'Oh ho ho. Breaking the rules, are we?' Predictably, Umbridge met Hermione at the gates to the castle. The witch looked gleeful, as if she'd accomplished something by catching Hermione doing something she shouldn't be. But Hermione had known from the minute she left the castle that she would probably end up in detention.

She'd released Katana and Kelpie in Hogsmeade, trusting Kelpie to make his way to the closest large body of water and Katana to come to her when she called, so both beasts were safe. Hermione herself however… that depended on how well Umbridge believed that Alice Tunninger could keep Gellert behind bars.

'Detention, I think.' Umbridge decreed, sticking up five stubby fingers and counting them off, 'Out after curfew, skipping meals, leaving school grounds without permission and wearing non-school uniform on a weekday. My, that's quite a list; perhaps every night this month, writing lines in my office, should keep you out of trouble.'

'Yes, Madam Umbridge.' Hermione agreed dutifully, eager to get the encounter over with as quickly as possible. She could see Ginny hovering at the door, presumably waiting to receive a report on Hermione's mission. It had become increasingly difficult to meet under Umbridge's rules, which disallowed students of different genders socialising in private, which left the lawn, the lake, classes, the library, the hall and the common rooms as the only places where different gender students could meet. Another rule disallowed mingling of houses in the hall or in house common rooms, which means they couldn't talk in the hall and that there was no chance of visiting one another's common rooms; not that they'd ever done that before anyway. They'd never been allowed to talk in classes or the library, so those were out… the only place they could meet were the winters grounds. It was easier to pass messages along in a chain - Ginny would speak to Hermione, then pass on whatever they'd discussed to the Gryffindor boys at breakfast. Sometimes, Harry or Neville would speak to Theo and he would update Hermione. It was inconvenient, and made planning anything almost impossible, which was probably the purpose.

That knowledge only made her hate it even more.

'Unless…' Umbridge smiled widely, 'you tell me exactly why you were in Hogsmeade, and how you got out of the castle.'

'I ran out sugar quills.' Hermione replied easily, producing a handful from the enchanted pocket of her robes. Umbridge's face twisted.

'Don't lie.'

'Fine. I was researching obscure marine life for a school project.' Hermione offered instead, completely deadpan. Umbridge gained a tracing of darker colour, and Hermione couldn't help but think that with her oddly horizontal, squat cheeks, it looked a little like she'd been dusted with red sugar.

'Marine life?' Umbridge spluttered. 'School project?'

'Of course. You asked us to write three pages on inhospitable environments, and Wilbert Slinkhard specifically referred to sub-arctic oceans in chapter nine.'

'You cannot expect me to believe that the reason you left school, at night, was to study sub-arctic oceans.' Umbridge hissed. 'The minister will be hearing about this-'

'I expected nothing less.' Hermione eventually huffed impatiently, cutting Umbridge off impatiently. 'But fortunately it is perfectly legal for me to leave school, although admittedly against school rules.'

'Another week of detention.' Umbridge hissed between her clenched teeth. Hermione had to resist the urge to laugh; it probably didn't matter what she did, Umbridge would never let Hermione out of detention again now that she had grounds to put her in one and Hermione had spent six weeks chained to a table in Russia whilst her magic was tortured into warding a castle against an entire army. The High Priestess was not afraid.

The High Inquisitor began marching Hermione back up the grounds, perhaps to ensure that she did go to breakfast where Umbridge could keep an eye on her, or perhaps to her office to be interrogated more about how she'd left the castle. But it appeared Harry, self sacrificing and noble, had decided to sacrifice himself for the cause of freeing her. Snape appeared, hauling the boy along by the collar of his robes.

'This insolent brat was caught in your office, Delores.' The potions professor looked delighted as he threw Harry and he stumbled, barely managing to catch himself before he fell, quickly flashing Hermione a grin whilst Umbridge was distracted.

Umbridge's expression shifted to utter glee as she looked between the two students.

