Chapter Eleven: In Which Evacuations Are Organised
He read the answer in the elf's stricken face. His hand held fast by Harry, the elf tried to kick himself and sank to his knees.
"Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.
Dobby let out a howl. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"
Harry looked around at the terrified people. They all started running towards the door.
"Silence!" Harry shouted, waving his wand to make a tremendous noise.
Everyone stopped to look at him.
"That's how Muggles evacuate, kiddos. Aren't we all witches and wizards? When we go, wherever we go, we go in style."
There were a few nervous chuckles.
"We didn't sign up to get caught, Potter!" said Zacharias Smith the Buzzkill.
"Who said anything about being caught?"
Harry had a particular gleam in his eye as he said this. An intense look of concentration appeared on his face.
"This is crazy!" exclaimed Hermione as the whole school seemed to rumble. Eight tunnels opened up, they were short but impossibly wide. Each tunnel had a sign on the top indicating which dormitories they led to.
"How are they even that short? We're miles away —"
"Magic, Hermione! I worded the mental request to the Room in such a way that its going to be quite easy to get away from here," explained Harry.
"I almost forgot! The list, Harry!" said Hermione, turning around abruptly.
"There's no need!" said Harry, pulling her back. "Trust me, everything's handled. Now go!"
She hesitated, and then went into 'Gryffindor-Girls'. He went into 'Gryffindor-Boys'. They were one of the last to do so. The tunnels closed behind them silently. They vaguely heard Umbridge scream, distorted like it had been stretched a few million times.
"H-Harry?" Neville spoke up timidly. "What about all the —"
"Defense stuff?"
Neville nodded.
Harry had a truly frightening grin on his face. "I daresay the Room took care of that," he said.
Neville decided not to ask.
Meanwhile, Umbridge was staring in horror at the pictures of people doing . . . stuff. Such pictures had no business being in a children's school! Also, they were wizarding pictures, which made it a million times worse. There was no student to be found anywhere out-of-bounds.
Behind her, the Inquisitorial Squad sniggered.
"Hermione?" asked Harry the next day at breakfast. They had narrowly escaped from the Room of Requirement the previous day.
"Yes?"
"How about the next time we create an illegal organization you put a spell that prevents the members from blabbing rather than putting pimples on their face after the deed is done?"
"Sure thing, Harry."
AN: I'm sure you got the wizarding pictures joke (Hint: They move). Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!
Prevention is better than identification? Its not like they could reverse the damage if they knew who betrayed them. All it did was scar Marietta Edgecombe for life and shut the DA down.