Chapter One Hundred and Nine: Perfect Teamwork

They made their way over to the gargoyle behind which were the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

"Should we all go up?" Hermione wondered.

"Should be fine, I think," Harry said. "I mean, no use pretending like you aren't in the loop, right?" He turned to the gargoyle and said, "Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans."

The gargoyle came to life and jumped aside, and the four of them ascended the spiral staircase. Harry knocked on the door.

"Come in," Dumbledore said from the other side.

"Harry! I had not expected you today. You are in luck; I was just about to head out," Dumbledore said when they entered. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, sir, I've had…not necessarily a vision, but a feeling," Daphne said. "And that feeling basically says that…you will not survive Malfoy's next attempt to kill you, although he won't be the one that does it."

If the news caused Dumbledore any alarm, he was certainly able to hide it well. If possible, Daphne actually thought his smile became just a bit wider.

"I see," he said. "And have you seen when this might occur?"

Daphne shook her head. "No, sir, but we felt we should warn you, at least. In all fairness, we don't really know how accurate the premonition was, but…it felt very true, regardless," she said.

Dumbledore considered that for a moment. "I see," he said again after a moment. "I think it was wise to inform me. However, I think it's safe for me to say that Draco Malfoy's plan, whatever it may turn out to be, will not cause my death. Professor Snape will see to that, I'm sure."

"Sir…Malfoy didn't seem very eager to tell Snape–"

"Professor Snape, Harry."

"Right, Professor Snape, then, what his plan was," Harry said. "How will he be able to stop it?"

Dumbledore's smile now widened more obviously. "I have full confidence in Professor Snape, Harry. He will see to it that everything goes as it must. Incidentally, Harry, have you managed to obtain Professor Slughorn's memory yet? I was planning on having another lesson, soon, and I hope I needn't remind you of the importance of that particular memory."

Harry shook his head. "Not yet, sir. I attempted to persuade Professor Slughorn, but he didn't want to tell me. I was planning to try again with the help of some Felix Felicis, actually," he said.

Dumbledore nodded. "That should work, I believe. Can I assume, then, that by the time of our next lesson, you will have obtained it?" he asked.

Harry nodded tentatively. "I hope so, Professor."

"Good. In that case, I think it's time for me to get going. Once again, thank you for bringing your concerns to me. It might not outwardly seem like it, but I really do appreciate it," Dumbledore said, looking pointedly at Harry and Daphne in particular.

Harry seemed to pick up on it and said, "Thank you, sir. Good luck with…whatever you're going to do."

"Thank you, Harry. And you with retrieving that memory…though with Felix Felicis, I daresay you will have all the luck you'll need."

They left the office, and soon they were back in the hallway.

"He didn't seem surprised at all," Ron said incredulously.

"Well, if Snape is tailing Malfoy he might already know more than he lets on," Hermione said.

"There's definitely more to it than what he told us," Daphne agreed. "But it was pretty clear he didn't want us interfering, and I honestly don't know how we even could. Maybe if Nott can find out what Malfoy actually intends to do, we can give Dumbledore more to work with, but for the time being, I think we should lie low. Frustrating as it is, we've done all we can for now…except getting that memory," she finished with a look at Harry, who nodded.

"I know. I'm going to take the Felix straight after dinner and then it shouldn't be a problem anymore." He grimaced. "I honestly wanted to save it for, I don't know, the actual fight with Voldemort, in the end…but I think using some of it for this is equally important, considering how much value Dumbledore seems to put on it."

Despite her calm words, Daphne didn't have a good feeling about the conversation they'd just had. When Dumbledore had mentioned Snape, she'd recalled the cryptic message Snape had given her earlier in the year: It was planned. She still didn't know what it actually meant, but the words were so laden with significance that it was hard to put them out of her mind entirely, especially now.

That evening, she filled in Ginny as well.

"And he wasn't worried about it?" she asked.

Daphne shook her head. "No. He actually seemed…I don't know, happy? I think his smile got a bit bigger, anyway, when I told him…"

Ginny shook her head. "He is too mysterious for his own good…I mean, we still don't know what happened to his hand, either."

"He'll probably tell Harry at some point, and then we'll know as well," Daphne said, though she wasn't sure if she believed that.

Dumbledore seemed to have become paradoxically more secretive than ever, despite telling Harry more than he'd ever done before. It didn't take a genius to figure out that something big was coming, but it was more than Daphne's Divination told her to find out what it was going to be.

