Despite feeling that their friends had betrayed them by returning to Hogwarts after everything that had happened, Harry and Ron decided that they would follow the advice given to them and reach out to Dean and Seamus. They also decided to get in touch with Neville while they were on. However, Neville wrote back almost immediately, making it clear that whatever happened he would not be fighting. He explained that he'd been accepted for home schooling, and he wasn't going to risk his future by fighting the people in charge of the country.
"Coward," Ron sneered when they read Neville's reply to their letter, which had sounded him out about becoming part of the army they intended to form to fight against Voldemort, his daughter and their deadly followers.
"I wonder how he got accepted for home schooling," Harry mused, ignoring Ron's hissed insult towards their friend. "Our applications were turned down."
Even though they'd expected it, Harry, Ron and Ginny had all applied to be home schooled, only to be rejected. It was said that they had no reason not to be at Hogwarts, and therefore the Ministry would not support their choice to forgo their education. They'd been warned that the only way to finish their education was to return to Hogwarts, and to do that they now needed to arrange a meeting with the headmaster to discuss whether a return at this late stage was possible. Of course they had no intention of doing any such thing, but it was still frustrating to be denied the education they felt they had a right to.
"That's a good point," Ron mused thoughtfully. "His reasons for staying away are the same as ours. So why has he been allowed to begin home schooling?"
"Favouritism," Harry suggested. "Hermione never once hit out against the likes of Neville. I bet she's convinced her father to give him the chance of home schooling."
"She always did have a soft spot for him," Ron agreed with a nod. "But that still doesn't mean he can't still fight," he added, returning to the reason they'd wrote to Neville in the first place.
"He is right about it jeopardising his future though," Harry pointed out. "Whether it was Hermione or for some other reason, he's been allowed to be home schooled. But if he fights against the dark, they could take that away from him. They could either force him to go back to school, or he'd be left like us, with no way of getting qualifications."
"Yeah, but we can change that when we defeat the dark," Ron argued. "By not fighting, Neville is settling for how things are. It means he is happy to live in a world where You-Know-Who is in charge."
"Maybe it's his gran's influence," Harry suggested. "Look at it from her point of view. She's already lost her son and daughter-in-law, or as good as lost them given what state they're in. I'm sure she doesn't want to lose Neville as well. Maybe they feel that accepting how things are is the only way for them to survive."
"Maybe," Ron conceded with a shrug, although his frown revealed that he didn't agree with the stance the Longbottoms had taken. "But we're still left fighting. We still have no idea if we'll be able to count on anyone else. For all we know, our small group here is the resistance."
"Even the smallest resistance is better than none," Harry retorted. "And we don't know if we're alone yet. Dean and Seamus might come through for us."
"And they might not as well," Ron grumbled. "They did return to Hogwarts after all."
"Let's just wait and see how things unfold," Harry advised. He still had hopes of recruiting Dean and Seamus to their cause, but he knew they had to do it correctly and not push their friends, which might lead to them refusing to help them.
Instead of begging for Seamus and Dean's help right away, Harry and Ron settled for just corresponding with their friends, and they'd actually been writing to them for a few weeks before they even raised the topic of their new Dark Arts Professor. However, the response they got about Bellatrix was not what they wanted to hear, and when Seamus and Dean filled them in on what was happening at Hogwarts, they ran off to inform the others, after first of all making sure Molly was out of the way.
"She's teaching them how to fight," Ron blurted as they burst into the front room where Sirius and Remus were sitting with Bill and Charlie.
"Who's doing what?" Remus asked, confused by the duo's sudden outburst.
"Bellatrix Lestrange," Harry answered as Ginny entered the room to see what he and Ron were shouting about. "She's teaching the students to fight. She's building an army for You-Know-Who."
"What about dark magic?" Sirius asked. "Is she teaching them that yet?"
"According to Dean and Seamus she's starting with the basics," Ron snorted. "Once she's got everyone fighting, she going to teach them dark magic."
