Chapter Fourteen: Freedom Is Coming
As soon as Hermione had been brought up to speed on everything things calmed down quite a bit. And it was Lucy, Lavender, and Parvati's turn to gape when she unpacked what looked like a lime green bowling ball with dark green spots. Hermione grunted a bit as she set it on the bed before turning back and setting up the box lined with pillows she had been keeping it in.
"Good Lord Hermione, he's huge!"
Hermione groaned, "Tell me about it. And he's still nowhere near his full size. His growth is going to continue, and accelerate until he hatches. Hagrid never told me exactly how big he would be."
Lucy groaned, "Damn, I forgot all about Sparks. I better go get him from Hagrid before dinner."
"You're not keeping him in here, are you?"
Lucy shook her head, "No, the, er, babysitter I had last term is still available. He's not going to singe any of your clothes Lavender."
Faustas raised an eyebrow, if that was possible for a red-shouldered hawk. ** And just what are you talking about?**
Lucy grinned, "I am afraid I must inform you, oh ancient one, that you are no longer the only bird in my life." With that she grabbed her cloak and swept from the room while Parvati moaned about being driven crazy and the other girls returned to unpacking.
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"Oh there you are, come to mommy you little devil. Did he behave himself Hagrid?"
Hagrid grinned as he handed Lucy a pair of silver oven mitts with insulating charms sewn in the lining.
"He was good enough. Singed Fang's tail, although I do suppose it was the big brutes fault for sitting on him. Gettin awful hot he is. I'd keep him on ice as often as possible, at least four days a week."
Lucy made a face, "That many, you really think so?"
Hagrid nodded, "Best ways that I knows how to do its is ta set him real gentle in a tub of water and then freeze the whole thing. Takes a bit of practice, but that will stay for about a day and a half, maybe two. Keep a sharp eye on him though, don't want 'em settin' nothin aflame now do we?"
Lucy sighed, "No, but that's still an awful lot of work."
Hagrid carefully placed Sparks in Lucy's mittens and patted her head. "Just wait till he hatches. That's when everyone else will have a devil of a time. But phoenix's are right independent little demons once they're out, can practically take care of themselves. Very smart. I'm sure you'll get on fine. Now, if ye don't mind, I've got a bit a business ta take care of before dinner. I'll see you in class Lucy."
Lucy looked suspiciously at the large pile of huge brown paper packages, smelling distinctly like a butcher shop. But Hagrid shooed her out the door and waved her off before quickly grabbing his pipe off the front step and disappearing back into his hut.
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It was on her way back to the Gryffindor common room after carefully stashing Sparks in the BA room that Lucy ran, literally, into Marguerite Ducasse.
"Lucy, hi! You weren't on the train, were you?"
Lucy wasn't exactly sure what to say, and she really hated lying to people who trusted her. She decided to avoid the answer all together.
"You and Parker found a place to sit all right, didn't you?"
"Mmmhmmm, we sat with the Belle and Brady, no one else wanted to sit with them," she added rather sadly.
"Really?" Lucy didn't like the sound of it.
"Uh huh, Belle's friends wanted her to sit with them, and the Slytherins wanted Brady back with them, but I think that after being able to spend the whole holiday together, they didn't want to split up yet. And none of the Gryffindors or Slytherins wanted to sit with both of them."
Lucy had a feeling Hermione was going to have her hands full.
"Well, practically none of the Slytherins anyway. Right before I had to go back to the immigration car with everyone else Tabitha and her cousin Lotte came by. Brady knows Lotte a little, and they were still playing cards when I got back."
"Well it's good to know that not everyone is so closed minded now, isn't it?"
Marguerite nodded. "I was on my way to give Parker his deck back anyway, you want to come?'
Images of the wreck she had left her room rose into Lucy's mind. "I can't right now, but I'll catch up with both of you later and you can tell me all about your vacation."
Lucy hadn't gone more than five steps when she heard Marguerite calling from behind her.
"Did you plan it Lucy?"
Lucy turned, "Plan what?"
"With the others, did you plan not to be on the train?"
She shook her head, "What are you talking about, what others?"
Marguerite looked directly at her, an expression of concern in her blue eyes making her look eons older than she was. But then, Lucy remembered, Marguerite seldom looked or acted her age.
"When we were being processed, you weren't there. And they read off the names of others who weren't on the train as well. So I just wanted to know if you planned it, because if you did than I want to know why I..."
Lucy sighed. "You were right, I wasn't on the train. But I'm trying not to spread that around, ok? My roommates all think I was just in another car. And if anyone else from our little assemblage of the persecuted decided not to take the train as well, than they did it on their own. You weren't left out of any sort of organized resistance. We didn't even think of that."
The blond braids bobbed as Marguerite nodded in understanding. "I just wanted to make sure."
"If we ever need to do something I'm sure it will be a group effort Marguerite, when you're in the minority you need all the numbers you can get."
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"Done at last," Lucy closed her trunk and shut her final drawer with a satisfying bang. "I plan on sleeping till dinner, someone get me up," and without waiting for a response, she fell backward onto her bed.
And yelped in pain as her head landed on a small, hard object.
"Que es esto?" She sat up and looked down at the small package she had chucked absentmindedly on the bed earlier in the afternoon.
"Just when I thought I was done unpacking..." she muttered to herself as she removed the brown paper and the bubble cloth surrounding the circular flat object the size of her hand.
It was a mirror. But it took Lucy less than half a second to recognize it as no ordinary mirror. The was a Mirror, a communication Mirror, and a powerful one at that. It was also so old that it could have been used by the Egyptians before the pyramids existed. Where on earth had it come from, and who's was it?
She fell asleep still puzzling over that question, with the mirror clutched in her hand, and she hadn't been dozing nearly long enough when Hermione's voice reached her ears.
"Come on Lucy! Supper! Let's go!"
Muttering several curses in a variety of languages, Lucy carefully wrapped the mirror in bubble cloth and placed it under her pillow before following the girls down to the Great Hall.
She hadn't taken a bite of her food before Seamus slid onto the bench across from her.
** You weren't on the train.**
** I'm fine, Seamus, how was your vacation?**
** You weren't on the train.**
** Could you pass the rolls please?**
** You weren't on the train.**
Deciding it was worth the low risk, since everyone's eyes were on their plates and their friends and because food was moving so quickly anyway, Lucy crossed her arms in front of her chest, stared right into Seamus's steely gaze, and raised a roll from the basket next to him up and over the tray of vegetables to land on her plate.
She was tempted to butter it without using her hands as well but decided that would be a little conspicuous for anyone who was still spying on her, so she picked up her knife and nonchalantly buttered the bread before taking a bite.
"Mmmm, delicious."
Seamus was not amused. But Lucy had absolutely no intention of having this conversation, and especially not here. Her best method for lying as little as possible to her friends while also revealing as little as possible was simply not to talk about certain subjects. Faustas was one. The final days of her vacation was another. He was simply going to have to learn how to play ball.