Using Felix Felicis, Harry had managed to obtain the memory from Slughorn. By playing up Slughorn's affections for his mother — what was it with Harry's mother and Potions teachers? — he'd been able to convince a very reluctant Slughorn to part with the memory the very evening they'd warned Dumbledore of the potential danger. As Dumbledore was still on his journey, however, Harry now kept the flask containing the memory with his Felix Felicis in his trunk, so nothing could happen to it.

As there was now truly nothing else to do but wait, they resumed their preparations with the Order, as well as getting ready for the next Quidditch match of the season, which would be against Hufflepuff.

Since Smith had done the commentary during the previous match, and had filled it with snide remarks despite still being a member of the Order of the Lightning Bolt, all of Gryffindor — and by far most of the Order — were looking forward to seeing Hufflepuff get slaughtered.

According to both Harry and Ginny, they fully intended to keep the zero again on their end, which put a lot of pressure on Ron. Hermione thought they were being a bit unfair about it, or so she'd told Daphne privately while the others were at practice, but Ron himself seemed determined to come through for his team, especially since he, too, wanted to show Smith up in the most spectacular way possible.

Since Daphne would love to see Smith getting humiliated, she was actually just as eager for the match as her friends were for a change, and Adrian and Terence would join them, both wanting to see what kind of spectacular tricks Harry would've prepared with his team this time, and Adrian hoping that Hufflepuff would lose worse than Slytherin had just to save face.

Hermione was incredibly tense when they took their places for the match, and Daphne noted with some glee that the entire Hufflepuff team seemed a bit nervous as well. The Gryffindors, on the other hand, simply radiated confidence. Even Ron didn't look nearly as green as he usually did before a match.

Then, the game started, and Daphne was surprised to hear that Luna, of all people, was doing the commentary, which caused a lot of hilarity among the crowd, as she didn't really know any of the players who weren't also in the Order, and thus constantly mixed up their names, in addition to going on tangents that had nothing whatsoever to do with Quidditch.

The Gryffindor team, however, seemed deaf to everything and were rapidly and efficiently racking up goals.

Daphne saw Harry looking everywhere as he swirled, looped, and dived around everyone else, helping his Chasers while disrupting the Hufflepuffs. At multiple points, he went for direct confrontations with the Hufflepuff Seeker, who knew better than to try and outfly Harry and simply backed off whenever this happened.

The moment Gryffindor scored to make it two hundred and ninety to zero, however, Harry immediately went into a dive and plucked the Snitch from the air.

"That bastard," Terence said, shaking his head but grinning nonetheless. "He spotted the Snitch ages ago, he just waited for the score to be higher than it was against Slytherin before grabbing it. I saw him; he never even took his eyes off it. Every time he went to block Hufflepuff's Seeker it was because he wanted to prevent him from spotting the Snitch himself. I can pretty safely say that this is about the biggest humiliation you can inflict on a team."

Daphne now grinned widely as well. She was sure that all the Quidditch players in attendance had seen what Terence had, and she could see Harry apologizing to most of the Hufflepuff team while grinning at Smith, who looked extremely angry, possibly because Coote and Peakes had sent every Bludger specifically his way.

Once again, she realized that the Sorting Hat had probably been pretty on-point when it had offered Harry a place in Slytherin, if he was willing to go this far to humiliate someone. Then again, Smith was often so annoying that even a literal saint would've lost patience with him at some point.

"You were enjoying yourself, then, weren't you?" Daphne asked once Harry, Ginny, and Ron had gotten changed.

"Immensely," Harry confirmed. "I'm so proud of this entire team." He was absolutely beaming, as were Ginny and Ron.

"I imagine that score is enough to take the Cup outright?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "It probably is, but I fully intend to keep the zero against Ravenclaw as well, and for that one I'm not going to wait if I happen to spot the Snitch. Not that I could, anyway, as Cho is too good as a Seeker to intimidate her with simple tricks like this."

"Y'know, mate, I think I'm beginning to see why Snape thinks you're a bit arrogant," Ron said with a smirk.

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, but this is the one thing I'm really, really good at, and I've had fantastic training in it for years, and I have a better broom than anyone else here. Yeah, I enjoy showing off at Quidditch, I admit it."

"And in duels, don't forget those," Daphne added.

"Yes, but to a lesser degree. With dueling, it's really more about staying unharmed, for me," Harry said. "I mean, I enjoy doing it, but there's always this thought in the back of my mind that it's preparation for a real fight. Quidditch doesn't have that, so I can just…cut loose."

