61. Dumbledore's Army Reborn

A few days later, Puffy brought them to a windowless room that had been used for storage, and was so dusty that it looked as if no one had been there for years. "This is perfect," Callie remarked. "Surely nobody's going to want to stop by here."

"Unless they want some old seventeenth-century Prophet articles," Ginny said sarcastically.

"Hmph. My dad would've loved those," the Slytherin replied with a wistful smile.

They moved all the boxes and old junk up against the walls, leaving a space in the center of the room. Two-by-two, Puffy transported the rest of the D.A. in through Side-Along Apparition, as he had with Callie and the Gryffindors.

"Ingenious idea, Warbeck," Padma commented.

"Thanks. Figured it was less conspicuous than-" she looked around the room and did a head count "- fifteen people running off down the basement."

"This is great," Terry Boot spoke up. "But I'm not signing anything this time."

"Nobody is," Neville said. "It's too much of a risk, we know that now." He shot a glance over at Callie, who had gotten the worst of it when Umbridge had found out who all had participated in the D.A.

"With that said," Ginny chimed in, "nobody - and I mean nobody - is going to say a word this time. Is that understood?"

Though everybody murmured their agreement, Callie knew that their word wasn't enough to ensure their safety. There were plenty of ways to get the truth out of someone. Hell, Snape or the Carrows could Imperius one of them to lead them directly to their meeting place. As such, she'd come up with what she thought was a pretty foolproof plan, but that could wait until later. Right now, it was time to get to business.

"All right," she began, "you all know why we're here. When Harry and Hermione and Red - Ron - started the D.A. two years ago, it was so that we could practice defense. Prepare ourselves for whatever was coming. But it's different now, there's more at stake. The Carrows - and Snape - they're not like Umbridge. They're not inhibited by the law, they can pretty much do anything they please. The Torture Curse, as we've all seen. And maybe, with enough motivation, the Killing Curse."

"Would they really?" Michael asked. "You think they'd take it that far?"

"Yes, I do," Callie replied.

"I thought you said that You Know Who wouldn't want any pure blood spilled," Ernie argued.

"That's right, but we're not all pureblood. And even if you are, I'm sure he'd make an exception for those who'd rather fight him than join him."

"My uncles," Ginny spoke up, "Gideon and Fabian - they were pure. And they were killed in the first war."

"There it is, then," Neville remarked. "Nobody's safe."

"And that being said," Callie went on, "I want you all to recognize that it's not just detention we're in for if we get caught. Zacharias Smith didn't care to take the risk." Seamus scoffed and shook his head, but Callie said, "No, don't. He's got every right to protect himself, and so do all of you. So if there's anyone who thinks this is too much, now's the time to back out."

Everybody looked around at each other, perhaps waiting for someone to rise up and head for the door. But nobody moved. "It's settled, then," Ernie said. "We're all in this, we're not going anywhere."

"To Dumbledore's Army!" Anthony called out, and the others broke into a round of applause.

"All right, all right!" Ginny said, gesturing for them to quiet down. "So we're in agreement that this is to be our regular meeting place?"

"Sure," Lavender said. "But where are we, exactly?"

"Never mind that, right now," Callie replied. "The only way in or out is going to be through Puffy. Maybe I can even find some way to seal that door."

"When are we going to meet? Same time as now, once a week?" Susan suggested.

"I was hoping we could do it some time during the day, when the Carrows are in class. I've tracked their schedules. Everybody write down times you're available, and hopefully we can figure out something that works."

"What about a leader?" Katie asked. "We had a leader last time."

"Well, we were all learning from Harry," Callie reminded. "It was sort of a given he'd be it. But do we really need one now?"

Neville looked at her and said, "I think it should be you."

She did a double-take, then shook her head. "I don't lead," she said.

"Well you sure as hell don't follow," he countered.

Rolling her eyes, she asked, "Why should it be me?"

"It was your idea to get the D.A. going again. And you brought Puffy here and got us a meeting place."

"And you did pretty much take over just now," Ginny said, grinning. "Seem to have a handle on things already."

But Callie replied, "I didn't mean to take things over, I just..." She paused, struggling to come up with an explanation. With a shrug, she said, "I've given it a lot of thought, I knew what I wanted to say."

"That's exactly why you ought to be our leader," Luna called out in her dreamy, high-pitched voice. "You're very calculated. You even tracked the Carrows' schedules to plan for our meeting times. Good thinking, Callie."

"Thanks," the Slytherin replied. "But... I don't know how to lead."

"You're doing pretty well so far," Anthony said. "I vote for Warbeck."