After about ten minutes of nothing but an angry stare facing her, she decided it was best to try and change the conversation.
"So, did you get your Christmas present?"
Nothing makes a boy brighten up than the opportunity to talk about sports.
"God, I completely forgot. I loved it, thank you."
"Any new designs yet?"
"Nothing radical, I did find a bristle conformation that reduces drag significantly, and there's a charm..."
Lucy smiled as he rattled on. Seamus was a fine Quidditch player, but his chances of making it as a beater in the professional leagues was slim, and he knew it. He was tall and wiry, and most of the pros were heavier than he was. But, fortunately, Seamus's interest in Quidditch as a career didn't center around playing the game at all. He had been, for quite some time, meddling with broom designs. It had begun out of necessity; high quality brooms were expensive and he would always end up with either an old broom or a mediocre one. His best shot at improving maneuverability and speed was to try and fix what he had. And one of the most valuable things Seamus brought to his designs was playing experience. He was a beater now, but in local leagues and summer camps he had played chaser frequently, and occasionally keeper as well. He understood the specific needs of positions, and major flaws that made an otherwise excellent broom perform below its capacity. So Lucy had gone in with Dean and Neville to get him a practically professional quality broom design kit. It had all the basic requirements for broom maintenance and repair, as well as a beautiful set of wood working tools, charming supplies, and "Principles of Flight", a guide to magical aerodynamics.
Seamus must have realized that Lucy had eventually tuned out his technical ramblings, he paused to take another bite and then raised his eyebrows expectantly.
"Well?"
Lucy looked confused, "Well, what?"
"Well, how did you like YOUR present?"
Lucy shook her head, "What are talking about? I didn't get it. I was going to politely forget the fact that you forgot to give it to me and wait patiently until you apologized, but since you brought it up-"
"What do you mean, you didn't get it? I put it inside your trunk myself!"
Lucy paused, set down her fork, and shook her head. "Now, see, there's the problem. I am not someone accustomed to living out of a trunk, and I hardly ever really need more than I pack on the very top, so nothing gets completely unpacked till I get back..." She rubbed the lump on the back of her head. The package.
"The mirror? That was from you!"
Seamus grinned widely at the response. Lucy wasn't usually easily surprised, and when she was she tried not to show it. She got that from being around Hermione, so it was nice to be able to rattle her once and awhile.
"I suppose I should have added a card but-" The look on Lucy's face he saw now wasn't really surprise, it was shock and confusion.
"Lucy..."
She shook her head, to clear it. "Seamus, this is kind of important. Where, in the name of all the little gods, did you find that mirror?"
Seamus was now the one confused. "My grandmother. You remember, the one who thought I could pass for a druid until I grew too tall, it was in her attic. Apparently its been stuffed in there for several generations, but she was the one who found it when she was younger, cleaned it up a bit, put it in the cupboard next to the china. Anyway, she sent it to me as a good luck charm right before mid term exams, she likes to do that, I have several four leaf clovers and a host of other knick knacks, and I thought you might like it more than me, it seemed like your style. Why, what's that face, what's the matter?"
Lucy sighed and shrugged. "You were right."
She shoved her plate toward the middle of the table and watched it disappear, then rose. "Well, are you coming?"
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"So it isn't just a pretty mirror?" Seamus turned the disk over in his hand, running his fingers over the design chiseled into the stone surrounding the mirror. The mirror itself was curious. He had always thought it was age, or dirt, but it was darker, not the crystal clear reflection of ordinary mirrors. But none of Lucy's communication mirrors ever looked like this.
"No, definitely not. This thing is ancient, I don't know how ancient...but, well, look at that stone! That's not ordinary mirror, that is a solid sheet of stone, and the center has been.... I don't know what, changed to reflect."
Lucy flopped down on the sofa, frustrated.
"So, why did my grandmother have it?"
"Why was it here at all? That is an artifact from the Western Circle, a tool of Western magic, and there is no western magic here!"
Her descent into a more perfect mope was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. Ron was standing behind the couch, a box in his hand.
Lucy raised her eyebrow. Ron and her were no longer really enemies, but a present would be downright congenial of him.
He answered the question before she posed it.
"It's from Fred and George. They didn't know how to send it to you for Christmas, and they wanted you to be the first to see them. So, Merry Christmas."
Lucy looked at the box, up to Ron's face, and down to the box again. Opening a package from the Weasley twins was never something to be taken lightly.
"Put it on the floor Ron, please."
Ron shrugged and placed the package at his feet before coming around to the other side of the couch.
Lucy crouched down, peering over the back, and mentally pulled at the paper until it fell away, revealing a plain brown box. Getting that open took a little wand work, but eventually it was open, and Lucy blew the packing away to reveal a small brightly colored box with gold writing.
She burst into laughter and leapt over the sofa to inspect the box and the attached card.
"Lucy: Well, Harry may have given us the money, but you gave us the inspiration, so we thought it only fair that you receive the very first box of Caterwauling Confections. This batch was made especially with you in mind. Hope you aren't behaving yourself, and make good use of them. Merry Christmas! Yours in Irresponsibility, Fred and George"
And indeed, the present was a box of the tricky chocolate peanut butter and caramel cups that compelled the victim to sing whatever song had been charmed into them for as long as the caramel stayed on their teeth. Lucy had given the recipe and associated charm to the twins as a graduation gift the year before. In the top right corner of the blue and white striped box was an American Flag sticker with the gold message "American Edition" in curvy letters. On the back was the list of varieties to be found inside: Born in the USA, The Star Spangled Banner, California Girls, Home on the Range, Sweet Home Alabama, and New York, New York.
She passed it over to a bemused Ron and Seamus. Ron rolled his eyes, "I knew they were up to something. They kept trying to feed me sweets all summer. I think Mum was almost relieved when they left."
"Where did they go?"
"They're interning at the Mad Max's Magical Modern Marvels corporation, learning the ropes of business, they already have a spot in Diagon Ally that looks promising for a store. They keep sending Mum letters making her think they are on the brink of starvation, so she keeps sending them food. Of course, Dad looks in on them every so often, and says they're fine. Never mentions it to Mum though."
Lucy grinned. "That was sweet of them to remember. I ought to send some to-" She stopped herself a little to late. Part of the story she was supposed to give was that she had no idea where Diego was. She grinned sheepishly and gathered up the box and the wrapping. "I ought to send myself up to my room to get some sleep." She snatched up the mirror and was up the stairs to her room before Seamus and Ron could say another word.
"She's acting strange."
Ron scoffed, "She IS strange Seamus, or is that just now sinking in? Come on, she had a good idea for once."
Seamus shook his head as they headed upstairs. "No, stranger than usual. She's hiding something."