"Well, you certainly did," Ginny said with a smirk. "They had no idea how to defend against us. I almost felt sorry every time I scored…almost."

"The next Order meeting is going to be fun, isn't it?" Daphne asked.

Harry, Ginny, and Ron gave each other a look and burst out laughing.

The next Order meeting was, indeed, a lot of fun. Smith couldn't stop glaring at the Gryffindor Quidditch players, though some of the other players — who had joined the Order at the start of the year — were full of praise for Gryffindor's performance in the match.

Since most people were now quite good at using all the spells that they'd been practicing, the session itself was focused on a simulation, of which the objective was to still be 'alive' at the end of it. Harry, Daphne, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were playing Dark wizards and witches — none of them wanted to use the name 'Death Eaters', even in a mock battle — and everyone else was free to do whatever they wanted, including hindering or even betraying others.

Of course, the real objective was to come together as a group to fight the Dark wizards, but Harry hadn't told that to anyone, expecting them to figure out for themselves that, with everyone united against five bad guys, even if those bad guys were more skilled individually, they would have a good chance of winning.

At the start of the game, however, everyone was split up, while the bad guys weren't. Harry had also asked the Room for a clock. Once it ran out, the good guys would win automatically.

Daphne had to admit that, with the Room transformed once again into a maze resembling city streets, including 'buildings' for people to hide in, walking around carefully with her wand drawn was incredibly tense, even when backed up by her friends.

In their minds, of course, they were the ones hunting down Dark wizards, and that notion made Daphne quite nervous even though she was better in a duel than almost everyone there.

It was clear Harry had taught everyone well, because the first few minutes went by without them encountering anyone at all.

"Maybe we should scare them a bit," Harry said. They had Muffliato cast around them so they could speak freely, and most other people had probably done the same.

"How?" Ginny asked.

"Cast Reducto at some walls, kick in some doors, maybe," Harry said.

"Kicking in doors is fine, but Reducto could hurt people," Hermione said.

Harry nodded. "That's true. Just kicking down the doors, then…"

Without waiting for a reaction, he walked up to the nearest door and kicked it open, quickly throwing himself around the corner to avoid any possible counterattacks…and indeed, a jet of red light flew by and hit the wall on the opposite side of the 'street'.

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled, firing diagonally across the room.

He hit nothing, but Daphne saw a blur moving in another corner and quickly fired a Stunner of her own at it. The Disillusioned person wasn't ready and sank to the ground.

"D'you think there's anyone else in here?" she asked.

"I'll check it out," Ron said, and he fired Impediment Jinxes toward all corners of the room. Nothing moved, other than the 'furniture', chairs and a table made of a soft, foamy material.

"Okay, let's go in to see who we got… Ginny, can you keep a lookout?"

They entered the room, and Ginny took up position near the door.

The Stunned person on the floor was still Disillusioned, and it was only after Hermione had cast the counterspell that Daphne saw it was Colin Creevey.

Harry pointed his wand at Colin and said, "Rennervate!"

Colin stirred and blinked sleepily. "Ah," he said when he realized what had happened. "I lost…"

"You did a good job, though," Harry said kindly. "You were quick to react and your Disillusionment Charm was good. You were just unlucky that we had more people. You can either stay here or go back to the entrance until we're done. Just don't tell anyone where we are; you're 'dead' after all."

Colin smiled. "Don't worry, Harry, I won't cheat. Good to know what I need to work on! Good luck!"

It went much the same with other people for the early part of the test, with Daphne and the others running into lone people and defeating them, but soon they began to face more organized resistance and the fights became more difficult and more drawn-out, which eventually led to Daphne and Ginny being separated from the others after a well-executed ambush by S.I.N.

Both of them ran through the narrow streets and alleys the Room had conjured up, firing Stunners at anything that seemed to move. It was eerily quiet around them; the foamy ground meant to keep people from hurting themselves also muffled any footsteps, and Homenum Revelio did little to help, as Harry had taught everyone Homenum Abscondo as a countermeasure, and it was being employed liberally.

In a 'real' situation, Daphne would probably have suggested hiding, but since they were the attackers in the game, hiding would mean they would lose, regardless.

"We need to find the others," she said, once she and Ginny had entered a building through an open door and made sure no one was waiting for them there.

Ginny nodded. "Do you think they're still 'alive'?" she asked.