There were murmurs of assent, but Callie still wasn't so willing to step into the role. However, they needed to get going and figure out their strategies, so reluctantly she said, "All right, fine, I'll do it. Though I don't think a leader's necessary. We're all in the same boat here."

"Just go with it," Ginny replied. "It's only a formality. We're not going to throw you to the wolves if you lead us astray."

The others laughed, and Callie herself couldn't help but grin.

"So," Neville said, "what's next, then?"

He was looking at her expectantly, and so was everyone else. I'm their leader now, she thought. Bloody hell.

Thankfully, she had come into this with a few ideas in mind. "Well..." she began with a sigh, "...I think we've got a good start with everything Harry taught us about defense. The Shield Charm, Patronuses... all that still applies, of course, and we can work on it more, perfect it. But I also think that now's a good time to start learning more offensive magic."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

She hesitated, before explaining, "I mean that it might not be such a bad idea... to take advantage of whatever Amycus Carrow has to offer."

There were murmurs of confusion all around, and Susan asked, "What does he have to offer? Torture Curses?"

"Well... yes, actually," Callie replied, and the room fell silent as everyone gaped at her. "Look," she went on, pacing the room, "it seems as though he's turned Defense Against the Dark Arts into just 'the Dark Arts.' Which makes sense - if You Know Who is going to try and recruit us, then this is our training. But what he doesn't realize is that we can take everything we learn from Carrow and use it against his own forces."

"And not only that," Neville cut in, "but if we know what kind of tactics the Death Eaters use, then we can figure out how to counter them."

"Exactly," Callie agreed. "I'm telling you, Carrow is giving away all the Death Eaters' insider secrets. We ought to pay attention, even if it isn't so... palatable."

Everybody took that all into consideration, but Hannah asked, "What if he tries to Cruciate someone again?"

Callie eyed Neville, then said, "I have an idea. I don't know if it'll work, but-" she shrugged "-it's worth a shot." She reached into her robes and pulled out the journal Snape had given her the previous year. "Does anybody know what Occlumency is?"

"I do," Ginny replied. "But what does it have to do with any of this?"

Callie explained, "For those of you who don't know, Occlumency is a means of... sort of shielding yourself against mental magic. Anything that targets the mind, like the Imperius Curse, or Legilimency - mind reading, in essence. It can even protect against Dementors."

"How does it work?" Michael asked, "Is there a spell?"

"No spell," Callie replied. "It's more a state of mind. It's all up here." She gestured around her own head. "The thing about the Cruciatus Curse is that it doesn't actually cause any physical harm to the target. It's only mental manipulation. So I figured maybe Occlumency could protect against that too."

"Well, teach us, then," Ernie said. "Show us how it's done."

"It's not so easy to learn," she replied. "It takes a lot of willpower. But if you can master it, then it's the best protection against mental attacks." She set her copy of Snape's notes on the floor and multiplied it fourteen times. "Everybody take one. Make time to read it outside of meetings, but whatever you do, don't let Snape see it. These are his personal writings. In fact, change the cover so he won't recognize them."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

By the grace of God, however, Snape appeared to be missing in action as of late. Callie hadn't seen him once since the start of term, and neither had anybody else who she'd asked. Of course, it was even more worrying not knowing where he was, and Callie wished they'd had that special map that showed everybody's location in the castle.

That thought got her wondering about Harry, Hermione, and Red, and what exactly Dumbledore had asked them to do. One day at breakfast, she asked, "Eh, what if their 'secret mission' was simply to take off and hide until You Know Who is dead?"

Ginny scoffed and said, "No. For one thing, Harry would never agree to that. Whatever it is, it's got something to do with fighting You Know Who."

The girl was still insistent that if Harry were captured or killed, it would be front page news. Every morning, they all breathed a sigh of relief when they looked at the Prophet, although there were still new reports of killings and disappearances every other day. Callie read through the paper, looking to see if anyone they knew was mentioned, and her mouth dropped open when she saw a name she recognized.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "Healer Winslow!"

A few seats away, Katie popped up and and asked in a panicky tone, "Liam? What happened, is he dead?"

"No," Callie replied, furrowing her brow as she read over the story. "It says he attacked a patient Monday night, and when they tried to apprehend him, he fled."

"Attacked a patient? He would never do that," Katie insisted.

The Slytherin gave it a moment of thought and said, "No, he wouldn't. There's more to this than what they're reporting. He's a muggle-born, remember. They probably came after him, and that's why he fled, and now they're trying to make him look crazy or dangerous in the hopes that somebody will turn him in."

"Ugh!" Katie groaned, rising up from the table and running off.