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Hogwarts teachers were notorious for grinding into their students at the start of the second term, almost as if they resented the holiday time spent at rest when they could have been learning. As a result, the first week back from vacation made it abundantly clear that they were on vacation no more. The work load was incredible, especially for the six and seventh years.
Lucy remembered sixth year potions from her punishment last year. This year was no better. She hadn't joined the class until later in the term, so she wasn't going to be any better off than the rest of her classmates for quite some time. And her relationship with Professor Snape was no better than it had been right before she threw the cauldron at him that had gotten her the punishment in the first place.
Lucy would always hate Snape, it was something that she had come to accept. Unlike the students that resented him and his difficult class, Lucy hated Snape on a much more personal level, and he had done nothing to redeem himself in her eyes. As a result, as they launched into the much more practically intensive half of the year, she spent most of the time she wasn't preparing ingredients or working staring straight at him. Diego had also taught her a beautiful little mind trick that made the victim FEEL like they were being watched, even when they weren't. Since it didn't require invading Snape's thoughts nor did it put him at any real risk, Lucy felt it was a completely viable form of retaliation. It was driving him crazy, but there was no way he could possibly pin it on her. This was, in addition, of course, to the multitude of sundry lies she told all during class about her vacation and the circle, knowing full well that Severus Snape was listening to every word.
It was while she was trying to fillet a needlefish that Lucy heard:
**Lucy, don't cut the head off, you need the eyes. Just fillet up to the gills and scrape out the gut.**
She turned her head to see Bet Tsepish staring at her intently from across the isle. She did as she said and added the smelly bit of fish to the bubbling cauldron, watching it turn from a brownish mixture to a deep black.
** Thanks. And you've been practicing, that was very clear.**
** I know, we need to have a meeting soon.**
** Of course we will, any reason to rush?**
** Well... I'm not sure.**
** What is it?**
** On Christmas morning, I looked out the window, and I saw my grandparents coming up the road.**
** They're not dead or anything are they?**
** No, but they were still seven kilometers away.**
Lucy nearly sliced her finger off. Lavender and Parvati gave her a Look and took away her knife, setting her to shelling the snow queen peas instead.
** Really?**
** Uh huh, and now I get these pictures in my head, on and off, in front of my normal vision, of places far away. Some I've never been to.**
** You're right, we need to have a meeting.**
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Unfortunately, the BA wasn't the only group to call a meeting. Lucy was waylaid by Warren Lane as soon as she got in from potions. The tall boy pulled her into a window nook and kept his voice low.
"You didn't take the train, did you?"
Lucy raised her eyebrows, "I don't know what-"
"Lucy, it's ok! Wesley, William and I didn't take it either!"
"What!"
"Shhh, keep your voice down."
"Sorry, how...."
"We stayed in Hogsmeade at the Inn. Hopped on the back of one of the carriages when they passed by and entered just like everyone else."
"So you didn't go through the paperwork either?"
"Nope. And its not just us. I know that Alessandra and Karen weren't there either, rumor is it that the Kornakovitch kids were missing in action as well. And if Karen wasn't on the train than her sister Audrey probably wasn't either."
Lucy saw where he was going. "So how many of us do you think defected?"
Warren shrugged, "Can't be sure exactly. We haven't heard from the other houses, but with you that makes over half the Gryffindors, and I'm betting that a lot of the Slytherins dodged the ministry as well."
"Why do you think them?"
"Because they're Slytherins and they want to show that they can. The Ravenclaws hate breaking the rules, but they'll do it if they felt it was on principle. I'm not sure about the Hufflepuffs, but theirs was the smallest group anyway."
Lucy nodded, "So how many would you guess?"
"Right now, I'd say between twenty to twenty five."
There had been a little over sixty people in the room on Halloween. Lucy nearly choked.
"That's almost a half!"
Warren grinned, "I know."
Lucy shook her head, "No, this is BAD Warren. I mean, if it was a few of us we could slip through the system, but twenty five! They're going to notice, and they're going to look harder, and then the dragon droppings are going to hit the ventilation spell, to put it in familiar terms."
Warren put his hands on her shoulders. "Calm down, Montero. Listen, we can handle this. The important thing is to find out who we are, and to get our story straight. Our numbers are our best protection. They can't expell all of us, or throw us in prison, or whatever they do to people who don't get their paperwork checked. But we have to have the same story, or then they can start picking us off."
"Yeah, and I wonder who they're going to go for first."
Warren raised his eyebrow.
"The pictures, Warren, remember? The ones you showed me, when you were telling me NOT to rock the boat? And now you want to go and capsize it! Well apparently they already don't like me, now they have a real reason! If they are going to make an example out of someone, who do you think it is going to be?"
Now she was upset. She was supposed to be flying LOW on the radar, keeping her head down, and her ears and deceitful little mouth open. Being hauled up on charges was NOT in the plans.
Warren's face softened, "Hey, listen, everything is going to be fine. Everyone had that guy following them Lucy, not just you. There's no reason to think that they are after you specifically. Maybe I overemphasized that because we thought if we played along this would all go away. I'm sorry if I scared you. But it hasn't gone away, and no one is going to stop it unless we do something, all right? You're with us, we're not going to let them sacrifice you."
She wanted to believe him, wanted to be able to put her whole life in the Aussie's large, strong hands, so she forced a smile and nodded. But even as he patted her on the shoulder and told her the time and place of the meeting, she was busy trying to figure out how this was going to work into the fabricated story she was supposed to be passing off as her life.
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It was late that night when Faustas, making use of the clever shutters that the girls had bought Lucy last year, which had been re-installed in the bedroom window, carefully crept in and along the post of the bed right next to the window, Lucy's. Then, quite unceremoniously, he dropped a scroll on her head and left. The thunk of the heavy seal connecting with her forehead woke her, and she stared mystified at the document before pulling out her wand so she could see.
She could see nothing, at least at first. Then, as she ran her fingers over the paper, symbols began to appear. It was the Machu Pichu code. As she murmured the words to descramble the message, letters began to appear. It was Quechua, and as she read it she still understood nothing. Then she remembered what Sofia had said about using her ring. She turned her right hand over and ran the band along a line of text.
"To Lucille Montero of Espiritu, Hogwarts School, Britain."
So that was how to crack to code. She read on a detailed account of the High Council minutes. The poor representatives were still in Mexico, on account of the most alarming occurrences being reported even as they sat from distant schools.
Lucy read on.
A sickness seemed to be coming over the community. Nothing of body, but of mind. It was as if the very energy they were being trained to use, was slowly poisoning them.
Three small schools, located very closed together in the wilds of Siberia had succumbed. They found the only recourse was to cease their studies and actively shield themselves from the energy lines running under the school. Fortunately they did not sit upon a node, a vast underground pool of immense energy and power, but the results were serious enough. Channels burned raw by use of the energy may not be capable of use again once the students have recovered. Similar effects were being seen at another school several miles to the east, and an evacuation to Nepal would be underway soon.
