A/N: I have the best readers. I love your reviews, each and every one. Special thanks to guest reviewers - I can't send you PMs to reply directly :). Now let's get down to some shenanigans.
Chapter 9
"Your father and I miss you terribly, Hermione. We miss our practice as well, and our friends and our clients. But we're so glad to be in such a safe place. And it really has improved from what you saw in the summer.
"That professor of yours showed up last night. He was ever so kind – he knocked on the front door of his own home. He needed to gather some supplies from the cellar, which he has kept locked since we arrived here. I will admit some curiosity regarding whatever it is he keeps down there, but the look on his face when I asked for a tour told me all I need to know. He told us that you and he are to have weekly meetings this year during your reign as Head Girl. Oh, Hermione, I'm so proud of you. It sounds like Professor Snape wants to take you under his wing, and that can only be to the good, my dear. I know that he is far from your favourite teacher at Hogwarts, but he's bound to have excellent connections in your world.
"Anyway, Daddy and I are off to do our exercises in the backyard – it is hard to be holed up here all the time, but we are trying to keep fit. Our love to you, my darling girl."
Hermione read the missive twice more before taking out her wand and Vanishing it. She glanced around the Great Hall. Monday morning breakfasts were usually a subdued thing, and she saw more than a few students looking towards her furtively, only to look away again once she caught their eye. She had requested that McGonagall call a meeting on the schedules of those students who had already signed the DA's roster. They would meet that evening in the Room of Requirement to enrol new members and make plans for the year. Hermione especially wanted to discuss how to counter the Carrow siblings' tight hold on the school.
She pushed back from the bench and stood, catching Ginny's eye. The girl winked at her before turning back to her conversation with Neville. Hermione left the Great Hall with Luna, as planned.
"So tonight's the night?" Luna asked as they crossed in the Entrance Hall.
"Yes," she whispered. "You're good to bring the third years you mentioned, but clear anyone else with Ginny or Neville first."
"That sounds fine," Luna answered, grinning mildly at her.
Hermione walked Luna to her first class – Charms. They discussed plans to make leaflets visible only to DA members, detailing safety measures to counter some of the nastier things the Carrows had been doing. Hermione then went down the corridor towards the Library.
"Granger," said a voice behind her. She looked back to see Malfoy detach himself from a frowning Pansy Parkinson and hurry to catch up with her.
"What do you want, Malfoy?"
He fell into step beside her.
"You're not walking with a buddy, Granger," he said in a low voice.
"I don't answer to you, Malfoy, and you know that those rules are for the other students," she said. She stopped and faced him in the corridor. "What do you want?"
"I want to know what Snape and you talked about during your meeting on Friday," Malfoy answered, his eyes intent.
Hermione felt her eyebrows shoot up.
"No," she said immediately. "It's none of your business. Get to class, Malfoy. I know you have Transfiguration now."
She turned away from him, but he followed behind her once again.
"It can be an exchange, Granger," he said, his voice pitched very low. "I'll tell you if you'll tell me."
"No fucking way," she answered. "Shove off, Malfoy, I've got reading to do."
Anger swept over his face, but Hermione turned her back to him firmly and walked into the library. She had research to do before the meeting tonight.
"Quiet down, everyone," Ginny said, shooting red sparks into the air.
The entire DA, minus Harry, Ron and the Muggle-borns, faced the last Weasley left at Hogwarts, and quieted down immediately. They had each brought at least one non-member they wanted admitted to the group who had already been pre-approved by one of the other leaders and Hermione.
"So," Ginny said, her voice businesslike, "you each need to sign the paper there," she pointed to the new contract tacked to the wall of the Room of Requirement, "before we can go any further. And yes, before you ask, you will be as sorry as that Edgecomb sneak if you even think of betraying us. If you don't want to sign this, Hermione will Obliviate you in short order, and any protection you might have received from the DA will be forfeit." Ginny had negotiated this point over Hermione and Neville's protests. "Who's first?"
There was some grumbling, but the students lined up and, one by one, added their names to the list. Hermione let out a breath. The Room of Requirement was almost identical to how it had been during the original DA's meetings, but it was larger, better-equipped, and it seemed that Neville had figured out a way to make it impregnable. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of the Carrow siblings suddenly interrupting a DA session. Somehow she thought that their reaction would make Dolores Umbridge look like a kitten.
