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Susan slipped back into her dorm, glad that nobody seemed to have noticed her absence and after sealing herself into her bedcurtains wrote to her aunt before going to sleep, leaving the letter on her bedtable ready to post on her way to breakfast.
Dear Auntie,
I heard something today that I think you should know, in fact you should have been told about it when it happened and I don't know why you weren't. It concerns me that you weren't told and the headmaster either didn't know which he should've, or let the person get away with it since nobody was actually killed. I'm sure if you were told, I would have heard about your reaction, something should have been done to protect students from this wizard and nothing has been. Well, he was sacked as a school governor so he no longer has a reason to roam about the school at will but he does still have a son here so he's not completely banned from the school either and he wasn't arrested, his crime is not known to others and he is trusted more than he should be.
Do you remember at the end of my second year after Ginny Weasley was kidnapped and they were planning to close the school and send everyone home? The crises was averted the day before we were going to leave but nobody really explained much about it other than that Harry Potter had earned a heap of points for finding the Chamber of Secrets and killing the monster.
The reason I'm writing about this now is that something happened after Ginny was rescued and the threat apparently dealt with and everything sorted out, a student was attacked in the corridor outside Dumbledore's office, literally right outside it in front of the gargoyle that guards the entrance. He wasn't attacked by the basilisk that had been petrifying students, that had already been killed when Ginny was rescued, but he was attacked by Lucius Malfoy who was at the school as a member of the Hogwarts school board and the student he attacked was saved by a house elf. Mr Malfoy pointed his wand at a second year student and started to cast a curse before the elf blew him backwards off his feet, but Dumbledore didn't do anything about it. The thing is Harry Potter was the student attacked and he said the first word of the curse Mr Malfoy was trying to use was 'Avada', and he's looked for other curses that start with that word and he can't find any other than the killing curse. Shouldn't the school be warded against Unforgiveables? Yes, before you ask, Potter is sure that's what Lucius Malfoy said, they were less than five feet apart at the time and it wasn't noisy. Everyone was supposed to be locked in their common rooms sound like there was nobody else around. Potter told me that Lucius Malfoy was also indirectly responsible for allowing a student to be possessed and setting the basilisk loose. Harry doesn't think that he can prove that well enough to send him to prison but he's sure Lucius Malfoy is the one who slipped the diary that cursed Ginny into her schoolbooks in Flourish and Blott's at the start of the year. Harry said he took the cauldron she was storing her books in, insulted her father for not being able to afford to by her new books and gave it back. He didn't make the diary though, Harry said it had belonged to You-Know-Who when he was at school here. The fact that You-Know-Who trusted him with it probably means that Malfoy was a loyal supporter of his.
On a more personal note, I am perfectly well classes are going fine and though you didn't ask about them yesterday, my grades are fairly impressive recently even if I do say so myself.
Hannah sends her regards.
I send my love and respect.
Susan
Susan half expected a team of Aurors to come to the school in the next day or two to question Harry and Dumbledore about what she'd written to Auntie, or perhaps it would happen without her being aware of anything, other than Harry's excitement and sense of justification or gratitude, until she read in 'The Daily Prophet' that Lucius Malfoy had been arrested but there was nothing done. Her Auntie didn't even write back to her asking for more details or to set up a meeting with the student involved. Susan had to admit that she was seriously disappointed in her guardian, and she began to see why Harry had trouble trusting people if all the adults in his life behaved like that to him.
-o0o-
Sitting with her friends, Susan began her other campaign, if she couldn't get justice for even one of Harry's life threatening events hopefully she could make her other friends more prepared to defend their lives and their families'.
"I wish we were being taught to defend ourselves properly. I mean, in spite of being an arse about it, Snape's better than most of the DADA professors we've had but we have so much catching up to do and he's still teaching us shields and school kid spells. I've heard that Hermione was injured at the ministry battle by someone they'd already taken out when the other Death Eaters just used a simple finite incantatum to reverse the spells she'd used on him. We've got to learn to fight real enemies. Otherwise, we're all going to be killed the first time we come up against a Death Eater. Maybe that's Snape's plan, to make us all easy targets by not teaching us to defend ourselves against the sort of spells the Death Eaters will use, " she said worriedly.
"You mean that you want to learn to kill people," Megan asked shocked.
"No, not to kill them, just to make sure they can't just be set free easily to attack me again before help arrives. I don't want to attack anyone, just to defend myself properly if they attack me or my friends and family. The Death Eaters will be trying to kill us, I want to be able to fight back and survive until help arrives. I don't want to kill people, just to make sure that they're injured enough to be out of the battle and can't be revived by their friends to rejoin the battle and continue killing my friends and family," Susan said matter-of-factly.
"You really think that you could kill someone?" Hannah asked.