Lucy read on with detached disinterest in the rest of the reports being given from the Amazon school system, and mechanically re-sealed the scroll with the imprint of the Masters Ring to verify that she had received the document. That seemed to be all that was necessary, and the scroll shrunk to a much smaller size, very convenient for hiding, although the possibility of anyone being able to break the code was very unlikely. She put the miniature scroll under her pillow for safe keeping until she could transfer it to Asriel's workroom. Faustas seemed to think his work was done and departed through the window. Lucy put sleep off long enough to close the window while still snuggled up in her bed. Once the latch fell down, she was out.
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The meeting of the international students was Wednesday afternoon. Lucy was planning on telling Hermione, so she wouldn't get worried if she wasn't at dinner and draw more attention to Lucy's absence, but the bushy haired girl was nowhere to be found. Lucy wondered why she was surprised by this; Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been up to something all year, and whatever it was wasn't making them happy.
The results of the whole affair weren't terribly helpful. And it was worse than Warren had predicted. With the affirmation that Nicholas and Svetlana had indeed jumped ship with the rest of them, that made a total of eight defecting Gryffindors. Karen's sister Audrey, along with Sergei Petrov, Aysha Doman, Lukas Getman, Mikhail Fedorov, and Magda Sclafani brought the Ravenclaw total to six. As suspected, Lorenzo Costanzo, Gisella Trifiro, Maeve Abrahms, and Leigh Rapkin were the only Hufflepuffs to take the risk. But what really put the tally over the edge were the Slytherins. Misha Grigorev, Katya Kuzmin, Dimitri Chernyshev, Sasha Yudin, Vladimir Petrenko, Costanzo Rossetti, Lesley Arong, Mai Setsuko, Saori Mitsuya, and Kentaro and Koji Tsujimoto brought the total number of delinquent international students to 29.
Lucy massaged her temples as she made her way along the halls towards Asriel's workroom. The BA meeting was going to take place right after dinner, so she had a few moments to get some last minute work done, more if she skipped the meal all together. But the events of the afternoon continued to replay themselves in her mind.
"We couldn't have found someplace warmer Warren, my toes are going to fall off!"
"No one is going to be out here, and there are several ways to get back, so it won't look like we all came at once."
"IF we make it back, I'm about ready to die right now. And to think we were at the beach not so long ago..."
Lucy had grinned and drawn her cloak tighter about her. The "meeting place" was outside around the back of the school at the base of one of the tower walls, facing the lake. There were fewer windows on this side, and all were shuttered against the wind that blew off the water forcing the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs to huddle together in a circle; crowded into the nook where the curving tower met the flat of the long wall, and provided a little shelter.
The Slytherins were late. As the Lanes bickered Mikhail and Gisella watched to the left and right, waiting for the tardy members to come around one side of the castle.
So it was to everyone's surprise when the 11 students approached from directly opposite the wall they were huddled around. No one even saw them until Misha made a comment about the location that made everyone jump.
"How did they do that".... Lucy heard Magda mutter to Lorenzo, but she quickly grew quiet as they realized just how many the Slytherins were. Every single one of them, right down to first year Sasha Yudin, had refused to comply with the Ministry's regulations. Lucy groaned quietly as she felt her chances of staying out of trouble and keeping a low profile slipping farther from her grasp.
Audrey shrugged, "Well, we needed someplace that no one in there right mind would choose hang out near."
"Well, you certainly got what you wanted," Dimitri muttered.
Gisella sighed and pulled her hat down farther over her ears, "Maybe we better get this done as fast as possible."
"I still don't understand why we all had to meet in the first place. I don't understand the big deal."
Before anyone could respond to Dimitri's comment Katya slapped him up the side of the head. "That's because you never listen. I TOLD you we weren't going to just get away with this. Everyone seems to realize there is going to be some kind of repercussion but you, you stupid ox."
She couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. She found she wasn't the only one. Aysha, Svetlana, Alessandra, Magda, Sasha, practically all the girls couldn't help but laugh at the fuming look on Dimitri's face. Katya grinned and crossed her arms in a most satisfied manner.
"Well," Maeve began, as she collected herself, "We thought we at least ought to decide what we were going to do. You know, how we want the Ministry to treat us."
"How about just like everybody else?" Kojo offered.
"I don't know if that's still a possibility, mate."
Lucy shook her head, "Doesn't any of what they are doing violate our civil rights?"
She met a circle of blank faces, and reality dawned on her, "Oh, I forgot, we don't have any of those, do we?"
Misha shook his head. "There has never been any sort of Bill of Rights for resident aliens within the Ministry."
"What about outside of it?"
"Most of us never deal with the embassy's. Too much paperwork to forge to get an actual student VISA."
"We're screwed."
"Not if we had rights," William volunteered.
"How?"
"We'd have to get some sort of law passed that guaranteed us protection from discrimination. That forced the ministry to treat us the same as they would treat any Hogwarts student." Audrey mused.
"An amnesty act," Lukas nodded, "amnesty for international Hogwarts students. Any investigation of the Ministry's into international threats would be forced to leave us alone if we were at Hogwarts."
"Immunity," Kentaro added, "We would have to be granted immunity."
"Wouldn't that give us the ability to commit all sorts of crimes? They would never agree to it," Wesley shook his head.
"No," Lucy was beginning to think the idea had promise, "because if we were at Hogwarts we would automatically be under the control of Dumbledore. And if he really thinks we were involved in something, he could expel us."
"And if we were no longer enrolled we would lose our immunity/amnesty thing and the Ministry could prosecute us." Warren concluded triumphantly. "That's fair enough."
"Especially if there was some sort of department among the Ministry's foreign embassies that would be able to help accused prepare a defense, so they couldn't just railroad us into prison."
"A department to protect the civil liberties of resident alien wizards." Misha grinned, "We don't ask for little things now, do we?"
Lesley looked skeptical, "So how are we going to get them?"
How indeed, Lucy reflected as she sank onto one of the padded benches and began to go over the abstract of her first Master's thesis; due in a little less than ten days. They had all agreed that if questioned they would claim to have met in London and taken the Hogsmeade train or the Floo network to the fireplace in the basement of the Three Broomsticks. You could get right from the cellar up to the street there, so that would explain if no one had seen them. They had then waited for the Hogwarts Express to arrive the next day and slipped in among the rest of the returning students and grabbed a few coaches back to the castle.
It wasn't a perfect story, but it would do. Getting the Ministry to do the rest of what they wanted was going to take careful planning. Lucy tried to forget about that as she carefully went over her proofs, her experiment results, and the carefully worded conclusions she had drawn, as well as the portion on how this would funnel into her next thesis.
She was about to doze off when at glance at her watch told her she was going to be late for the BA meeting. She hastily reset the wards as she left and dashed through the halls towards the bathroom entrance. Her work, it seemed, was never done.