"Right," she said loudly, once the last signature had been scrawled on the parchment. "Thank you all for coming. The first order of business will be to elect an official leader – "
"All in favour of Hermione, raise your hand," Ginny interrupted firmly, her voice ringing out over their heads. Hermione glared at her, but was startled when every single hand shot up. She felt herself blushing.
"Right," she said again. "Er… thanks. So, now that's settled, I'd like to go over the aims of our organization this year. First off, we need to ensure the safety of our fellow members, and of Hogwarts students in general. Our primary threats this year are Headmaster Snape and the Carrow siblings. Professor Snape has already told me to assign all detentions I give out to Hagrid, which is a win for us. The Carrows, though, seem keen on administering their punishments more… er… directly." She looked at the young Ravenclaws Luna had brought; they all sported magnificent bruises across both cheeks. "I implore each and every one of you not to offer them any reason to punish you. Keep your head down, and try not to rise to any kind of bait."
"What about Carrow's duels, Hermione?" Lavender asked pointedly. "Even you wouldn't participate."
"Thanks, Lavender, for bringing up my next point," Hermione said, smiling wanly. "Yes, although Alecto Carrow seems content to drone on about the filth of Muggles and Muggle-borns in lieu of teaching class, her brother wants all of us to, essentially, hurt one another during his classes. I believe that Luna has figured out an effective way to counter that particular demand. Luna?"
Luna nodded, her radish earrings swinging. She stood up taller, and smiled dreamily at the assembly before beginning.
"I believe," she said, "that if enough of us try, we can just fake these duels for the most part. I'm working on a charm to create illusory bruises and cuts. It's a bit tricky, but I think we can train ourselves to perform the charm silently while saying the curse incantations aloud."
"What if we're against a Slytherin?" a voice called out.
Hermione nodded at Luna in thanks, and looked around at the faces before her; they looked as sceptical as she herself had felt before Luna had explained the charm to her in detail. It would take some more time to complete, but Hermione was confident that Luna would make it easy enough for even the third-years to manage. Luckily, Carrow did not seem to expect the youngest students to fight – yet.
"Thanks, Luna," Hermione said, taking over once more. "In the meantime, and to address the previous question, I suggest that we all practice Disarming and Shield Charms as much as possible so that if we're in a duel with a member of Slytherin, we can at least defend ourselves. Neville," she smiled at the plump boy next to her, "has managed to keep this Room in existence as long as at least one member of the DA is inside at all times. I have therefore devised a schedule for two students to occupy the room at all times throughout the day during their free periods. This means that you will all have access to a space not only for safety, but for practice as well, should you need it. Neville?"
"Thanks, Hermione," Neville said, stepping forward. "It'll be a pain to keep the Room open all night, but we've already figured out a way to link up Hermione's dormitory with the Room, so she can spend her nights here, and the Gryffindors can get to her through Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. As the DA expands, we'll be able to rotate more people in and out of the Room more and more during the day. It'll be a bit tough at first, but us older students have enough free periods to cover the time – we think."
A fourth-year Hufflepuff raised her hand tentatively. Neville nodded to her.
"Uh, sorry, but… " she trailed off shyly, "but what if the Carrows or Snape notice that there's less students around?"
"Two less students on continual rotation shouldn't make a difference to anyone," Hermione said. "The schedule will alternate often enough that no one will miss meals entirely, and like Neville says, when membership climbs high enough, we'll easily have enough people to keep the Room open without any strain on anyone." She noticed a few unconvinced faces. "This leads me to my next point…"
She continued, outlining their recruitment plan: she wanted to recruit every single member of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. They were to start with the younger students next, who would be enrolled later that week, and then fill in the gaps the following week. By the end of September, the three houses would all be DA members.
The rest of the meeting was taken up with practicing defensive magic, and a re-emphasis of the importance of circulating through the school in pairs.
"Well, that was stressful," Neville sighed, dropping down onto one of the squashy cushions they'd used during practice. Everyone except for him, Hermione, Luna, and Ginny had left.
"Yes," Luna said vaguely, "it was a little, but I think it went well overall."
"Are you sure you're okay to spend nights here?" Ginny asked Hermione, looking at her closely. "It'll be a bit spooky all alone, won't it?"
Hermione shrugged.
