Despite my efforts by the second week of November I still had three people pursuing my hand in marriage. Or rather, 3 sets of parents who were not giving up without a fight. I had lost Nott quickly, Crabbe was also easy to get rid of after I casually mentioned that our ancestors had produced a squib together. And that like them, I would never give up a possible future child if it had no magic. If anything, this process has shown just how accepting and progressive my branch of the Rosier tree is. Thankfully Goyle had no interest whatsoever in me and Malfoy isn't here so I can avoid that cousin clusterfuck. Which just leaves the sixth-year boys. I punched Wilbur Kershaw in the face after he suggested we skip the formality of marriage and just go straight to having sex. I was surprised I didn't get in trouble for it too because Professor Flitwick walked into the corridor as my fist made contact with his nose. Rather than tell me off he just turned around. Nicholas Nott was also easy to get rid of. Mainly because we know each other and get along. Also, the fact that Theodore had put his parents off me as a possible suitor so much so that they no longer wanted me as a daughter in law even for their second son. This left Barnaby Rochester, Crispin O'Brien and Damian Gosforth. All quite low-ranking families within pureblood circles. Marrying someone that carries the Rosier bloodline would propel them in society to a much higher status. Even if they had no want at all to marry me. Which is the case here. None of the boys in question are interested, their parents are. So, I'm being non-enthusiastically hounded by them. I've almost considered grabbing Blaise and kissing him in the entrance hall just to finally put them off.
I decided against it ultimately because it would probably cause more problems than solve the ones I already have. Even being seen in the presence of Blaise had caused some problems. Mainly glares from students who didn't know me and thought I had jumped ships. Those who did know me, well they tried their best to convince people I'm not a death eater now. I understand what Blaise meant by horrible by association. Its not very nice being lumped into a group just because of who you are essentially forced to hang around with. There are a few good points though. Daniel has so far avoided a few punches that he most definitely deserved. That may be problem, his ego has been somewhat inflated. The girls and I have generally been much safer walking the halls alone as if anyone thought to start some mild threatening or harassment it would get back to Blaise. I'm not saying the guys wouldn't also want to enact some revenge. They would love too. They would however end up in the hospital wing after the beating they would receive from the Carrows as punishment. And they're much more use to us in one piece. Also we'd never forgive ourselves if they got really injured.
We had grown dramatically closer over the past few months than we ever thought we would get. We had lived together for a long time, but we had our own groups within it. Julia and I had always been a duo, just like Declan and Russell and Trevor and Nick had been. Only Nick hadn't returned this year, neither had Beverly who hung out with Kate and Daniel. We tried to make friends with Luna but at 11 and 12, being a bit weird doesn't mix well even if you try to make it. The boys made fun of her as did Beverly. The rest of us were as nice as we could be. To be honest I still have no idea what she goes on about. I have bought a few Quibblers over the years though. They made me more confused in all honesty. Luna had made friends outside Ravenclaw though and spent most of her time with them rather than us. We only really saw her in the dormitory. The rest of us had formed a tight knit group that tried to remain together as much as possible. We at least had someone in every class, so we didn't have to walk alone. At least once a week Julia, Kate and I ended up coming to one another's aid in the middle of the night when we were having nightmares. Most of the time we ended up crawling into their bed so they could fall asleep again feeling safe. In the library, the seven of us plus Blaise had commandeered another table last week as the workload had started to make its way onto the floor around us which was really starting to annoy everyone.
The workload had increased for every subject apart from Dark Arts that is. The beatings still happened although it was very good to know that we were moving on to less… aggressive forms of dark arts. This included learning about dark magical objects and creatures. I mean even though it was very depressing, I'd rather learn about cursed jewellery than get hit with the cruciatus curse for an hour. If it keeps us from bleeding I'll put up with it. Just need to block the horrible anecdotes and threats to make us wear them and it may as well be history of magic with Binns. Speaking of Binns, they tried to get him to teach a new curriculum on the history they wanted us to learn. It didn't go too well. Its hard to threaten a ghost. The man has no weaknesses. All his family are in the afterlife, presumably dreading the day he finally makes the move and they too are once again subjected to his dull toned lectures. So, points to the real teachers for that one. They also threatened McGonagall, in her own classroom. One of the Carrows had come into class during the first week of November and sat at the back watching her like a hawk. A silly move in my mind considering she can turn into a cat. I have no doubt at all that in cat form she could take down an actual hawk. So, watching her take down an idiot death eater without a single flick of her wand was true magic.