As soon as Hermione had been brought up to speed on everything things calmed down quite a bit. And it was Lucy, Lavender, and Parvati's turn to gape when she unpacked what looked like a lime green bowling ball with dark green spots. Hermione grunted a bit as she set it on the bed before turning back and setting up the box lined with pillows she had been keeping it in.
"Good Lord Hermione, he's huge!"
Hermione groaned, "Tell me about it. And he's still nowhere near his full size. His growth is going to continue, and accelerate until he hatches. Hagrid never told me exactly how big he would be."
Lucy groaned, "Damn, I forgot all about Sparks. I better go get him from Hagrid before dinner."
"You're not keeping him in here, are you?"
Lucy shook her head, "No, the, er, babysitter I had last term is still available. He's not going to singe any of your clothes Lavender."
Faustas raised an eyebrow, if that was possible for a red-shouldered hawk. ** And just what are you talking about?**
Lucy grinned, "I am afraid I must inform you, oh ancient one, that you are no longer the only bird in my life." With that she grabbed her cloak and swept from the room while Parvati moaned about being driven crazy and the other girls returned to unpacking.
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"Oh there you are, come to mommy you little devil. Did he behave himself Hagrid?"
Hagrid grinned as he handed Lucy a pair of silver oven mitts with insulating charms sewn in the lining.
"He was good enough. Singed Fang's tail, although I do suppose it was the big brutes fault for sitting on him. Gettin awful hot he is. I'd keep him on ice as often as possible, at least four days a week."
Lucy made a face, "That many, you really think so?"
Hagrid nodded, "Best ways that I knows how to do its is ta set him real gentle in a tub of water and then freeze the whole thing. Takes a bit of practice, but that will stay for about a day and a half, maybe two. Keep a sharp eye on him though, don't want 'em settin' nothin aflame now do we?"
Lucy sighed, "No, but that's still an awful lot of work."
Hagrid carefully placed Sparks in Lucy's mittens and patted her head. "Just wait till he hatches. That's when everyone else will have a devil of a time. But phoenix's are right independent little demons once they're out, can practically take care of themselves. Very smart. I'm sure you'll get on fine. Now, if ye don't mind, I've got a bit a business ta take care of before dinner. I'll see you in class Lucy."
Lucy looked suspiciously at the large pile of huge brown paper packages, smelling distinctly like a butcher shop. But Hagrid shooed her out the door and waved her off before quickly grabbing his pipe off the front step and disappearing back into his hut.
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It was on her way back to the Gryffindor common room after carefully stashing Sparks in the BA room that Lucy ran, literally, into Marguerite Ducasse.
"Lucy, hi! You weren't on the train, were you?"
Lucy wasn't exactly sure what to say, and she really hated lying to people who trusted her. She decided to avoid the answer all together.
"You and Parker found a place to sit all right, didn't you?"
"Mmmhmmm, we sat with the Belle and Brady, no one else wanted to sit with them," she added rather sadly.
"Really?" Lucy didn't like the sound of it.
"Uh huh, Belle's friends wanted her to sit with them, and the Slytherins wanted Brady back with them, but I think that after being able to spend the whole holiday together, they didn't want to split up yet. And none of the Gryffindors or Slytherins wanted to sit with both of them."
Lucy had a feeling Hermione was going to have her hands full.
"Well, practically none of the Slytherins anyway. Right before I had to go back to the immigration car with everyone else Tabitha and her cousin Lotte came by. Brady knows Lotte a little, and they were still playing cards when I got back."
"Well it's good to know that not everyone is so closed minded now, isn't it?"
Marguerite nodded. "I was on my way to give Parker his deck back anyway, you want to come?'
Images of the wreck she had left her room rose into Lucy's mind. "I can't right now, but I'll catch up with both of you later and you can tell me all about your vacation."
Lucy hadn't gone more than five steps when she heard Marguerite calling from behind her.
"Did you plan it Lucy?"
Lucy turned, "Plan what?"
"With the others, did you plan not to be on the train?"
She shook her head, "What are you talking about, what others?"
Marguerite looked directly at her, an expression of concern in her blue eyes making her look eons older than she was. But then, Lucy remembered, Marguerite seldom looked or acted her age.
"When we were being processed, you weren't there. And they read off the names of others who weren't on the train as well. So I just wanted to know if you planned it, because if you did than I want to know why I..."
Lucy sighed. "You were right, I wasn't on the train. But I'm trying not to spread that around, ok? My roommates all think I was just in another car. And if anyone else from our little assemblage of the persecuted decided not to take the train as well, than they did it on their own. You weren't left out of any sort of organized resistance. We didn't even think of that."
The blond braids bobbed as Marguerite nodded in understanding. "I just wanted to make sure."
"If we ever need to do something I'm sure it will be a group effort Marguerite, when you're in the minority you need all the numbers you can get."
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"Done at last," Lucy closed her trunk and shut her final drawer with a satisfying bang. "I plan on sleeping till dinner, someone get me up," and without waiting for a response, she fell backward onto her bed.
And yelped in pain as her head landed on a small, hard object.
"Que es esto?" She sat up and looked down at the small package she had chucked absentmindedly on the bed earlier in the afternoon.
"Just when I thought I was done unpacking..." she muttered to herself as she removed the brown paper and the bubble cloth surrounding the circular flat object the size of her hand.
It was a mirror. But it took Lucy less than half a second to recognize it as no ordinary mirror. The was a Mirror, a communication Mirror, and a powerful one at that. It was also so old that it could have been used by the Egyptians before the pyramids existed. Where on earth had it come from, and who's was it?
She fell asleep still puzzling over that question, with the mirror clutched in her hand, and she hadn't been dozing nearly long enough when Hermione's voice reached her ears.
"Come on Lucy! Supper! Let's go!"
Muttering several curses in a variety of languages, Lucy carefully wrapped the mirror in bubble cloth and placed it under her pillow before following the girls down to the Great Hall.
She hadn't taken a bite of her food before Seamus slid onto the bench across from her.
** You weren't on the train.**
** I'm fine, Seamus, how was your vacation?**
** You weren't on the train.**
** Could you pass the rolls please?**
** You weren't on the train.**
Deciding it was worth the low risk, since everyone's eyes were on their plates and their friends and because food was moving so quickly anyway, Lucy crossed her arms in front of her chest, stared right into Seamus's steely gaze, and raised a roll from the basket next to him up and over the tray of vegetables to land on her plate.
She was tempted to butter it without using her hands as well but decided that would be a little conspicuous for anyone who was still spying on her, so she picked up her knife and nonchalantly buttered the bread before taking a bite.
"Mmmm, delicious."
Seamus was not amused. But Lucy had absolutely no intention of having this conversation, and especially not here. Her best method for lying as little as possible to her friends while also revealing as little as possible was simply not to talk about certain subjects. Faustas was one. The final days of her vacation was another. He was simply going to have to learn how to play ball.