"As I said I don't want to kill anybody but if the choice is between dying and fighting, then I'm going to fight with everything I've got and I can't believe that any of you wouldn't do the same if it meant saving your own life and your family. I'm just saying that I don't think that we've learnt enough to survive even if we fight our best, we need to learn more," Susan said, remembering at the last minute that she was supposed to be acting anxious.
"Potter and his friends survived in the ministry last year," Justin said. "According to Weasley the six of them fought off twelve Death Eaters."
"And five of them were injured, Harry was the only one who wasn't and I heard that Granger almost died, and Ron needed to be sent to St Mungo's. A Death Eater nearly cut Granger in half with a dark spell after they'd already beaten him. And they didn't win they were surrounded and outnumbered by enemies they'd already knocked out or tied up at least once, they had to be rescued by Dumbledore and his militia and one of the militia died rescuing them," Susan said. "It was a miracle they all managed to stay alive long enough for help to arrive!"
"They shouldn't have been there in the first place," MacMillan said pompously.
"Harry went to rescue his godfather after the adult he asked for help ignored him," Susan said angrily. "Are you telling me that you would sit comfortably in the common room while you knew someone in your family was being tortured and not even try do anything to help them?"
MacMillan realised that there was no right answer to that and sensibly kept quiet but he still looked stubborn rather than ashamed and Susan understood that to mean yes he would leave his family to be killed if the alternative was putting himself in a position where he had to risk killing or being killed himself. The others must have realised this too. If his chances of Susan signing that betrothal contract hadn't already been zero they would be now. In fact the chances of him ever getting a date from any girl withing hearing distance of this conversation were also zero.
"Then you're a coward, I'm glad I'm not your family," Hannah said loyally.
There was a general feeling of agreement around the table about being glad that their lives didn't depend on MacMillan saving them. Ernie wouldn't have been concerned about their opinions if it wasn't obvious from her look of disgust that Susan agreed with them. He began trying to work out how to explain to his great-grandfather that the Bones family would decline their betrothal offer.
"And you want to be an Auror?" Kevin Entwistle asked, derisively.
"Yes, I want to be an auror. Three years at the Auror academy not to mention two more years of NEWT level classes will adequately prepare me for those sorts of situations. It was the height of stupidity to think that four fifth years and two fourth years could fight off a dozen Death Eaters," MacMillan replied defensively.
"And you think that You-Know-Who is going to wait five years before he attacks anyone you care about?" Susan asked bluntly. "If so then you're a fool. Everyone you care about is at risk now, it's only a matter of time before one of them is in the wrong place or says the wrong thing to someone and attracts his attention."
"You really believe that we could do anything against the Death Eaters?" Megan said shaken.
"Harry and his friends did. They had the fighting skills, Harry had trained them to fight really well, they took down most of the Death Eaters at one point or another and he taught us enough to do that too with a bit more practice. The problem is that they were using schoolyard level spells that the other team were able to counter, returning their team mates to the fight," Susan said. "We need to learn spells that put the Death Eaters out of the fight so we don't keep facing the same enemies, otherwise it's like we're twice or three times as outnumbered as we are."
"I don't like the way he said it but Ernie is right, fighting Death Eaters is a job for the Aurors, I mean if they attack my family I'll do what I can but we shouldn't go looking for fights and our home is warded well enough to hold until the Aurors arrive," Kevin said.
"Doesn't doing whatever you can to defend your family if you're attacked include learning how to defend them more effectively?" Susan asked.
"But you're talking about learning how to maim and kill, I couldn't do that!" Megan protested.
"Well I'm not planning on going looking for fights but I certainly don't plan to be hiding under my bed waiting for the Aurors like a little kid while my family fight and risk their lives if our home is attacked," Susan retorted. "Nor do I intend to spend all my days at home afraid to leave the wards. I want to live my life, not put it on hold until someone eventually defeats You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters all pull their heads in and start pretending to be law abiding citizens again. The last war lasted for years."
Hannah and Megan didn't say anything not wanting to argue with their friend but not really willing to support her and encourage her to learn dangerous spells either. They thought since her guardian was the head Auror it was unlikely that she'd need to fight herself. Not realising that being the Head Auror's niece made her a target for kidnapping to be used as a tool to manipulate the head of the DMLE.
-o0o-
"You were right, most people just aren't interested in really learning to fight. They don't want to learn to cast potentially lethal spells. They don't believe that they need to learn to protect themselves, and Aunty hasn't done anything about the letter I wrote to her about what happened with Mr Malfoy attacking you," Susan said discouraged.
Harry was kind enough not to say I told you so. "Most of them won't get involved in the war unless they or someone they love are attacked," he said instead.
"Most of their parents are purebloods, they don't think that Voldemort will attack their homes," Neville said. "They don't realise in spite of his pureblood rhetoric he actually attacked as many purebloods and halfbloods who refused to follow him as he did muggleborn families in the last war, more if you only count the battles he's known to have attended and not just had the Death Eaters attack without him."