"They can take care of themselves," Daphne said confidently. "And I don't think Tracey and the others will fight them head-on, anyway, so unless they got taken out immediately, S.I.N. has probably retreated for now."

"Wouldn't they come after us, then, since there's only two of us?" Ginny asked.

Daphne nodded. "Probably. But that's fine; we need to take care of them, anyway…we don't have a lot of time left. We'll need to start taking some risks, I think."

She thought for a moment. "How about I Disillusion myself and then follow you at a distance? You're faster than me, so you'll be able to react if they attack you. If we're lucky, they won't spot me and we'll be able to take them out before they tell anyone what we're doing," she said.

Ginny considered that. "Yeah, why not. I'll be bait," she said. Then, with a grin, she added, "All our speeches about not sacrificing yourself are finally beginning to work, huh?"

Daphne grinned back and Disillusioned herself, then waited for Ginny to leave the room. A few seconds later, she followed. Ginny was pretty convincing in acting like she was alone, and she proceeded very cautiously.

It didn't take long for her to come under attack, however, and Daphne scanned around, also looking at the windows above. Ginny did a good job deflecting and avoiding the spells shot at her, and Daphne was able to fire her own Stunner at the culprit, who crumpled in the windowsill.

Daphne quickly dashed away, rounding a corner after Ginny to make sure any returned spells wouldn't hit her, but nothing came.

Daphne kept following Ginny, who had now reached the end of an alley which opened up into an open square. She glanced upward, where the magical projection of the clock told her there were five minutes left.

Daphne crept up behind her and whispered, "We have to risk it."

Ginny nodded almost imperceptibly and took a deep breath. Then she dashed forward, heading for the cover of some foam trees in the middle of the square. Almost immediately spells began to rain down on her from the windows above, but she was light on her feet and reached the trees without getting hit, where she threw up a Shield Charm and crouched low, out of sight.

Daphne, meanwhile, began to fire spells at the windows she'd seen light coming from, trying to draw away the attention of as many people as she could without completely revealing herself. She jogged around the edge of the square, changing direction randomly and firing spells whenever she saw something move. Occasionally, she saw Ginny firing spells as well, from the cover of the trees.

Daphne glanced at the clock. Less than three minutes remained, and they were nowhere near done… It looked like there were a good five or six people at least, and she had no idea where Harry, Hermione, and Ron were, if they were even still in the game. She shot a Stunner up at one someone in one of the windows, who'd just fired a spell at Ginny, but had hit the tree instead.

Daphne decided to risk getting hit, moving toward the center of the square just to get a better look at her surroundings. Just when she was almost there, she suddenly knew a spell was about to hit Ginny, even through her Shield Charm.

She turned and dashed forward, taking a huge leap and shouted "Protego!" even as she threw herself into the empty space next to Ginny. There was a red flash of light, and everything went dark…

"And here I thought you'd learned to not sacrifice yourself," were the first words Daphne heard when she woke up.

She groaned and sat up, surrounded by the rest of the Order. Ginny was grinning at her, as were Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

"The game's over, then?" Daphne asked.

Harry nodded. "Yep. We lost. Ron, Hermione, and you went down, and Ginny and I were still 'alive' when the timer ran out."

"I wouldn't have been for much longer," Ginny said. "I could see Tracey and Adrian closing in and there was no way I could've fought surrounded on all sides, not with Daphne already down."

Harry nodded. "I was in trouble, too. I couldn't be surrounded, but in the end, I would surely have been overwhelmed because I literally had my back to the wall after Ron and Hermione were defeated."

He got up and addressed the entire Order. "Great job, everyone," he said. "You all worked together and managed to defeat us, in the end. You've seen here that together you can succeed where individually you might not. For all our sakes, I hope we'll never have to do this for real — but if we do, I have faith that all of you will do well. Alright, I think that's everything for tonight… Next time, roles are reversed, and all of you will need to find and defeat us before time runs out. As usual, I'll let you know when it'll be."

"Are you just training your closest friends and using us as cannon fodder?" Smith asked.

"Certainly not cannon fodder, no," Harry said. "But I won't deny that I'm deliberately putting the five of us together. See, there will be a point when I'm going after Voldemort — remember the prophecy? — and when I do, these four are the ones who will definitely come with me, simply because they will not accept being left behind.

"It's possible, of course, that others among you might end up with us, too, but yes, Zacharias, these four are my closest friends. Two of them are even my girlfriends. The five of us need to be able to work together, much like the Gryffindor Quidditch team did in our game. And you might have noticed that I've gotten rather good at putting together team strategies and tactics…"

A chuckle went through the group at Smith's expense.

