fall for anything.
"Remember the time we told him you had artheritis?" Frost continued, giggling at Ginny. "I think Malfoy still holds it against me that I made Flitwick believe it, and got you out of trouble."
Storm raised her eyebrows. "Not judging from the way he looked this morning, he doesn't. He couldn't keep his eyes off a certain Gryffindor who wears very skimpy underrobes." Ginny felt a tell-tale blush creeping up from the neck of her robes.
"Well, whatever he thought before, he won't want to know me now. You were really rude to him, Storm."
Storm grinned. "My poor little innocent, the entire female population of Hogwarts fancies him, and he knows it. If you want him, you have to get his attention, prove you're different. Besides which, I'm not the one who said his hair looked greasy."
Flame shrugged. "Well, he threw my family in my face. I can't help being related to muggle-loving tramps, can I?"
Anima had been listening to this exchange with sparkling eyes. "But tell, girls, tell me all! How come you two were sitting outside in your under robes at that time, anyway? Always assuming, of course, that it wasn't an ambush."
This last earned her indignant glares from both girls, but it was Storm who answered.
"We were talking till late last night, so I just slept in Ginnys bed. Not with her, you pervert!" she added, seeing Frosts amused look. "I had to leave dorm early before the Gryffindor vestals woke up, and we still needed to talk. Filch was patrolling, so we thought our best bet for privacy was the gardens. Thats all."
Just then, Willow declared that the healing unguent was ready, and after they had plastered their fingers with it, Storm used deceptive charms, so that the cuts would be invisible. They left one at a time, and went up to lunch with their respective houses.
All, that is, except Ginny.
A/N: Hope that wasn't too boring, and that the explanation parts were clear, and I didn't miss any essential points. Also, I tried to clear things up a bit for Morgain Lestrage. Is that any less confusing?
Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling owns all of Hogwarts, etc. My actual savings amount to 1euro 35 cents, so anyone trying to sue me has to be out of their mind.
Rating: PG13 for language, blood prejudice, evil pens and Death Eaters.
Summary: Ginny and Storm explain some stuff, a binding contract is signed, and four girls unite in the cause of equal rights for witches!
Chapter Seven: contracts and interior decoration.
Storm took them down a long, low passage-way, dripping with slime and illuminated by nothing but their own wands. The girls followed, grumbling about the mess of mud on their robes, until she stopped in front of an arched silver door. She tapped the door with her wand, and turned back to grin at them.
"Fifteen different password charms, sweethearts, so have patience." She started muttering at the door, and, a good ten minutes later, it swung open.
The room inside was long, with a high domed roof, silver wallpaper, a large fireplace, and innumerable chairs. It was lit by a strange green glow, and around the roof fluttered hundreds of green and silver butterflys.
Katherine flopped onto a chair, and gestured to the others to seat themselves. She giggled at their astonished expressions.
"This is my office, girls. It used to be an old classroom, but I think it got forgotten after about 1066, and I've been decorating it myself. Anyway, point is, I thought we ought to tell Willow and Frost. Ginny can start with her part- listen carefully, girls."
"Oh, er, OK," Ginny glanced round nervously. "Remember in first year, when the Chamber was opened? That was me."
"You what?!" Willow was staring.
"Err, yeah. We were shopping for books in Diagon alley, and Draco's darling father got into a fight with my old Dad, during which he slipped an old book into my stuff. It was Riddles diary. He used Dark magic to imbue the diary with part of his soul, kind of like the sorting hat. So when I wrote in it, he wrote back."
Frost laughed. "So, lets get this straight. You were pen palls with Tom Riddle? The Tom Riddle who became the Dark Lord?"
"Yeah, or more like a memory of Riddle. Anyway, the point is, I'm not the heir of Slytherin, Tom is. He just used me. A memory doesn't have a body, so he possesed mine. Then, you all know he took me down to the Chamber, and Heroic Harry came and rescued me. But Tom told me all about himself, and I was able to research him afterwards. He's a mudblood. His father was a muggle, who deserted his mother when he found out she was a witch. She died, and the Dark Lord spent the first eleven years of his life in a crummy muggle orphanage. He opened the Chamber when he and Lucius were in school, he's Slytherins heir, and Harry is Gryffindors heir. Slytherin and Gryffindor were cousins, so those two are related." Flame had said all that as quickly as possible, without pausing for breath. Now it was over, and she'd told them, she sighed in relief. The secret was out.