She looked completely miserable during their next D.A. meeting, and Callie's spirits had also been dampened by her concern for the man's safety. Why hadn't he just left the country or gone into hiding like all the other muggle-borns? she wondered. But now was not the time to dwell on it. With a sigh, she turned to her comrades and got started.

"I thought we could go over some offensive spells I've read about," she said, holding up the old Dark Arts book that Snape had given her. "Some of the magic described in this is... horrific. But I pulled out a few things that aren't quite so ghastly, and could be really useful in a duel."

As she conjured a chalkboard, Ginny flipped through the book and got a disgusted look on her face as she stared down at one of the images. "What in God's name are they doing to that woman?" she asked.

"Trust me," Callie replied, "you don't wanna know."

The redhead slammed the book shut and set it aside, joining the others as Callie went on.

"Right then. This first one roughly translates to 'the Living Death.'" She wrote it out on the board, as well as the incantation and its phonetic spelling. "The incantations are all based in Greek, by the way. Let me know if you have trouble with pronunciation."

"Aye, that looks like gibberish," Seamus remarked.

"You'll get the hang of it," she replied. "Now, they call it the Living Death because the victim is deprived of all their senses. Sight, sound, touch... a perfect curse to use in battle, since the target has absolutely no awareness of their physical surroundings."

"That's brilliant!" Parvati exclaimed. "Bloody hell, who was the genius that came up with that?"

"Well," Callie said, shrugging, "actually... its original purpose was a lot more sinister. In some ways, this curse is the exact opposite of the Cruciatus."

"What do you mean?" Hannah asked.

She hesitated, glancing at Neville. But it was he who explained, "You know how the Cruciatus Curse can... mess your mind up, like it did with my parents?" They all averted their eyes from him, looking uncomfortable. But he went on, "Your body remains intact, though. It screws you up mentally, but not physically."

"And originally," Callie cut in, "the Living Death curse was meant to... sort of shield the mind, I suppose, while the body was ravaged."

Furrowing her brow, Lavender said, "I don't get it."

With a sigh, Callie explained, "Back in the day, they would 'experiment' with different torture methods. They wanted to know how much the human body could withstand before death resulted. But they didn't want the subject's mental anguish to interfere with purely physiological distress. So they deprived them of their senses."

"Ugh," Padma groaned. "So the victim would have no idea what was happening to them?"

"Exactly," Callie replied. "It was almost merciful, in fact. The kind of things they tried..." she shook her head to herself. "Well, at least they didn't have to feel it." She returned to the board and wrote down the next curse. "This one's called 'the Voice of Torment.' The target hears distressing words from the person they fear most. It may not sound like much, but it can be terrifying. It was known to drive some victims to suicide, if it went on long enough."

"It's all an illusion though, right?" Anthony asked. "Couldn't you just ignore it?"

"Potentially," Callie conceded. "But it's not so easy. I had Ginny try it out on me, and..." she shook her head at the memory of what she had heard. "I don't even know what You Know Who sounds like, but I'm sure it was him. And he was describing the way my father died, how he was trapped under rubble and calling out for help and..." she took a deep breath before continuing, "...apparently at one point he recited the Lord's Prayer."

"You get the idea, right?" Neville asked Anthony. "Don't make her think about it anymore."

Anthony nodded, a regretful look on his face as he said quietly, "Yeah, I get it. Sorry, Warbeck."

"It's all right," she said. "You can see it's not the kind of thing that you could stand to listen to for very long. But in the middle of a duel it could make for a great distraction. Especially as it's not a particularly well-known curse. Imagine you're in battle with Carrow, and all of a sudden he hears whoever it is that scares him. He might even think they're really there. The hope is that it would throw him off."

"And make him wet his trousers while we're at it," Seamus said, getting a laugh.

"One more for today," Callie continued, "and then we'll practice." Returning once more to the board, she wrote down the third curse and explained, "This may be the most useful of the three, it's got both offensive and defensive elements."

"How do you mean?" Susan asked.

"Well, whatever your opponent is planning to hit you with, you use this curse-" she pointed to the board "-to make them turn their wand on one of their allies, and get them with the spell they'd intended for you."

"Whoa!" Terry exclaimed. "Why the hell doesn't everyone do that?"

"Again, it's not a very well-known curse," Callie explained. "None of these are. Anyway, suppose you're in battle with Amycus, and Alecto is off to the side. The bloke is planning to get you with the Stunning Spell or whatever he's got planned, but you anticipate an attack and hit him with this. Automatically he'll aim for the sister."