After about ten minutes of nothing but an angry stare facing her, she decided it was best to try and change the conversation.
"So, did you get your Christmas present?"
Nothing makes a boy brighten up than the opportunity to talk about sports.
"God, I completely forgot. I loved it, thank you."
"Any new designs yet?"
"Nothing radical, I did find a bristle conformation that reduces drag significantly, and there's a charm..."
Lucy smiled as he rattled on. Seamus was a fine Quidditch player, but his chances of making it as a beater in the professional leagues was slim, and he knew it. He was tall and wiry, and most of the pros were heavier than he was. But, fortunately, Seamus's interest in Quidditch as a career didn't center around playing the game at all. He had been, for quite some time, meddling with broom designs. It had begun out of necessity; high quality brooms were expensive and he would always end up with either an old broom or a mediocre one. His best shot at improving maneuverability and speed was to try and fix what he had. And one of the most valuable things Seamus brought to his designs was playing experience. He was a beater now, but in local leagues and summer camps he had played chaser frequently, and occasionally keeper as well. He understood the specific needs of positions, and major flaws that made an otherwise excellent broom perform below its capacity. So Lucy had gone in with Dean and Neville to get him a practically professional quality broom design kit. It had all the basic requirements for broom maintenance and repair, as well as a beautiful set of wood working tools, charming supplies, and "Principles of Flight", a guide to magical aerodynamics.
Seamus must have realized that Lucy had eventually tuned out his technical ramblings, he paused to take another bite and then raised his eyebrows expectantly.
"Well?"
Lucy looked confused, "Well, what?"
"Well, how did you like YOUR present?"
Lucy shook her head, "What are talking about? I didn't get it. I was going to politely forget the fact that you forgot to give it to me and wait patiently until you apologized, but since you brought it up-"
"What do you mean, you didn't get it? I put it inside your trunk myself!"
Lucy paused, set down her fork, and shook her head. "Now, see, there's the problem. I am not someone accustomed to living out of a trunk, and I hardly ever really need more than I pack on the very top, so nothing gets completely unpacked till I get back..." She rubbed the lump on the back of her head. The package.
"The mirror? That was from you!"
Seamus grinned widely at the response. Lucy wasn't usually easily surprised, and when she was she tried not to show it. She got that from being around Hermione, so it was nice to be able to rattle her once and awhile.
"I suppose I should have added a card but-" The look on Lucy's face he saw now wasn't really surprise, it was shock and confusion.
"Lucy..."
She shook her head, to clear it. "Seamus, this is kind of important. Where, in the name of all the little gods, did you find that mirror?"
Seamus was now the one confused. "My grandmother. You remember, the one who thought I could pass for a druid until I grew too tall, it was in her attic. Apparently its been stuffed in there for several generations, but she was the one who found it when she was younger, cleaned it up a bit, put it in the cupboard next to the china. Anyway, she sent it to me as a good luck charm right before mid term exams, she likes to do that, I have several four leaf clovers and a host of other knick knacks, and I thought you might like it more than me, it seemed like your style. Why, what's that face, what's the matter?"
Lucy sighed and shrugged. "You were right."
She shoved her plate toward the middle of the table and watched it disappear, then rose. "Well, are you coming?"
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"So it isn't just a pretty mirror?" Seamus turned the disk over in his hand, running his fingers over the design chiseled into the stone surrounding the mirror. The mirror itself was curious. He had always thought it was age, or dirt, but it was darker, not the crystal clear reflection of ordinary mirrors. But none of Lucy's communication mirrors ever looked like this.
"No, definitely not. This thing is ancient, I don't know how ancient...but, well, look at that stone! That's not ordinary mirror, that is a solid sheet of stone, and the center has been.... I don't know what, changed to reflect."
Lucy flopped down on the sofa, frustrated.
"So, why did my grandmother have it?"
"Why was it here at all? That is an artifact from the Western Circle, a tool of Western magic, and there is no western magic here!"
Her descent into a more perfect mope was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. Ron was standing behind the couch, a box in his hand.
Lucy raised her eyebrow. Ron and her were no longer really enemies, but a present would be downright congenial of him.
He answered the question before she posed it.
"It's from Fred and George. They didn't know how to send it to you for Christmas, and they wanted you to be the first to see them. So, Merry Christmas."
Lucy looked at the box, up to Ron's face, and down to the box again. Opening a package from the Weasley twins was never something to be taken lightly.
"Put it on the floor Ron, please."
Ron shrugged and placed the package at his feet before coming around to the other side of the couch.
Lucy crouched down, peering over the back, and mentally pulled at the paper until it fell away, revealing a plain brown box. Getting that open took a little wand work, but eventually it was open, and Lucy blew the packing away to reveal a small brightly colored box with gold writing.
She burst into laughter and leapt over the sofa to inspect the box and the attached card.
"Lucy: Well, Harry may have given us the money, but you gave us the inspiration, so we thought it only fair that you receive the very first box of Caterwauling Confections. This batch was made especially with you in mind. Hope you aren't behaving yourself, and make good use of them. Merry Christmas! Yours in Irresponsibility, Fred and George"
And indeed, the present was a box of the tricky chocolate peanut butter and caramel cups that compelled the victim to sing whatever song had been charmed into them for as long as the caramel stayed on their teeth. Lucy had given the recipe and associated charm to the twins as a graduation gift the year before. In the top right corner of the blue and white striped box was an American Flag sticker with the gold message "American Edition" in curvy letters. On the back was the list of varieties to be found inside: Born in the USA, The Star Spangled Banner, California Girls, Home on the Range, Sweet Home Alabama, and New York, New York.
She passed it over to a bemused Ron and Seamus. Ron rolled his eyes, "I knew they were up to something. They kept trying to feed me sweets all summer. I think Mum was almost relieved when they left."
"Where did they go?"
"They're interning at the Mad Max's Magical Modern Marvels corporation, learning the ropes of business, they already have a spot in Diagon Ally that looks promising for a store. They keep sending Mum letters making her think they are on the brink of starvation, so she keeps sending them food. Of course, Dad looks in on them every so often, and says they're fine. Never mentions it to Mum though."
Lucy grinned. "That was sweet of them to remember. I ought to send some to-" She stopped herself a little to late. Part of the story she was supposed to give was that she had no idea where Diego was. She grinned sheepishly and gathered up the box and the wrapping. "I ought to send myself up to my room to get some sleep." She snatched up the mirror and was up the stairs to her room before Seamus and Ron could say another word.
"She's acting strange."
Ron scoffed, "She IS strange Seamus, or is that just now sinking in? Come on, she had a good idea for once."
Seamus shook his head as they headed upstairs. "No, stranger than usual. She's hiding something."