Harry addressed everyone once more. "If anyone feels that they're not getting anything out of these practices, please tell me. I do want to make this useful for everyone. If you've got any pointers, or want to practice specific things, let me know, and we'll address it. This group might be named after me, in a way, but it isn't about me. We're all standing together against Voldemort, here."

When no one spoke up, Harry nodded and said, "Alright then. See you all next time!"

Everyone slowly filed out of the Room, still chatting excitedly about the game, until eventually only Daphne, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron were left.

"That went pretty well, I think," Harry said.

"It did. One thing, though…Daphne, how did you know that spell was coming?" Ginny asked.

Daphne shrugged. "I don't know. I just felt that you were about to get hit."

"And of course, you threw yourself in front of it," Harry said, sighing resignedly.

"I wasn't going to let Ginny get hit, and neither would you," Daphne said. "And I did cast a Shield Charm."

"There are other ways of blocking a spell than with your body, though," Harry said. "Especially since there were branches and pretty large 'rocks' all over the place."

"It wasn't like there was a lot of time, and I didn't expect it," Daphne said.

She was a bit annoyed that no one seemed to consider her action in any way a good thing. If it had been real, she would've saved Ginny's life! Sure, it would be at the cost of her own, but all in all, that trade would be worth it, wouldn't it? Because if she hadn't done anything while she could have, she'd have to live with that guilt.

A sudden embrace shook her from her thoughts. "I'm glad you saved my life," Ginny said softly, "but please, please, please never get yourself killed for me for real."

Daphne looked up and saw that Ginny's eyes were both kind and sad, and the sheer emotion she could see in them hit her unexpectedly hard. It was the sort of expression that showed, beyond any doubt, that Ginny clearly considered her worth loving and wanted Daphne to love herself a bit more, too.

"I'm sorry…" Daphne whispered, feeling her eyes burn without really understanding why this one, small gesture affected her so strongly.

In response, Ginny just kissed her, clearly not caring that Hermione and Ron were still present as well.

"Well, I think Ron and I will go ahead to the common room, then," Hermione said.

"We'll stay here a bit longer, yeah," Harry said.

Hermione and Ron left, and Harry sat down on the ground next to Ginny and Daphne. "I'm not going to give you another lecture," Harry said with a faint smile, seeing Daphne's somewhat apprehensive look. "I've done that often enough, and I am self-aware enough to know that it's more than a bit hypocritical of me to lecture you, when I'm fully willing to chase down Voldemort alone if it means keeping all of you safe. But the thing is…it feels like you do it out of a sense of…self-hatred, or something. It's like you don't consider yourself to ever be good enough. It's not like I don't know that feeling, but…if you're worried about something, anything…just talk to us, okay?" he said.

"I do," Daphne said softly. "I talk to Ginny, to you…and it helps, it really does. But that feeling, that feeling of not being able to do enough, of not being capable of being useful at all…it's not going anywhere. To me, it feels like at the very least, throwing myself in harm's way is useful, because it keeps someone else on their feet and going on, someone who's probably more capable than I am."

"You had five Outstanding O.W.L.s. The only one more capable than you in our group is Hermione," Harry said.

Daphne scoffed. "That's just in school."

"You're also the second best duelist after Harry," Ginny said.

"Because Harry and I have more experience, not because I'm actually more talented," Daphne said.

"You know your way around politics better than any of us," Harry said.

"That's not a talent, that's a lifetime of instruction from my parents."

Harry and Ginny looked at each other and smiled. "You're really determined not to accept your own achievements and skills, are you?" Ginny asked.

"Because they don't count!"

"Why not? Or rather, why do ours count? My biggest achievement is making it to my second birthday; something that everyone else seems to have managed just fine without becoming famous," Harry said.

"And in my very first year at school, I got possessed and unleashed a Basilisk. I'm not sure if that's the kind of achievement I'm proud of," Ginny said.

"That's…it's different," Daphne insisted.

"No it isn't," Ginny said bluntly. "Just accept that we love you, dammit."

"Y'know," Harry said with a meaningful look. "It might take us all night to convince her of that."

"Wouldn't it be lucky if we had an entire magical Room no one can get into?" Ginny asked.

In spite of herself, Daphne smiled. "You two are incorrigible, aren't you? …Let's get started."

An oddly long chapter, for someone under a time crunch, but when I'm really enjoying myself, this sort of thing tends to happen.