"But once he's got his wand on her," Michael spoke up, "wouldn't he just not do the spell?"

"No, that's a part of the curse. It picks up on the person's intent, and sort of forces them to go through with it. Only instead of the intended target, it's directed towards somebody they're aligned with. In the past, it was an excellent way of taking out your enemies, without implicating yourself in their deaths."

"What's it called?" Ernie asked.

Smirking, Callie replied, "I got quite a kick out of it, considering our present circumstances. They called it i Adelfoktonía, which literally translates to 'the Sister Slayer.'"

"Ha!" Padma exclaimed. "That is fitting!"

"So the next time Carrow tries to Cruciate someone," Katie said, "couldn't we just use this curse to make him turn on Malfoy or Crabbe instead?"

"We could," Callie said. "But I wouldn't recommend it. I got all these curses from this book, and I got the book from Snape. He knows about them, even if the Carrows don't, and we can't let him discover all of our secrets."

"Wait," Seamus spoke up. "Are you saying that we're not going to actually use any of this stuff? Then what are we learning it for?"

"I'm not saying we're not going to use it," she countered. "But we have to be smart about it. We're only a few weeks into the term, we don't know how much worse things are going to get. For now I say we lay low, take whatever they throw at us, and build up our skills for when we really need them. Like if there's another battle or they decide to start killing us. The Cruciatus is bad, but..." she shrugged "...it could be a lot worse." Holding up Snape's book, she added, "Let's not do anything rash until Carrow starts teaching us this kind of shit."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

She was happy with the way things were going so far. Between the three curses she had taught them, Occlumency, and the defensive spells they'd learned from Harry, they had a lot of material to work with by the third meeting. But Callie was a bit caught off guard when Ernie showed up with a boy she didn't recognize. "Who is this?" she asked.

"Wayne Hopkins," Ernie replied. "He's one of my housemates, he's in our year."

"Good to meet you," Wayne said, giving Callie a friendly wave.

"Likewise," she said curtly, before pulling Ernie to the side. "What are you doing?" she asked. "This is supposed to be a secret."

"Wayne's all right, we can trust him," Ernie insisted.

"How do you know?"

"Because he's a friend of mine, I know him well enough. And I figured since we don't have Justin anymore, I could bring a replacement."

"Eh," Padma said, coming over to them. "I can bring somebody too. Mandy Brocklehurst is a half-blood, her mum's in hiding. She's been so depressed and angry about it, the D.A. might be just the thing to lift her spirits. Make her feel a little more hopeful, ya know?"

"I sympathize, believe me," Callie said. "But I really think we ought to keep what we're doing between us. The more people who are in on it, the bigger the risk that we'll get caught."

"But there's strength in numbers," Ernie argued. "You Know Who is building up his army. Don't you think we oughta build up ours?"

He had a point, but still... "Are you absolutely sure you can trust him?" she asked, eyeing Wayne.

"Yes," Ernie replied. "And he's a half-blood, too. His dad's a muggle-born." He leaned in towards Callie and whispered conspiratorially, "But his mum conjured up a set of phony documents to pass him off as pure. That way, he doesn't have to run."

Callie cocked a brow and said, "Inventive." After a brief pause, she added, "And thank you, Ernie, now I have something to hold over him." She patted the boy's arm and walked off.

Apparently Ernie and Padma weren't the only ones who had a friend that might be interested in joining the group. Hannah and Susan asked if they could bring their roommate Megan Jones along for the next meeting, and Anthony was sure his girlfriend, Lisa Turpin, would love to get in on the action. Soon enough everyone had broken out into a lively discussion about how they could recruit people.

"Woah, stop!" Callie called out. "One or two friends, maybe. But hell, this room isn't even big enough to fit much more than twenty people or so."

"It would be if we got rid of this trash," Seamus said. Then he flicked his wand and banished a box full of old papers. "There, now we've got a space for Lisa Turpin." Another flick and a broken gramophone disappeared. "Megan Jones-" flick "-Mandy Brocklehurst..."

"All right, I get it," Callie said, rolling her eyes. "In any event, we don't want this thing to get too big."

"Why not?" Lavender asked.

"Yeah, think about it," Seamus said. "If there were enough of us, maybe we could drive out Snape and the Carrows, and anyone else You Know Who might send in."

"Didn't I say there was strength in numbers?" Ernie piped up.

But Callie argued, "There's never going to be enough of us to defeat his entire army."

"Maybe not, but we could weaken it," Ginny replied. "He could send an entire battalion into Hogwarts, and it wouldn't just be us fighting. McGonagall and Flitwick were willing to join in the battle last year, and we could call on the Order, too."