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Hogwarts teachers were notorious for grinding into their students at the start of the second term, almost as if they resented the holiday time spent at rest when they could have been learning. As a result, the first week back from vacation made it abundantly clear that they were on vacation no more. The work load was incredible, especially for the six and seventh years.
Lucy remembered sixth year potions from her punishment last year. This year was no better. She hadn't joined the class until later in the term, so she wasn't going to be any better off than the rest of her classmates for quite some time. And her relationship with Professor Snape was no better than it had been right before she threw the cauldron at him that had gotten her the punishment in the first place.
Lucy would always hate Snape, it was something that she had come to accept. Unlike the students that resented him and his difficult class, Lucy hated Snape on a much more personal level, and he had done nothing to redeem himself in her eyes. As a result, as they launched into the much more practically intensive half of the year, she spent most of the time she wasn't preparing ingredients or working staring straight at him. Diego had also taught her a beautiful little mind trick that made the victim FEEL like they were being watched, even when they weren't. Since it didn't require invading Snape's thoughts nor did it put him at any real risk, Lucy felt it was a completely viable form of retaliation. It was driving him crazy, but there was no way he could possibly pin it on her. This was, in addition, of course, to the multitude of sundry lies she told all during class about her vacation and the circle, knowing full well that Severus Snape was listening to every word.
It was while she was trying to fillet a needlefish that Lucy heard:
**Lucy, don't cut the head off, you need the eyes. Just fillet up to the gills and scrape out the gut.**
She turned her head to see Bet Tsepish staring at her intently from across the isle. She did as she said and added the smelly bit of fish to the bubbling cauldron, watching it turn from a brownish mixture to a deep black.
** Thanks. And you've been practicing, that was very clear.**
** I know, we need to have a meeting soon.**
** Of course we will, any reason to rush?**
** Well... I'm not sure.**
** What is it?**
** On Christmas morning, I looked out the window, and I saw my grandparents coming up the road.**
** They're not dead or anything are they?**
** No, but they were still seven kilometers away.**
Lucy nearly sliced her finger off. Lavender and Parvati gave her a Look and took away her knife, setting her to shelling the snow queen peas instead.
** Really?**
** Uh huh, and now I get these pictures in my head, on and off, in front of my normal vision, of places far away. Some I've never been to.**
** You're right, we need to have a meeting.**
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Unfortunately, the BA wasn't the only group to call a meeting. Lucy was waylaid by Warren Lane as soon as she got in from potions. The tall boy pulled her into a window nook and kept his voice low.
"You didn't take the train, did you?"
Lucy raised her eyebrows, "I don't know what-"
"Lucy, it's ok! Wesley, William and I didn't take it either!"
"What!"
"Shhh, keep your voice down."
"Sorry, how...."
"We stayed in Hogsmeade at the Inn. Hopped on the back of one of the carriages when they passed by and entered just like everyone else."
"So you didn't go through the paperwork either?"
"Nope. And its not just us. I know that Alessandra and Karen weren't there either, rumor is it that the Kornakovitch kids were missing in action as well. And if Karen wasn't on the train than her sister Audrey probably wasn't either."
Lucy saw where he was going. "So how many of us do you think defected?"
Warren shrugged, "Can't be sure exactly. We haven't heard from the other houses, but with you that makes over half the Gryffindors, and I'm betting that a lot of the Slytherins dodged the ministry as well."
"Why do you think them?"
"Because they're Slytherins and they want to show that they can. The Ravenclaws hate breaking the rules, but they'll do it if they felt it was on principle. I'm not sure about the Hufflepuffs, but theirs was the smallest group anyway."
Lucy nodded, "So how many would you guess?"
"Right now, I'd say between twenty to twenty five."
There had been a little over sixty people in the room on Halloween. Lucy nearly choked.
"That's almost a half!"
Warren grinned, "I know."
Lucy shook her head, "No, this is BAD Warren. I mean, if it was a few of us we could slip through the system, but twenty five! They're going to notice, and they're going to look harder, and then the dragon droppings are going to hit the ventilation spell, to put it in familiar terms."
Warren put his hands on her shoulders. "Calm down, Montero. Listen, we can handle this. The important thing is to find out who we are, and to get our story straight. Our numbers are our best protection. They can't expell all of us, or throw us in prison, or whatever they do to people who don't get their paperwork checked. But we have to have the same story, or then they can start picking us off."
"Yeah, and I wonder who they're going to go for first."
Warren raised his eyebrow.
"The pictures, Warren, remember? The ones you showed me, when you were telling me NOT to rock the boat? And now you want to go and capsize it! Well apparently they already don't like me, now they have a real reason! If they are going to make an example out of someone, who do you think it is going to be?"
Now she was upset. She was supposed to be flying LOW on the radar, keeping her head down, and her ears and deceitful little mouth open. Being hauled up on charges was NOT in the plans.
Warren's face softened, "Hey, listen, everything is going to be fine. Everyone had that guy following them Lucy, not just you. There's no reason to think that they are after you specifically. Maybe I overemphasized that because we thought if we played along this would all go away. I'm sorry if I scared you. But it hasn't gone away, and no one is going to stop it unless we do something, all right? You're with us, we're not going to let them sacrifice you."
She wanted to believe him, wanted to be able to put her whole life in the Aussie's large, strong hands, so she forced a smile and nodded. But even as he patted her on the shoulder and told her the time and place of the meeting, she was busy trying to figure out how this was going to work into the fabricated story she was supposed to be passing off as her life.
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It was late that night when Faustas, making use of the clever shutters that the girls had bought Lucy last year, which had been re-installed in the bedroom window, carefully crept in and along the post of the bed right next to the window, Lucy's. Then, quite unceremoniously, he dropped a scroll on her head and left. The thunk of the heavy seal connecting with her forehead woke her, and she stared mystified at the document before pulling out her wand so she could see.
She could see nothing, at least at first. Then, as she ran her fingers over the paper, symbols began to appear. It was the Machu Pichu code. As she murmured the words to descramble the message, letters began to appear. It was Quechua, and as she read it she still understood nothing. Then she remembered what Sofia had said about using her ring. She turned her right hand over and ran the band along a line of text.
"To Lucille Montero of Espiritu, Hogwarts School, Britain."
So that was how to crack to code. She read on a detailed account of the High Council minutes. The poor representatives were still in Mexico, on account of the most alarming occurrences being reported even as they sat from distant schools.
Lucy read on.
A sickness seemed to be coming over the community. Nothing of body, but of mind. It was as if the very energy they were being trained to use, was slowly poisoning them.
Three small schools, located very closed together in the wilds of Siberia had succumbed. They found the only recourse was to cease their studies and actively shield themselves from the energy lines running under the school. Fortunately they did not sit upon a node, a vast underground pool of immense energy and power, but the results were serious enough. Channels burned raw by use of the energy may not be capable of use again once the students have recovered. Similar effects were being seen at another school several miles to the east, and an evacuation to Nepal would be underway soon.