It was like watching a scene in those muggle war films. They had swung the door open with a crash and loudly announced that they were 'going to be keeping an eye on her classes this week to make sure she wasn't teaching anything she shouldn't be'. This resulted in glares in the direction of some of the Slytherins with well known parents. Although they didn't look happy at all with this situation either. Say what you want about McGonagall, the woman has respect. She hadn't said a word until this point, and merely gestured to take a seat. This woman had taken on Umbridge, a Carrow was nothing. So, we continued the lesson as normal, because of course she isn't teaching us things she shouldn't. She's been using transfiguration to arm us since the year started. Why teach things outside your subject when your subject is quite frankly already a little terrifying. This was apparently going over the head of our supervisor however as ten minutes in they were already slouching and being annoying. There is nothing more annoying that someone making disgruntled noises behind you while you're trying to turn your little finger into a claw. Human transfiguration is very hard. Without the interruptions. Which is when professor McGonagall finally snapped and delivered a line I'm so glad I was there to witness.
"Amycus if you insist on watching me like a hawk at least sit like one, maybe that way you may actually learn something, unlike your previous attempts of studying transfiguration"
The whole class froze. Well froze and gripped onto their wands tighter. If he did anything he was downright stupid to think we wouldn't defend her. But he just walked out. Which could be worse. Although I have yet to see her sporting a black eye, Snape has probably kept him at bay. He knows what an attack on a teacher would cause, he would have a revolt on his hands. They could harm us but harming the people we actually respected around here and goodbye Carrows, your exit is at the top of the astronomy tower.
It was after this week of watching over professors that a wave of attacks began all over the school. Only difference was these attacks were not on individuals but rather the school itself. The graffiti drew great crowds the first morning it appeared. The words DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY, STILL RECRUITING painted bright red on the wall of the fourth-floor corridor. It sent ripples of conversation throughout the school. Everyone knew who'd done it, we shared a dorm with one of them and classes with another. So, we weren't surprised to see Neville, Ginny and Luna with heavily bruised faces the next day. The only problem being that while they were receiving their punishment, more graffiti had popped up around the corridors. It continued for another two weeks, each time getting braver. It wasn't like this was the first-time stuff like this had happened since the school year began, last month it had slowly started with protecting students from the Carrows. Then it had moved to rescuing students from detention, now the graffiti. It culminated in Michael Corner being caught trying to free a chained-up first year.
We were currently waiting for him to return to the common room. The news that he had been caught spread like wildfire throughout the day and no one had seen him yet. We had forced the younger children to their dorms as quite frankly if he'd been gone this long, when he did come back it wasn't going to be pretty. By 9pm it was just the sixth and seventh years that remained as we had forced even the fifth years upstairs to bed. When he finally stumbled and fell through the door, we all jumped up from our seats and rushed over to him. He was unrecognisable. His face was covered in blood, deep gashes on his cheeks still flowing steadily. His right eye socket was clearly shattered, and his nose broken. We hadn't even looked at his body yet. He had cuts up his arms where he was clearly trying to shield his face. His fingers were bent at odd angles and his shirt was ripped open revealing burns like cigarette burns but I had a feeling these were wand related.
We lifted him up and gently as we could, taking him to one of the couches.
"Anthony get the dittany!" I shout
He runs over to the cabinet that currently stocked whatever medical supplies we could get out of madam Pomfrey.
"Get some towels someone and anything we can use to stop the bleeding" says Morag shuffling around taking his shoes and shirt off so we can assess the damage.
His chest is heavily bruised. Definitely some broken ribs. Let's hope he hasn't got a punctured lung or something because that is way beyond our skill set. The burns to his upper chest we can at least put to the bottom of the list. Anthony hands me the dittany and I shakily try to uncork it. The blood on my hands makes my fingers slip. Padma takes it from my hands and opens it for me, I give her a look of thanks. Lisa, Mandy and Sue are stood frozen in the corner while Terry tries to calm them down. Kate and Daniel are stood at the dormitory doors to make sure no one comes into the common room.
"Luna can you fix his fingers and nose like you fixed Russell's last week?" I ask and she nods, getting to work
Declan and Trevor appear with towels and start to apply pressure to the wounds all over his body. I beckon Julia and Russell to hold his shoulders down before we start the dittany. I look to Padma and nod and she shakily hands me a stopper full of dittany.