"It does sound dangerous," Remus mused. "But not entirely unexpected. We knew there would be changes with the curriculum switching to Dark Arts rather than defence."
"But we didn't expect her to start forming an army," Harry argued. "She's teaching hundreds of people how to fight."
"But who says they're going to fight against us?" Charlie questioned. "You know, they may just be shooting themselves in the foot. It's one thing to teach Hermione and the Slytherins to fight, as they can guarantee their loyalty. But it's playing dangerously to teach people whose loyalties are unclear to fight with such skill."
"But even if it's just Hermione and the other snakes who end up fighting against us, it's still dangerous," Harry argued. "Bellatrix has experience, and she's passing that onto our enemies."
"Then we better give you two some experience as well," Sirius answered. "I think it's time we started those fighting lessons we spoke about."
"Don't you mean give us three some experience?" Ginny questioned. "And don't even begin to argue," she hissed when both of her older brothers opened their mouths. "I may be a girl, but I can still fight. I need to be able to look after myself. The dark are not going to care if I've had training or not, they'll still target me, and I don't want to be left defenceless."
"She does have a point," Harry said, jumping to Ginny's defence. "How would any of us feel if something happened to Ginny, and she was unable to defend herself because we kept her out of the training. I say we give her a chance. Just because she's a girl, doesn't mean she can't fight. It won't stop Hermione, and it never stopped Bellatrix."
"Fine," Bill conceded with a sigh. "Let's make sure the three of you are ready for whatever comes our way."
"When do we begin?" Ron asked. "Who knows when we will need to fight."
"First of all we need to provoke them into fighting," Charlie reminded the group.
"We know, we need a plan to target Malfoy and get Hermione to come after us," Harry sighed, well aware that they were no closer to working out how to do something to break Hermione's innocent facade.
"Actually, we think we have one," Bill said. "We've just been talking about it, and we have the bare bones of an idea. All we need are the dates of this terms trips to Hogsmeade."
"We were thinking you could ask Dean and Seamus about the trips," Sirius suggested. "You can make out as if you're going to go up and see them, and just need to work out what dates would be best."
"We can do that," Harry said with a nod. "But what's our plan? What on earth can we do to Malfoy in Hogsmeade?"
"That bit still needs some work," Charlie admitted. "But we were thinking we could pose as students and cause some sort of accident for Malfoy. If we do it right, there should be no comeback on us."
"Well, until we let Hermione know we were behind the entire thing," Bill added with a chuckle.
"We can sort the details later," Sirius said. "For now, let's get those dates. And in the meantime, we need to start our practical lessons."
"I would suggest working out the best times for such things," Bill advised. "Mum won't be too happy when she finds out what we're doing."
"Yeah, she wasn't keen on the whole learning to fight idea," Ron remembered with a sigh.
"What she wasn't keen on was the idea of building an army and taking the fight to the dark," Remus corrected. "I doubt she will have any problem with the three of you learning how to properly defend yourselves. Let's just keep the army talk to a minimum when she's around."
"If we can even build an army," Ron snorted. "We haven't even broached the subject with Dean and Seamus, and we're going to need them on board if we want to recruit more students."
"One step at a time," Charlie cautioned. "Get those Hogsmeade dates, and we can plan something for Malfoy. You two can even really go and see your friends. Maybe talking to them in person will help."
"Maybe," Harry agreed, wondering if the personal touch was the way to go. "But when do we get our first lesson in fighting?"
"How about right now?" Sirius asked with a smirk as he got to his feet. "Let's go into the back garden and see what the three of you are made of."
Trooping into the back garden, Harry, Ron and Ginny began their first practical lessons in the art of fighting. The only question was, would it be enough to compete with the lessons Bellatrix was handing out to their enemies at Hogwarts?
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"I love Professor Lestrange," Blaise declared loudly as he fell to the ground, dodging a spell thrown by Theo while simultaneously throwing a hex in Draco's direction.