Frost was definetely upset now. "So you're telling me that that blood-prejudiced bastard is a mudblood himself? Bloody burning hellfire and eternal excruciating damnation! Why are we following him, then?"
Katherine grinned. "Well, personally, Anima dear, I'm not following him anymore, as of about last night."
"Hear hear! The cat's among the pixies for poor Tom now," said Frost with a grin. "We can't know this and not tell other people- I wonder how long it'll take for him to lose half his followers?"
Willow frowned. "We have to be careful, though. And organised. After all, we can't just run around announcing unproven things about the Dark Lord. I, for one, don't want people thinking I'm crazy, and besides that we'll find out alot more about both Potters and Toms plans if we keep quiet."
"Well, we already told Malfoy." Katherine looked guilty and a little pleading. "But we think he believed us. But there's more. You haven't heard my part yet."
The others grinned. "OK, we're listening."
"Right. The Potter boy's right- the Dark Lord is back. I don't know his exact plans, but he needs to destroy Heroic Harry first of all, and that involves the Department of Mysteries. The Death Eaters have been recalled- they suffered for deserting him, but they're back where their true loyalty lies now. The Dementors'll be ours- er, I mean theirs- soon, and then Bellatrix and the others will return, so we haven't got long. Tom gets his information through an extensive spy network. Only those at the top end even know they're reporting to Tom, so lots of innocent witches and wizards are involved. But the Death Eaters in charge of information are led by Narcissa Malfoy. They call it-" Storm paused, stealing herself. "They call it The Moonlight, because their agents are meant to disappear like moonlight on a clouded night. I think they actually got the idea when Montague said Narcissa's hair was like beams of moonlight. He was less than sober aat the time." Strom giggled shakily.
"Anyway, remember Professor Enshaw's been away lately? Malfoy told Ginny the Moonlight got her."
"Officially, Profesor Quint S. Enshaw was ill today, angel. But...well, lets just say the moonlight got her. I believe the moonlight disagreed with her, and that can be very painful." Ginny murmured dreamily, with a small smile.
"Malfoy called you angel?! Flame, you already have half the boys in school at your feet. Don't add Malfoy, it'd be too depressing for the rest of us." Frost exclaimed with a comical look.
Willow, however, was not to be distracted from the essential point. "I knew lots of Ministry officials are spying for Tom, I just didn't know the name of the organisation, or theDeath Eaters in charge. Who else is there?"
"Lucius Malfoy, of course, Zabini, Goyle, and Dolores Umbridge are the Death Eaters at the head of things. Of course, after that there's loads of people working under them, some of whom know it's for Tom, and some of whom don't."
Flame had by this time recovered from her abstraction. "Funny the way you've all picked up the habit of calling him Tom from me. Its a lot less risky- he might be aware when people say his title, but he doesn't listen for his old name any more. And it shows where loyalty lies- after all, he's not our lord, is he."
"How do you know what he listens for, and what he's aware of?" Frost asked, curiously.
"I don't know, really. But he feels it when someone says his name, and so do I, to a lesser extent. Bit like Harry. I mean, Harry and Tom are connected by a failed curse. But I've actually had him inside me."
Storm giggled. "Flame, dear, that sounds so dodgy! I don't suppose you ever did?"
Ginny shook her head. "No. I wouldn't mind now, though- he really is one of the best looking boys you ever saw. It'd be nice to have him as my first. Ah well, no use crying over spilt potion, or missed oportunities. But he's got charisma, and this odd sort of charm. I know why people who knew him as a boy follow him. "
Willow looked surprised. "What, you mean you've never...?"
Flame shook her head again. "What do you think my future, anonymous but extremely pure-blood husband'll say if I'm not a virgin? For me, its not a question of sex before marriage, or marriage first. Its no sex before marriage, or there'll be no marriage. I can't take that risk."
The other girls could all understand this- they had much the same problem. But Storm frowned. "Well, you came very near to chosing no marriage last night with Malfoy, dear. Lucky I saw you- what happened, anyway?"
Flame suppressed a shudder at the memory, whether of fear or pleasure she couldn't say. "I was drunk, all right, that's all. It was nothing. Anyway, I thought we were discussing Riddle?"