"Right get ready guys, if anything is going to wake him up its this"
I squeeze the stopper over his arms, and he jumps up yelling in pain. Julia and Russell hold him down as much as they can, trying to calm him down. The yells continue as I move onto his cheeks. Movement upstairs signals that students are very much aware of what's happening. There's a rush of steps down to the common room but Kate and Daniel struggle to keep students from entering the room. This seems to get Lisa, Mandy and Sue to spring into action and they go over to help keep students at bay. Morag is cleaning up as much of the blood as possible, which is helping to show what injuries he actually has. Most of the blood seems to be coming from the arm and face injuries thankfully. Every so often there's a snap as Luna fixes another finger. Padma keeps refilling the stopper for me and I'm very nervous as the only bleeding wound left is his eye socket. Julia and Russell hold down his shoulders harder and Terry grabs his legs.
"I'm sorry Michael but this one is really going to hurt ok?"
The yell is deafening. Anthony and Terry are yelling out too. As his eye begins to heal, he becomes very silent. The pain must have been too much and he's passed out. Terry and Anthony begin to shout and shake him trying to wake him up. He begins to stir a little and we all breathe a sigh of relief. As Luna finishes fixing his nose with a final crack, he lets out a feeble groan. Julia grabs a vial of pepper up potion and shoves it down his throat.
"Do we have any diluted Skelegrow solution or calming draught?"
Anthony moves over to the cabinet. He looks through the vials hurriedly.
"Skelegrow, yes but no calming draught. We do have a sleeping draught though"
"I don't feel safe giving him the sleeping one just the Skelegrow then to help his ribs and face"
After struggling to get him to down the Skelegrow, he calms down more and the rest of us stop to breathe. The other students had been convinced to head back to bed, so we all sat on the floor in silence. I look down at my blood-soaked hands and clothes and let out a few tears. I don't know how long we sat there just watching him, making sure he didn't decide to die on us. A few house elves appeared to clean the dormitory and let out squeals when they saw him on the couch. Terry explained the situation and they left pretty quickly taking the towels and his bloody clothes. We had to wait until morning before we could send word to Flitwick or the hospital wing. He came back after curfew and getting caught trying to get either the professor or madam Pomfrey wasn't an option. Padma had used a funny galleon to tell the others in Dumbledore's army what had happened. At first light Mandy and Lisa had hurried through the door to fetch professor Flitwick and madam Pomfrey. As we waited, students began trickling up into the common room, letting out gasps of horror as they saw the scene in front of them. We didn't have the energy to tell them to go back. Luckily it was Saturday. Terry and Anthony were still by Michaels side. They hadn't moved since last night, watching over him closely.
Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey bounded into the common room like bulls and set to work looking him over. When they had given him the all clear for danger, they looked at us in awe.
"Who helped him?" asks Madam Pomfrey
"All of us" says Padma "But mainly Isobel, she administered the dittany and told us what to do. What potions to give him and that"
"Well Miss MacDonald, you should be proud of yourself. If you students hadn't thought quick on your feet Mr Corner would be in a very serious condition"
Madam Pomfrey took Michael to the hospital wing after telling us to all get cleaned up and some rest. We would be allowed to visit in the afternoon. We all wearily stood up and made our way upstairs. I sat in the shower crying for a while, as the dried blood washed away. We all took a sip of the sleeping draught and went to bed for a few hours. When I finally stumbled up into the oddly quiet common room in the afternoon, the blood-soaked couch and surrounding floor were now clean but that didn't mean anyone wanted to sit there. No one sat on it until Michael was released from the hospital wing a few days later when he boldly announced that he'd always wanted his own private couch with a laugh. It soon became reacquainted with Terry and Anthony who weren't going to give him the satisfaction of his own couch just because he 'got himself tortured'.
Dumbledore's army activity dropped a bit after Michael. Mainly just graffiti and messing with minor things around school. It was very clear that the Carrows did in fact have a skill set; torture. And quite frankly, no one wanted to be on the receiving end of it after seeing what happened to Michael. Although after what had happened, I couldn't help but thinking every time I walked past some graffiti, who exactly do I talk to about recruitment? I made a note to ask Michael after Christmas. I needed time to think. By the end of November, the student body had only one thing on its mind, Christmas. Going home. Getting there in one piece. Most importantly however; asking ourselves, would we come back?