"Blah." Talking

"Blah" Parseltongue

'Blah' Thinking

Blah Memories/Flashbacks

Blah Dreams

Author's Notes: LOOK EVERYONE!! I was able to get this chapter up before 2008! YAY!!

"I have a plan." Ginny whispered to Harry and Ron as the three of them were walking into the Great Hall for dinner. The youngest redhead walked over to sit with Luna at the Ravenclaw table. Hermione was already eating, sandwiched between the Twins, who appeared to be asking her something.

The second Ron and Harry took their seats across from Hermione, the world tilted abruptly. This tilt had a name: Lavender Brown. Harry's head connected to the ground with a crack as he was shoved violently off the bench. The Great Hall, almost as one, winced.

"Oh, Won Won, it was HORRIBLE! I was teased something awful today by that ugly Parkinson cow! She wouldn't leave me alone!" Lavender was trying to sound coy, but she just sounded constipated. Harry rubbed the back of his head as he got up off the floor.

"Oh, I didn't see you there, Potter. You want something?" Lavender turned around, flipping her hair in Harry's face. Harry glared at her and was about to say something, when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Is there a problem Lavender?" Tonks' voice sent a chill down Harry's spine, and there were alarms sounding in Harry's head.

'Away. Get away from her'

"No, Ms. Tonks. No problem. Potter was just going to leave." Lavender smiled up at Tonks, which caused the young Auror to release Harry. Harry glared at Lavender before walking, shaking with rage, out of the Great Hall.

Ginny's whispered words came to his mind and he hoped she didn't do this "plan" in the Great Hall.

Albus called the Order meeting to silence. He tiredly whipped his glasses on his sleeve, causing a few members to look on in worry.

"We need to discuss Dolores Umbridge and her influence on the students." No sooner then the words came out of his mouth, pandemonium swept through the room.

"She's a menace to education!"

"She is hindering the students from being able to defend themselves!"

"There are accusations of her threatening the staff; the students!"

"She thinks she can turn this school into her own army for the Ministry?"

"Dolores is a wonderful person, who is just doing her job! She's an upstanding citizen, and just abiding by the law!"

The last comment made everyone look in shock at Tonks. She was glaring at everyone, her hands clenched on the table.

"You can't say she's a bad person; she is good. WE are the ones that are the unlawful rebels! Look at us, talking about uprooting the Ministry, believing a lying, attention-seeking-" That was as far as she got before Molly Weasley punched her from across the table. As Tonks got up, she looked furious, the whole table looked shocked at Molly's actions. Even Molly herself looked at her hand in amazement, not quite believing what just happened.

"That's my shirt!" Lavender accused, pointing dramatically at Ginny's blouse. Ginny looked up at the older girl with an annoyed expression.

"Give it back!" Lavender grabbed a handful of Ginny's hair, yanking her out of her seat towards the dorms. Ginny somehow managed to smack the older girl and from there, an all out catfight occurred.

Hands yanked at hair, faces were slapped, Ginny got a good kick in, and Lavender finally remembered she was a witch and got out her wand. Ginny dove for it the second it was in the older girl's hand. Lavender slapped Ginny across the face as the two went tumbling to the ground.

Ron and Harry were looking on in amazed helplessness. A rip sounded through the room suddenly. Ginny had ripped a portion of Lavender's shirt off, right over the black spot Harry had been trying to see since the beginning of school. This was it: this was Ginny's plan.

The black spot on the girl was darker then ever, and it emitted a horrid stench, like a thousand corpses. The more Harry looked at it, the more he wanted to hurl. The stench was overpowering, but it was nothing in comparison to the emotions.

This spot was saturated in emotions: fear, despair, helplessness, hopelessness, rage and hate. Harry placed the back of his palm against his mouth, almost losing the contents of his stomach. Ron and Hermione pulled both girls past him, with the intent to bring them to McGonagall.

Later, as he was huddled in the shower crying, he could not recall how he got upstairs.