"Not really," she pointed to a door on the far side of the room. "If I need anyone, you're just a door away. Plus," she added, nudging Neville, "someone was kind enough to ask the Room for a comfortable bedroom for me."
"Right, then, we'd better be off," Ginny said.
"Hang on," Hermione said, taking the Marauder's Map back out of her pocket; she had used it to guide the other students safely back to their common rooms. "Okay, you and Neville are good to go – we're just two corridors away from the Gryffindor common room at the moment. But Luna needs an escort. Would you two mind cleaning up a bit while I see Luna back to the Ravenclaw common room?"
"'Course not," Neville chirped.
"Goodnight, friends," Luna said to Ginny and Neville, as she and Hermione left the Room of Requirement.
Hermione was alone on the way back to the Room of Requirement; although it let out at a different point in the castle every time someone exited, it remained approachable on the seventh floor, and so she had to go up two floors, and get to the other side of the castle. The Carrows, she saw on the Marauder's Map, were patrolling in a pair on the third floor, and Snape was pacing his office. She groaned inwardly: Malfoy's little dot was right outside of the Room on the seventh floor.
"Shit," Hermione said in an undertone as she ascended to the sixth floor. She kept going, trying hard not to worry when she saw that Malfoy was still stationary outside the Room when she arrived. She had already made a mental note to ask Neville about making the Room appear elsewhere to access from the outside.
"I thought I might find you here, Granger," Malfoy said when he saw her. He leaned lazily against the statue of Barnabas the Barmy.
"Malfoy," she said. "What is it?"
"I want to know what you're doing inside the Room of Hidden Things."
Hermione shook her head.
"Go on back to your Common Room, Malfoy," she told him. "There's nothing for you here."
He pushed himself off the statue and stood before Hermione. She had expected anger and resentment followed by threats, but he simply looked at her.
"Alright then," he said quietly. "But I know that something is going on here. I saw how many students came towards this place earlier."
Hermione felt her face start to heat up, but quashed the fear immediately, and shrugged.
"So what if you did?"
Malfoy returned the shrug and turned away. At the end of the hall, he paused.
"Be careful," he said over his shoulder. "The Carrows are patrolling tonight, and they know that you, Longbottom, and Weasley are still out of bed."
The night was long. Hermione couldn't help feeling odd in the huge Room of Requirement, despite the little corner Neville had asked it to set aside for her, and despite the fact that the Room had kindly shut off the larger DA headquarters in response to her discomfort. Finally, after tossing and turning on the comfortable four-poster that looked and felt exactly like the one in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione sat up and flicked a candle to life. She sat still, at a loss for a moment before drawing the Marauder's Map out of the beaded bag.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," she said quietly to the map, "and that I can't sleep to boot."
The lines appeared, and Hermione checked on her friends and fellow DA members first. They were all ensconced in their respective dormitories. She saw that Peeves was bouncing around the Great Hall, and that Filch was crossing the Entrance Hall, doubtlessly to confront the poltergeist. The Carrows had separated; Alecto was now in her office, while her brother continued to patrol. Hermione looked at Dumbledore's office, and was surprised not to find Snape there; she scanned the map and saw his little dot off to the side, somewhere deep in the Forbidden Forest. She watched, puzzled, as he meandered through the woods in a large circle around the castle, until he had reached the edge of the forest, and she suddenly wished that the Room had a window.
Pop!
Hermione gasped and then smiled when she saw a window appear in the wall next to her bed, knowing already that it would overlook the precise spot where Snape must now be walking. She got up before thinking about it and peered through the small window. A shadow stood at the edge of the forest. The waxing moon was rising behind the castle, throwing silvery light across the lawn, and lighting the pale countenance of Severus Snape, who stood perfectly still, looking up at the stars. Hermione stared at him for a few moments. Is he returning from Voldemort? Is there something else in the Forest tonight that he needed to put to rest? Or is he just… walking…
He was too far away – she could not make out his features – but suddenly he was turning and then facing the castle.
"Shit," she said, and ducked out from behind the window as quickly as she could. She stared at the candle on her bedside table. Would he have been able to make her out, backlit as she had been? She shook her head ruefully; any decent spy would have known to extinguish the light before looking out into the night. She did so now, waited a few moments and then peered back outside.
Snape still stood at the edge of the forest, and Hermione felt her stomach swoop when she saw that his head was still turned her way. As she watched, the dark man nodded once in her direction, and then turned and walked on.