Chapter six

Crys opened her eyes slowly. Saturday. Finnally, a day to relax and just go shopping. Shopping! what time is it? She glanced at the watch that never left her wrist. The tiny silver hands read 10:23. She slammed her eyes shut before rolling out of her bed, dressing quickly, and running downstairs. Again.

She ran up to the other three in the Entrance Hall.

"S-sorry," she panted, "Slept in."

"It's alright," Hermione smiled at her lightly, "Harry only got here five minutes ago anyway."

Ron nodded his head in agreement.

"Because someone," She turned on Ron, "Didn't have sense enough to wake him up."

"You didn't wake Crys up." he glared down at her as she glared right back up.

"I didn't know she was coming until twenty minutes ago when you told me." she raised her eyebrows at him triumphantly.

"Well!" Harry broke them up, "now that everyone's here, we can leave. Right?"

The other three nodded as they walked out the front doors of the castle onto the fresh, green, soon-to-be-dead-and-covered-in-snow grass.

Hermione and Crys both stood with their hands on their hips watching Harrry and Ron run off towards the Qudditch supply store like little boys. Hermione shook her head and turned to Crys.

"So," she said awkwardly, "Do you want to go get coffee or something?"

"Sure." Crys said, and they walked off towards a nearby coffee shop.

They both sat down and when their coffee was poured they sipped it slowly, waiting for the other to speak first.

"So, Crys," Hermione said, "I was wondering if you would help me out with this thing."

"Thing?"

"Yeah. It's called the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. It's a really great group. We're fighting to free the house elves. Did you know that they've been enslaved for centuries, but no one, before me, has tried to help them? It's absolutely ridiculous. these poor magical creatures are forced to work..." Hermione continued her usual speech while Crystal sat silently and sipped her coffee, nodding now and then.

When she finished Crys spoke softly, "You know Hermione," she glanced at her cautiously, "The house elves like being enslaved. It's what they were meant to do. It's their role on-"

"Wait." Hermione interrupted, "This is what everyone says, but that doesn't make it right. These poor things have no choice!"

"It's their destiny, Hermione. It's like us."

"Us?" Hermione looked at Crystal, on the verge of being offended.

"Well," Crys said quieter now, so that Hermione had to lean in a few inches to hear her, "It's like us as muggle-borns. 'Pure-bloods' think we shouldn't be allowed to do magic just because our parents weren't magical people. But we know we are meant to do this. You are the top of our class, almost our entire school. It's destiny, Hermione."

This particular statement seemed to have struck something deep inside Hermione because she looked deep in thought. She didn't speak for a moment.

"Now you know what would be really revolutionary?" Crystal broke the silence, "A society for Werewolves." Hermione looked up from the sugar bowl, "They are just wizards with a certain 'time of the month.' okay not quite the same, but it's nature, something they can't help and they're mistreated for it." the glint started to return to Hermione's eye, "We could call it the Protection and Awareness of Werewolves Society, or something."

Hermione pondered for a moment.

"Yeah," she said, "I like it. We should get started soon. We can make badges by Monday and start getting people to join, I think more might join this one because a lot of people really liked Professor Lupin. People might actually support this!" She stood up. "I'm going to go get some materials now."

She didn't even wait for Crys, she just ran off down the street, a bit more inspired than Crystal had intended. Right past Harry and Ron, who looked at her questioningly but she just shook her head and ran past. They shrugged and walked up to Crys, who was paying for the coffee.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked her.

"Don't know." she responded.

"Liar." he said back to her.

"So?" she looked up at him. She was at least half a foot shorter than him but she still stood her ground and looked as though she might win. She increased her level of threat by standing on her tip-toes, raising her almost a whole inch. Ron didn't flinch. Neither did Crys. Harry rolled his eyes at them.

No one had any idea how this would end. Then they heard a woman scream from the street. Both Ron and Crystal's heads turned towards the door and the three of them all ran out into the street to see what was going on.

When they finnally reached the main road they saw Ginny standing in the middle of the road, facing Dean, looking scared and angry, covered from head to toe in mud. Ron's jaw dropped Harry looked confused. Crystal's hand flew to her mouth. They all started towards the couple at the same time.

Crys ran to Ginny's side keeping her eyes on Dean as Harry and Ron defensively pulled him off to the side of the road in one rough motion. Harry pinned him against the side of a building as Ron started yelling at Dean. Ginny's eyes widened at her brother and she ran over to him. Crys followed.

"Ron!" Ginny yelled, "Don't you dare hurt him! Stay away!" she screamed at her fuming brother as his fist swung back before reversing and coming into contact with the side of Dean's face. His eyes flickered with anger but he didn't make any move to resist at all.

"Ron!" she screamed even more angrily. She ran up to her boyfriend and tenderly touched his bruised face. He pulled away.

Ron pushed Ginny out of the way and started to take another swing but Crys ran up behine him and grabbed his arm. He swung around to face her.

"What the hell are you doing!" he yelled at her.

"What the hell are you doing!" she said to him.

He struggled with to free his wrist but her grip was tight and he didn't want to hurt her. Her eyes flashed with a million emotions at once. The most prominant was fear. But she didn't back down. She makes a point to never back down.

She wouldn't let him break eye contact. She stared into his brown eyes intensely.

Behind him Ginny had managed to make Harry let Dean go and Dean had stormed off angrily. She had started after him but Harry had grabbed her and wouldn't let her go after him.

"Harry! Let me go!" she struggled to free herself form his grasp.

"No! Are you mad! Look what he did to you!" he protested.

"He didn't do this to me!" she defended her boyfriend, "I tripped."

Harry reached over and wiped the mud from her face. She flinched.

"You're bruised." he said calmly to her, "You did not fall."

"What!" Ron spun around, dragging Crys with him. She started to fall but he caught her. They both stared at Ginny expectently.

"I'm not lying to you!" she screamed and broke free of Harry's grasp, running towards Hogwarts after Dean.

Harry rubbed his face with his now muddy hands and looked at Ron. The seriousness of the moment was paused for a second when Harry's eyebrows raised at the fact that Crys was still in Ron's arms. He smirked at them. Ron's ears went red. Crys just straighted up and brushed off her jeans.

"Well," she started to the boys, "I should probably go find Hermione."

"We'll go back to the castle." Ron said glancing slyly at Harry, "We'll meet you later." Harry nodded.

"No you won't!" she snapped, "You are not going back there where Ginny and Dean are. You let them sort this out on their own."

"Sort what out?" Hermione came up behind them, a small tin box in her hands "Why are you all so muddy?"

They told her what had happened in the last fifteen mintues and her eyes widened with every word. No one spoke after they finished. They all walked slowly back to Hogwarts silently. They went to their dorms without a word and didn't speak to anyone until they were all lost in dreams of mud and bruises and anger, two of the dreamers awoke with the image in another in their heads. Shock had held them together, and that was only just enough to spark the imagination. But all it takes is a spark to start a flame. They awoke in the early morning, covered in sweat, not sure what to feel about the upcoming tutoring session.