"So, we've established that he's back, that its safest to call him Tom, and that we're all against him. We know the name of his spy organisation, and which ministry officials to watch." Susan Bones, aka Willow, was, characteristically, coming straight to the point. "We know that The Moonlight has got Professor Enshaw, but we don't know why. I think we should get our aims straight, and swear some sort of an oath. That way we'll know we can trust each other, and we won't be able to let things slide. First of all, we need to find out what Enshaw knew, and get her back. We can't leave people in ignorance of what we know, so the next thing is to start an information campaign. But it'll have to be very subtle, because we're all well placed for spying on both camps- no one needs to blow their cover right now."
"Hey, hey, slow down!!" Frost had, as always, started paying proper attention only just in time. "Have we even agreed we want to fight Tom, yet? I mean, sure, I don't want any mudblood ordering me around, but I'm not too keen on Potty boy, either."
"No one said we were for Heroic Harry. We just happen to have one thing in common with his group- the fact that we're both against Riddle. But I have no intention of submitting to Pottys rule either- we just form a third group: purebloods against mudbloods, both Tom and Harry. Only we get rid of Tom first." Flame was flushed, grinning. It had never occured to her, until just now, that there could be any but the two options. She was definetely liking her new idea, though.
Willow nodded. "So we cooperate with Potty until Tom's gone, and then go from there. I could do that. Also, has it occured to you that both other groups are led each by a single person, and that those two people are wizards? We, on the other hand, represent the democratic distribution of power, and equal rights for witches!"
"Hear hear!!" Storm waved her arms in wild approval. "Lets draw up a contract!" She produced parchment, and an ancient looking black quill.
"The quill belonged to my grandmother," she explained."It cuts into your fingers where you hold it, and uses your own blood instead of ink. Grandmère Duprée always made sure all her contracts were signed with it. They're twice as binding that way, and even more so for a pure-blood than a half-blood, so I'd watch what you do, girls. I believe there's some highly individual curses on it." So Frost drew up the contract, with clamorous contributions and corrections from the others, and Flame was the first to sign. (See contract here.)
While Willow whipped up a simple healing unguent over the fire, the girls gossiped and chattered.
"So anyway, Storm, are you sure the school rules allow you to appropriate a classroom for your own purposes, never mind redecorate it?" Ginny asked, grinning.
"Oh, Flitwick said it was OK," Katherine said, with an airy wave of her hand. "You know I'm in that Charms club of his? Well, my speciality is actually interior decoration, so I told him I needed a room to practise."
They all laughed- little Professor Flitwick could always be depended on to fall for anything.
"Remember the time we told him you had artheritis?" Frost continued, giggling at Ginny. "I think Malfoy still holds it against me that I made Flitwick believe it, and got you out of trouble."
Storm raised her eyebrows. "Not judging from the way he looked this morning, he doesn't. He couldn't keep his eyes off a certain Gryffindor who wears very skimpy underrobes." Ginny felt a tell-tale blush creeping up from the neck of her robes.
"Well, whatever he thought before, he won't want to know me now. You were really rude to him, Storm."
Storm grinned. "My poor little innocent, the entire female population of Hogwarts fancies him, and he knows it. If you want him, you have to get his attention, prove you're different. Besides which, I'm not the one who said his hair looked greasy."
Flame shrugged. "Well, he threw my family in my face. I can't help being related to muggle-loving tramps, can I?"
Anima had been listening to this exchange with sparkling eyes. "But tell, girls, tell me all! How come you two were sitting outside in your under robes at that time, anyway? Always assuming, of course, that it wasn't an ambush."
This last earned her indignant glares from both girls, but it was Storm who answered.
"We were talking till late last night, so I just slept in Ginnys bed. Not with her, you pervert!" she added, seeing Frosts amused look. "I had to leave dorm early before the Gryffindor vestals woke up, and we still needed to talk. Filch was patrolling, so we thought our best bet for privacy was the gardens. Thats all."
Just then, Willow declared that the healing unguent was ready, and after they had plastered their fingers with it, Storm used deceptive charms, so that the cuts would be invisible. They left one at a time, and went up to lunch with their respective houses.
All, that is, except Ginny.
A/N: Hope that wasn't too boring, and that the explanation parts were clear, and I didn't miss any essential points. Also, I tried to clear things up a bit for Morgain Lestrage. Is that any less confusing?