'Oh ho, a conspiracy. Mr Potter, come with me to my office and we'll see if we can find out just what you were looking for. Severus, I believe you are Miss Grindelwald's head of house - see that she makes no more detours on her way back to breakfast.' Umbridge snatched at the sleeve of Harry's robe and hauled him off up the grounds. Harry mouthed something as he went, which Hermione utterly failed to comprehend. Then suddenly it was just her and Snape.

'I trust that you understand just how foolish it would be to fail to make an appearance in the great hall.' The potions master sneered.

'Yes, Professor.' Hermione answered dutifully, glancing up the grounds towards Ginny.

'Then I see no reason to take the time out of my incredibly busy schedule to ensure you make it in a timely manner.' Snape tilted his chin, waiting until Hermione nodded before sweeping off towards the greenhouses. Hermione hesitated a moment more, wondering at the uncharacteristic behaviour, before she dismissed it as dislike of Umbridge and hurried up the grounds towards Ginny.

The red headed witch bounced on her feet slightly as Hermione approached, knotting her hands in the front of her robe in a way that made Hermione feel suddenly nervous - perhaps Ginny wasn't just waiting for Hermione's report. Perhaps she had something of her own to share; something major, considering it was making the usually confident witch nervous.

'Did you find him?' Ginny asked, as soon as Hermione was within speaking distance.

'We did.' Hermione assured, drawing up alongside her, 'but it was not without difficulty.'

Ginny made a vague sound of agreement, then took a quick breath.

'You know how you've mentioned needing a defence training group?' Ginny began. Hermione nodded. 'Well, you've been really busy and we thought… well, Umbridge's made it nearly impossible… Neville's taken the lead really; he's found a place and spoken to some people…'

'And?' Hermione asked, completely at a loss for what to expect.

'Well, Harry's distracted Umbridge so that we can organise a meeting.' Ginny took a sharp left, into the little annex that the first years used before the sorting.

Her entrance was met by a roar of sound - there was a crowd of students crammed into the room. They seemed to range from second years to seventh, and every house was represented almost equally, mingling in a splash of colour. Neville stood at the head of the crowd, along with Theo. A quick glance showed both Weasley twins and their brother, Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw, Montague and Vaisey from Slytherin and even a small contingent of Hufflepuffs, despite their current animosity towards Hermione and her allies for supposedly usurping their champion.

Theo clapped his hands twice, a sharp call for attention that was far more dignified that raising his voice and magically enhanced to be just as effective. An instant silence fell and every eye turned towards the duo. Hermione remained unnoticed for once, hovering near the door with Ginny.

'Right.' Neville began, the nervous waver in his voice unnoticeable to those who didn't know him. 'So, Umbridge is distracted, so we've got about half an hour before anyone says anything about us being missing.'

'You're all here because you've told us you're interested in learning defence from Lady Gorlois - whether because you've read about her in the prophet and you want to take advantage of her expertise and experience, or because you're worried Umbridge's teaching will make you fail your OWLs… either way, there's a couple of rules before we go any further.'

A couple of people shifted at Theo's words, glancing at their friends nervously.

'Firstly, this group has to be secret. Umbridge doesn't want us learning defence so she'd no doubt take great offence to us learning from the person she's most afraid of.' There was a unanimous murmur of agreement to those rules.

'Secondly,' Neville took up, 'Nobody shares the magic that we learn in these lessons without the permission of the one who taught it. We're learning to protect ourselves, and we don't want this knowledge spreading to those we might need to protect ourselves from in the future.'

Hermione's chest warmed with pride as Neville spoke loudly and clearly, his voice hardening to an unyielding certainty in his own words as he settled into his speech. She'd seen flickers of the wizard that she knew Neville could become, but now that he had taken the leap into leadership, she saw how truly impressive he would become for the first time.