"But even Justin doesn't want to learn to fight, and he is muggleborn," Susan said.
"Justin's family have the money and the connections to spend his summer out of the country and to leave the wizarding world completely, whether or not he leaves Britain after he graduates. His home no doubt has some impressive muggle security and he's grown up thinking it's impregnable not thinking about how easily that could be bypassed by magic. They all think that the war won't affect them. That it's my job to save them all without their help," Harry said cynically. "When they talked about fighting Death Eaters last year what they were picturing in their heads was duelling Malfoy and his cronies and playing at wargames. Most of the DA were interested in their DADA grades and rebelling against Umbitch, not truly planning to fight a war. Now that it's real they feel somewhat guilty that they didn't come when Hermione used the coins to call them and relieved that they didn't have to face the Death Eaters which makes them feel more guilty for feeling that way. Problem is their guilt alone would stop most of them from coming back to the DA if I tried to organise it, and those that did come wouldn't be comfortable with it if I tried to make them cast blasting curses at humanoid targets."
"What are we going to do?" Susan asked.
"We'll you, Neville, Luna, Ron and Hermione want to fight, so I'm going to train the five of you as best I can," Harry replied.
"Does Hermione have enough power to fight off the Death Eaters?" Susan asked worriedly.
"She should have if she chooses her spells well enough. she's not going to be able to kill people with an Expelliarmus or a Stupefy but piercing hexes and severing charms aren't that magically expensive," Harry replied.
"But they can be shielded against quite easily, and she will wear out quickly when she's trying to maintain a shield," Neville said.
"I know, I'm trying to convince her to get a gun to protect herself with if she's attacked at home," Harry said.
"What's a gun?" Neville asked.
Harry frowned as he thought about how to describe it. In the end he transfigured a couple of bits of metal into a bullet and a replica gun. "These won't actually work because I don't have the knowledge to transfigure the insides properly but this is a gun. It's a muggle machine, which when you pull this trigger here will use a small controlled explosive charge to project a bullet like this through just about anything it's aimed at very quickly. Stone or concrete blocks or a large enough block or wood would stop it but a bullet this size would go right through a person like a piercing hex and it should be harder to block because it's an object instead of a spell nd they travel at 500 meters per second or more, if the Death Eaters even recognise what it is in time to get a shield up at all. The other advantage is that some guns can fire several times per minute, far quicker than I could cast or recast a shielding spell. There are bigger guns which fire more bullets per minute and guns that fire bigger bullets which would take a larger object to stop them and can be lethal from far enough away that you're out of range of most spells, but they also need more training to be able to shoot them and hit a target. I think something like this that she could conceal on her body somewhere would be best for Hermione, and maybe a larger gun that she keeps at home that her Mum and Dad could also use if needed."
Neville nodded but Susan looked worried. "She could get in serious trouble using a muggle gun against a wizard and doesn't it have to be held in her wand hand. She wouldn't be able to cast spells at the same time."
"That's why I'd recommend a small one like this that can be used with one hand. It's not as accurate to shoot that way and it would take a lot of practice but during an attack she only has to point it accurately at close targets she could learn to use it in her other hand and still use her wand in her wand hand, she could maintain a shield and shoot bullets at her attacker at the same time and hopefully incapacitate him before she uses all her magic," Harry explained.
"She could still be arrested for using a muggle gun," Susan said.
"She'd have to be alive to be arrested, and if she was attacked in her home it would be self defence," Harry said bluntly.
"She's muggleborn Harry, if she kills a pureblood that won't make a difference," Susan said apologetically.
"If she kills a pureblood, especially a wealthy and politically powerful pureblood like Malfoy or worse the son of a man like that, it won't make a difference how she did it, even if they attack her in her home and have the Dark Mark and she accidentally kills them with a tripping jinx," Harry said. "Her best bet would be to kill them all before one of them can escape to get the word out, and then transfigure the bodies into wooden sticks and take them a long way from her home and burn them, and to call me or someone else she trusts to repair any damage to the house before anyone sees it, or to run, go into hiding or leave the country. She'd be more likely to manage that with a gun than with her wand alone."
"Do you think that we should get one of these guns too?" Neville asked.
"You don't need one, you have more magical strength than most people and you're a pureblood so you have a fair chance of arguing self defence if you stick to magical fighting I think that you should stick to spells like bombarda and piercing hexes, you should have no trouble overpowering most of the Death Eaters quickly enough, without running out of energy unless you're facing an army, in which case a little gun like this won't help much anyway," Harry said.
But there are bigger guns," Neville commented.