The three boys were outside practising their fighting manoeuvrers, only instead of working in pairs they were practising facing multiple opponents as Bellatrix had already hinted it would soon be time to step up their training.
"These lessons are such fun," Theo agreed as the trio called a halt to their practice.
"I don't think they're supposed to be fun," Hermione chuckled as the boys dropped to the grass where she was sitting with Daphne, Vince and Greg. "We're supposed to be learning."
"We are learning," Blaise replied. "We're learning what a brill Professor, Draco's Aunt is. I can officially say she's my favourite Professor, ever."
"Give it up Blaise, it's never going to happen," Draco laughed. "My aunt is out of your league."
"A boy can dream, can't he?" Blaise smirked.
"You keep on dreaming, Blaise," Hermione said with an indulgent smile. "But he is right about Bellatrix. She is a good Professor. I feel like we're really learning something that is going to be useful. I know we haven't hit the dark spells yet, but I already feel so much more equipped to enter a fight."
"How sure are we that we're going to be entering a fight?" Theo asked cautiously. "With Dumbledore gone, resistance to your father has hardly been very vigorous."
"But it will come," Hermione predicted. "Don't forget, I was friends with these people for years. I know how they think. I know Harry won't just sit back and do nothing, and if Harry wants to fight, the Order will fight."
"And when they do, we'll be ready for them thanks to Aunt Bella," Draco said, agreeing with Hermione.
"I just can't wait to start learning some dark spells," Daphne enthused. "When do you think we'll be ready for that?"
"Hopefully soon," Hermione replied with a grin. "But until then I guess all we can do is master the skills she's been teaching us. After all, the sooner we master those, the sooner we can learn some real dark magic."
"Let's get back to it then," Blaise said, jumping back to his feet.
This time everyone decided to join in, and within seconds the Slytherins were all practising their fighting skills beside The Black Lake. For an hour they practised the skills Bellatrix had been teaching them, and once they were finished they headed back to the castle to freshen up. Once they were all cleaned up, Hermione suggested that she and Draco took a walk before dinnertime.
"Is everything okay?" Draco asked, entwining his hand with Hermione's as they exited the castle via the front doors.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Hermione questioned.
"I don't know, you just seem a bit distracted," Draco admitted.
"I guess I'm thinking about Harry and Ron," Hermione confessed.
"Missing them?" Draco teased with a smirk.
"Like a hole in the head," Hermione replied with a snort. "I'm more thinking about how quiet they've been. I know we didn't expect them to come back to school, but I did expect to hear from them before now. I can't believe they are happy to keep quiet and accept the way things are."
"Maybe they're building up to something," Draco suggested. "But it's not like they can get to you here. You're safe, Hermione."
"I know that," Hermione chuckled, smiling at her boyfriend. "I just guess I'm getting anxious for them to react. Just look at when they found out who I was. They couldn't resist reacting."
"Maybe this time they'll have someone to talk them out of acting rashly," Draco suggested.
"I very much doubt it," Hermione snorted. "As crazy as he was, Dumbledore was the stabilising influence on Harry. Without him, there's no-one to really stop him from jumping off the deep end. If Sirius is about he's more likely to encourage it."
"Whatever they've got planned, we'll deal with it," Draco replied confidently. "They won't win, Hermione. Your father won't let them."
"I know that as well," Hermione replied with a chuckle. "I just wish it was all over and we'd dealt with Harry and Ron for the final time."
"It'll come soon enough," Draco predicted. "But in the mean time, I'll just have to keep your mind on other things."
"And just what other things are these?" Hermione teased, stopping and turning to face her boyfriend.
"I'm sure I can think of something very distracting," Draco retorted, lowering his lips to Hermione's.
Hermione melted into the kiss, allowing Draco to make her forget her issues with Harry and Ron. No doubt she would hear from her old friends soon enough, but for now she was more than happy to focus on Draco and the pleasure she could find with her handsome boyfriend.