The whole room broke out into excited chatter, as though they were suddenly looking forward to another battle. "Everybody, stop!" Callie called out. "We're going way off track. We're supposed to be practicing here, and we've already eaten up twenty minutes of meeting time."

"She's right," Neville said, rising up and turning to the group. "We could have a hundred people in the D.A., but it's not going to do any good if all we've done is talk. Everyone break up into four groups. Group one-" he turned to the blackboard to write out the day's plan "-is going to practice the Living Death curse. Group two, the Voice of Torment. Group three, the Sister Slayer. And group four, Occlumency."

Everybody did as told. Grinning at Neville, Callie asked, "When did you become so... commanding?"

He shrugged. "Just itching to get started, is all."

"Well," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, "I kind of like that authoritative attitude on you. It's hot." She gave him a kiss, then went over to group four, which consisted of Lavender, Parvati, and Katie.

"How are we supposed to practice Occlumency?" Lavender asked. "Don't we need some kind of mental attack to try and block?"

"Yes," Callie replied. "And I have just the thing. I'm going to perform the Imperius Curse, and you'll try to fight it off."

"You know how to do the Imperius Curse?" Katie asked.

"I've been trying ever since the first meeting, for exactly this reason," she explained. "Finally managed it a couple nights ago." She had studied the Imperius a lot, having thought that she might have to use it on her mum to get her out of the country.

Suddenly her mind wandered to the woman. It had been over two months since she'd left, and they hadn't spoken once in that time. I wish there was some way I could check in on her, Callie thought. "It occurred to me last night," she told Katie the following week as they came out of Transfiguration, "she's got the heart, but how am I supposed to know if anything happens to her?"

She'd told the girl about the tattoo spell, and that she was now wondering why the hell she hadn't given herself the special mark, too.

"I'm sure she'll be all right in America," Katie replied. "I've got a cousin that lives in New York. She says MACUSA has cut ties with the Ministry, and that they're coming down hard on wizards and witches emigrating from Europe." Shaking her head to herself, she mused, "Bloody hell, I wish Liam had fled when he'd had the chance."

Callie studied the girl a moment. "You really care about him, eh?" she asked.

The Gryffindor's cheeks became pink. "Well," she said, "he's a good man. I don't remember anything about my stay in the hospital, aside from the last couple weeks. But my mum said that even after I was moved from his department, he'd come up and visit me every day."

With a smile, Callie said, "He's the best."

"Yeah, he is," Katie agreed.

They met up with everyone else in the Great Hall for lunch, and Callie noted the anxious look on Neville's face. "What's wrong?" she asked, a million terrible possibilities flashing through her mind.

Shaking his head in frustration, he said, "I begged them not to do this."

"Do what?"

It was Seamus who replied, with a mischievous grin, "Oh, you're about to find out." Nodding towards the front of the room, above the head table, he said, "Look up there."

She did as told, then furrowed her brow. "What am I looking at?" she asked.

"Give it a minute," Lavender said. "You'll see."

From under the table, Seamus aimed his wand in the direction he'd told Callie to look. She watched as a tiny red object appeared, hovering high over the head table and gradually growing in size. As it did so, more and more people noticed it, and murmurs of confusion spread throughout the hall. The teachers became aware that something was happening above them, and they, too, looked up.

"What is that?" McGonagall said, rising to her feet and drawing her wand.

"It's a..." Flitwick stuttered, "it looks like... a bird."

The object had grown large enough to be discernible, squawking and flapping its wings, and Callie recognized it not just as any bird, but a phoenix. "Fawkes," she breathed. "It can't be."

Beside her, Neville said, "It isn't. Only an illusion."

The phoenix continued to grow bigger and bigger, until it was about ten feet across. It hovered in midair for a moment, then suddenly burst into flames and disappeared, making everyone jump.

"What the bloody hell?" Professor Spout exclaimed.

"Everyone get back," McGonagall ordered. "This could be some sort of an attack."

To Seamus, Callie whispered, "What is this? What are you doing?"

"Almost there," he replied. "Just watch."

He flicked his wand, and with another burst of flames, the phoenix reappeared, spreading its wings over a large black banner with silver letters that spelled out Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting.

There were gasps all throughout the room, and a few applause. Some people looked excited, some confused, some were simply shocked. Over at the Slytherin table, Callie could see, quite a few of her housemates were incensed.

And then there was Callie herself, who stared up at the banner with her mouth hanging open. Seamus turned to her, looking rather proud of himself, but all she could do was glare at him. You son of a bitch, she thought. He had just put a target on all of their backs.