"There are bigger guns and guns that shoot continuously when the trigger is held down instead of just one bullet at a time. They wouldn't be much use in a crowded battle where you're just as likely to hit your allies. There are also more powerful guns that an expert can hit a target from over a mile away but it takes years to train to use one accurately enough, and the bullet would also go through anyone standing behind the person you were targeting. They're also highly controlled and almost impossible to get in this country."
Susan and Neville nodded and turned to practice bombardia curses, trying to power them enough to take out more than one person if they were standing close together, and rapidly chain casting silent piercing curses.
-o0o-
The next morning Susan received a package containing one of every sweet Honeyduke's sold, with the note telling her that since she still hadn't told him which sweets she liked, he bought her all of them and promising more when she did tell him.
Thankfully, Susan managed to slip the note into her pocket before anyone noticed and her friends were easily persuaded that her aunt had sent it to her to share with her friends.
"I know your Aunt Amelia wouldn't have sent that many sweets, you have a new admirer, and quite a generous one at that. He must be serious about you Susie," Hannah said once she was sure the two of them were alone.
Susan blushed. "They're just a friend. I was upset about something last time we talked and they wanted to cheer me up."
"Is this the same 'just a friend' who was writing to you a couple of months ago? Did the two of you sort things out?" Hannah asked eagerly.
"Yes it's the same friend and things are still a little strained between us but he's forgiven me enough to start talking again," Susan admitted.
"I'd say he's forgiven you all the way to send such a large selection of sweets," Hannah said encouragingly. "What were you upset about?"
"I thought that I could make a difference with something, he warned me that nothing would come of it and he was right. People didn't want to learn what it was really like to have to defend yourself. There's a war coming and some of our classmates are going to die because they refuse to learn to fight even in self defence, and I thought that I could help change their minds but I couldn't, you heard the way they all reacted. They all seem to think that they're not in any danger or that the Aurors will be there to save them if they're attacked, but you can't hide until the Aurors get there and you can't fight off Death Eaters with Stupefy and Expelliarmus. The DA might have taught them enough to pass OWLs and win a schoolyard fight, but that's all it did," Susan said miserably.
"You really believe that?" Hannah asked. "You sound like Potter."
"I do? Maybe because he's actually survived a Death Eater attack and knows what he's talking about," Susan said pointedly.
"Is Potter the friend who sent the sweets?" Hannah asked quietly. Wincing when her friend suddenly looked afraid.
"It's okay. I won't tell anyone? Are you dating?" Hannah promised.
"No, Harry and I really are just friends, I don't mind you knowing but Harry insists that it isn't safe for me. That I'd be a target if people knew we were meeting to train they'd think that we were dating and it would make me a target for the Death Eaters trying to lure him into a trap, or just trying to hurt him and make him give up fighting," Susan said.
"Would you go out with him if he asked you to? Do you like him like that?" Hannah said.
"We're not dating, but I think that if it wasn't for You-Know-Who and the coming war he might have asked me out. You can't really be dating someone who refuses to be seen with you for your own safety," Susan said sighing. "But he's not sure if he trusts me enough to even date in private after what happened before."
"You didn't answer my question. If he asked you to be his girlfriend, what would you want?" Hannah persevered.
"If it was safe enough for him to ask, I would go out with him," Susan admitted.
"What exactly did happen?" Hannah asked gently.
"He thought we were in a more than just friends, even if we couldn't publicly date and I thought we were just training partners. I said somethings that made him realise that we weren't of the same piece of parchment and he was hurt," Susan explained.
"But if you thought you were just friends, then you weren't doing any of the other things a couple does either, holding hands or kissing or meeting in a broom closet? He hadn't actually asked you to be his girlfriend?" Hannah asked.
"No we weren't, you know how many people get caught in broom closets, everyone seems to know about the couples it happens to. He didn't want to risk it," Susan said.
"Then he's a great big Doofus, it's his own fault that you didn't think you were dating," Hannah declared loyally.
Susan couldn't tell her about the mental connection they shared or how Susan used to use it to feel him masturbate or to lie in bed and talk to him every night, so she couldn't explain what had happened and that Harry had had a reason to believe they were more than friends.
"Well he knows we're just friends now and if he wants more than that this time he has to ask me out on a date or ask me to be his girlfriend, but I don't think he will," Susan said.
"Well let me know if I can do anything to help the two of you, provide another alibi perhaps. Just give me some warning next time you plan to spend the night with him," Hannah said teasingly.
"It isn't like that! There's no need for alibis," Susan protested.
"So, there's nothing I can do to support you?" Hannah said, slightly disappointed at not being part of arranging clandestine meetings or passing secret messages.
"There is one thing," Susan said.
"What's that?" Hannah asked eagerly.
"Learn to defend yourself with serious spells, learn to fight to survive so you won't be one of the people I have to mourn and feel guilty about not being able to persuade to protect yourself properly," Susan said bluntly.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed and those who followed or favourited this story for your support.