Lucy read on with detached disinterest in the rest of the reports being given from the Amazon school system, and mechanically re-sealed the scroll with the imprint of the Masters Ring to verify that she had received the document. That seemed to be all that was necessary, and the scroll shrunk to a much smaller size, very convenient for hiding, although the possibility of anyone being able to break the code was very unlikely. She put the miniature scroll under her pillow for safe keeping until she could transfer it to Asriel's workroom. Faustas seemed to think his work was done and departed through the window. Lucy put sleep off long enough to close the window while still snuggled up in her bed. Once the latch fell down, she was out.
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The meeting of the international students was Wednesday afternoon. Lucy was planning on telling Hermione, so she wouldn't get worried if she wasn't at dinner and draw more attention to Lucy's absence, but the bushy haired girl was nowhere to be found. Lucy wondered why she was surprised by this; Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been up to something all year, and whatever it was wasn't making them happy.
The results of the whole affair weren't terribly helpful. And it was worse than Warren had predicted. With the affirmation that Nicholas and Svetlana had indeed jumped ship with the rest of them, that made a total of eight defecting Gryffindors. Karen's sister Audrey, along with Sergei Petrov, Aysha Doman, Lukas Getman, Mikhail Fedorov, and Magda Sclafani brought the Ravenclaw total to six. As suspected, Lorenzo Costanzo, Gisella Trifiro, Maeve Abrahms, and Leigh Rapkin were the only Hufflepuffs to take the risk. But what really put the tally over the edge were the Slytherins. Misha Grigorev, Katya Kuzmin, Dimitri Chernyshev, Sasha Yudin, Vladimir Petrenko, Costanzo Rossetti, Lesley Arong, Mai Setsuko, Saori Mitsuya, and Kentaro and Koji Tsujimoto brought the total number of delinquent international students to 29.
Lucy massaged her temples as she made her way along the halls towards Asriel's workroom. The BA meeting was going to take place right after dinner, so she had a few moments to get some last minute work done, more if she skipped the meal all together. But the events of the afternoon continued to replay themselves in her mind.
"We couldn't have found someplace warmer Warren, my toes are going to fall off!"
"No one is going to be out here, and there are several ways to get back, so it won't look like we all came at once."
"IF we make it back, I'm about ready to die right now. And to think we were at the beach not so long ago..."
Lucy had grinned and drawn her cloak tighter about her. The "meeting place" was outside around the back of the school at the base of one of the tower walls, facing the lake. There were fewer windows on this side, and all were shuttered against the wind that blew off the water forcing the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs to huddle together in a circle; crowded into the nook where the curving tower met the flat of the long wall, and provided a little shelter.
The Slytherins were late. As the Lanes bickered Mikhail and Gisella watched to the left and right, waiting for the tardy members to come around one side of the castle.
So it was to everyone's surprise when the 11 students approached from directly opposite the wall they were huddled around. No one even saw them until Misha made a comment about the location that made everyone jump.
"How did they do that".... Lucy heard Magda mutter to Lorenzo, but she quickly grew quiet as they realized just how many the Slytherins were. Every single one of them, right down to first year Sasha Yudin, had refused to comply with the Ministry's regulations. Lucy groaned quietly as she felt her chances of staying out of trouble and keeping a low profile slipping farther from her grasp.
Audrey shrugged, "Well, we needed someplace that no one in there right mind would choose hang out near."
"Well, you certainly got what you wanted," Dimitri muttered.
Gisella sighed and pulled her hat down farther over her ears, "Maybe we better get this done as fast as possible."
"I still don't understand why we all had to meet in the first place. I don't understand the big deal."
Before anyone could respond to Dimitri's comment Katya slapped him up the side of the head. "That's because you never listen. I TOLD you we weren't going to just get away with this. Everyone seems to realize there is going to be some kind of repercussion but you, you stupid ox."
She couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. She found she wasn't the only one. Aysha, Svetlana, Alessandra, Magda, Sasha, practically all the girls couldn't help but laugh at the fuming look on Dimitri's face. Katya grinned and crossed her arms in a most satisfied manner.
"Well," Maeve began, as she collected herself, "We thought we at least ought to decide what we were going to do. You know, how we want the Ministry to treat us."
"How about just like everybody else?" Kojo offered.
"I don't know if that's still a possibility, mate."
Lucy shook her head, "Doesn't any of what they are doing violate our civil rights?"
She met a circle of blank faces, and reality dawned on her, "Oh, I forgot, we don't have any of those, do we?"
Misha shook his head. "There has never been any sort of Bill of Rights for resident aliens within the Ministry."
"What about outside of it?"
"Most of us never deal with the embassy's. Too much paperwork to forge to get an actual student VISA."
"We're screwed."
"Not if we had rights," William volunteered.
"How?"
"We'd have to get some sort of law passed that guaranteed us protection from discrimination. That forced the ministry to treat us the same as they would treat any Hogwarts student." Audrey mused.
"An amnesty act," Lukas nodded, "amnesty for international Hogwarts students. Any investigation of the Ministry's into international threats would be forced to leave us alone if we were at Hogwarts."
"Immunity," Kentaro added, "We would have to be granted immunity."
"Wouldn't that give us the ability to commit all sorts of crimes? They would never agree to it," Wesley shook his head.
"No," Lucy was beginning to think the idea had promise, "because if we were at Hogwarts we would automatically be under the control of Dumbledore. And if he really thinks we were involved in something, he could expel us."
"And if we were no longer enrolled we would lose our immunity/amnesty thing and the Ministry could prosecute us." Warren concluded triumphantly. "That's fair enough."
"Especially if there was some sort of department among the Ministry's foreign embassies that would be able to help accused prepare a defense, so they couldn't just railroad us into prison."
"A department to protect the civil liberties of resident alien wizards." Misha grinned, "We don't ask for little things now, do we?"
Lesley looked skeptical, "So how are we going to get them?"
How indeed, Lucy reflected as she sank onto one of the padded benches and began to go over the abstract of her first Master's thesis; due in a little less than ten days. They had all agreed that if questioned they would claim to have met in London and taken the Hogsmeade train or the Floo network to the fireplace in the basement of the Three Broomsticks. You could get right from the cellar up to the street there, so that would explain if no one had seen them. They had then waited for the Hogwarts Express to arrive the next day and slipped in among the rest of the returning students and grabbed a few coaches back to the castle.
It wasn't a perfect story, but it would do. Getting the Ministry to do the rest of what they wanted was going to take careful planning. Lucy tried to forget about that as she carefully went over her proofs, her experiment results, and the carefully worded conclusions she had drawn, as well as the portion on how this would funnel into her next thesis.
She was about to doze off when at glance at her watch told her she was going to be late for the BA meeting. She hastily reset the wards as she left and dashed through the halls towards the bathroom entrance. Her work, it seemed, was never done.