'Finally,' Theo paused, eyes sweeping across the rapt crowd. At his shoulder, Neville drew himself up, revealing a powerful build usually hidden by poor posture and a lack of confidence. 'There's members of every faction in this room; pureblood, halfblood, muggleborn, progressionist, traditionalist, light, dark, neutral. In these meetings, all of that is left at the door. In these meetings, political ideals shall not be used an justification for the perpetration of violence!'

Several people stirred at the announcement, shuffling away from one another as each faction was named and casting suspicious glances at each other.

'And what about you?' Someone hollered from the back. Hermione's eyes flicked over, identifying a large Gryffindor that looked familiar enough to be in her year. 'Who stops you from perpetrating violence against us? Her betrothed did.'

Theo blinked.

Neville shrank back in on himself.

'Nothing.' Hermione declared, her voice ringing clearly across the crowded room. She strode towards the two boys, the crowd parting to allow her through. Her heels clicked in the sudden dead hush that had fallen. Neville offered a hand to help her up onto the dais, looking relieved. Hermione turned on her heel to face the room.

'But nothing protects you from Voldemort either, or the ministry, or Dumbledore.' She turned to face the crowd; perhaps fifty students, all looking at her with wide eyes. 'Nothing except your own wit, power and skill. That is why we are here; to learn to protect ourselves. But we might also gain something else, something that might protect us even better than our own skill; allies. You do not have to like someone, you do not have to agree with them on everything, you may think of them as lesser or morally wrong, but that does not mean you can't appreciate their skills or assets and that does not mean you can't put animosity aside and work together. If we put aside our beliefs, perhaps we will find a way to not graduate into this centuries old war. So, let's take this opportunity to forget our prejudices and learn about one another; you might find your beliefs strengthened, but at least you know what you are fighting for. Or you might find that you were wrong and you can move forwards knowing that you are doing the right thing. We are the next generation, and we must do better than our parents.'

Her words were met with several cheers and claps, scattered throughout the room, before silence fell again. Neville stepped up beside her, standing tall again.

'Heir Nott has a sign up slip - there's a jinx on it, so we'll know if you break any of the rules and we've made some fake galleons, which we can use to communicate without Umbridge knowing. They've got a protean charm on them, so we can change the serial number to pass messages. Don't spend them by mistake because they're also the only way you can get into our meeting place - the chamber of secrets.'

Excited muttering met his words and Neville had to wait several minutes for them to quiet.

'They're transfigured from the scales of the basilisk that used to reside in the chamber, so if you're carrying it, all the plumbing in the castle will resize to fit you - jump into a floor drain, flush yourself down a toilet or drain yourself down the sink or bath and you'll end up in the plumbing. Follow it down, and eventually you'll reach the ward that separates the chamber and the rest of the plumbing. Only people who's names are on the sign up slip can get in - and don't worry, impervious charms and cleaning charms will be the first thing we'll learn.'

Hermione glanced at her allies, impressed by how much they'd achieved and amazed that they'd managed to keep something like this from her. Ginny looked unmistakably proud, whilst the two pureblood boys were doing a better jobs of keeping their expressions blank. Bet Hermione knew them well enough to recognise the little twitches of Theo's mouth and the way that Neville rolled his shoulders back as he presented a galleon to the crowd.

When he lowered his arm, there was a sudden surge of movement as people made their way first to Theo to put their names on the sheet of parchment and then to Neville, who'd pulled out a whole bag of fake galleons and started handing them out to people. It appeared that any hesitation caused by the rules had been quashed by the opportunity to visit the chamber of secrets.

'Good work.' Hermione praised, deliberately adding her own name to the hexed list and picking up a galleon whilst everyone could see in the hopes that it would reassure them that she intended to stick to the no violence rule as well.

Neville grinned brightly and then when everyone had received their galleon, he deliberately pulled out his wand, tapped his galleon and muttered an incantation. Immediately, Hermione's own galleon heated in her pocket and along with almost everyone in the room she picked it up. True to his word, the serial number around the edge shifted before her eyes, changing from the date to a new date in a week's time - just after the second challenge.