The first thing Harry was aware of was that he was being roughly grabbed by the arms. The next thing was that he was also being dragged somewhere.

What was going on? Where was he?

"Please, let go of me! I'm sorry, I'll do what ever you want, PLEASE!" His voice begged and shouted at the faceless people.

A door opened in front of him, and he was pulled in.

He was strapped to a table, there was something wet underneath him, his heart started beating wildly. The two faceless people grinned down at him manically. He saw the glint of silver.

I don't want to die.

I Don't Want To Die.

I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

Harry, Hermione, and Ron knew that most of Hogwarts was under watch by either the Order or Professor Umbridge, if not both. They knew because as Harry was able to see magic, he could also distinguish between different types of magic, or see spells like Moody's eye. He taught Ron and Hermione every privacy spell known to man, and a few that weren't. The two had researched every counter spell to every spying, eavesdropping, and other similar types of spells known to man, all so the three of them were absolutely certain that they were able to have truly private conversations.

And in researching all of that they also noticed something rather nice: both parties of spying adults left every bathroom in Hogwarts clean. There were no spells to see into bathrooms or hear what was going on in them. No monitoring spells to see who was in and at what times. They were clean.

This fact was what brought all three of them into the Prefect's bathroom that Harry had used during Fourth year.

"So… let me get this straight. You are suggesting that instead of simply using the spells I've taught you, that we all take a bath together to have serious conversations." Harry gave Hermione a skeptical look.

"It's a foolproof plan. If they suddenly stop hearing and seeing us often it will get suspicious, and when Ministry officials get suspicious, it is bad. This way we don't go off the radar so much; less suspicion." Hermione sounded so confident and casual.

"Wait, sorry, I can't seem to grasp this concept. You want to actually take a bath… naked… with two other equally naked guys?" Ron sounded incredulous. Hermione gave him a look.

"As long as nothing inappropriate happens, I don't see the problem." Hermione spoke as if to a small child.

"Nothing inappropriate? All three of us taking a bath together seems pretty inappropriate to me." Ron shot back.

"There are such things as shared baths, or public baths, so really it isn't that inappropriate." Harry chimed in. Ron gave him a look as if to say you-are-not-helping-so-hush.

"Two against one, Ron. Besides, we'll all take a bubble bath and have towels." Hermione ended the conversation with a smirk.

When the trio had first appeared in the bathroom, Ron had turned his back on the two other members of the trio to allow them to get undressed. The humorous thing was, Ron was the only one who was embarrassed. Hermione was nervous, but she trusted the other two boys in the room, so she had no problem getting undressed… but that was mostly due to the amazing girl technique called "Undressing While In A Towel." It consisted of having the towel around your clothed body and taking the clothes off. Hermione was impressed with herself.

Harry on the other hand was far to used to having his body used as a sexual tool for his Uncle that undressing in front of two people he trusted more then himself was easy. Ron, who was at the time in the middle of unclothing himself, ripped the rest of his clothes off while muttering to himself darkly, when Harry had told his two friends that tidbit of information.

They were… comfortable, as strange as it was.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione seriously.

"She's dead." The two blinked in confusion. "Lavender Brown. She's dead."

"Harry, if she's dead… then how is she walking around perfectly normal?" Ron asked.

"It's not possible, even if a necromancer woke her, she would be… not normal. Almost as if she was under Imperius." Hermione added to Ron's assessment of the situation. What Harry was saying was not making sense.

"I know all of that, but I'm telling you: She. Is. Dead." Harry ground out each word with such a certainty that Ron and Hermione knew he was telling the truth.

"That still brings the question of how she is walking about." Ron said, waving his hands around for emphasis.

"I don't know how she's managing that either. We have to figure out the whys first before the how's." Harry allowed himself to sink a bit in the hot bath water of the prefect's tube.

Draco was scared. He was absolutely terrified as he stood in front of this woman. This was their government? No wonder the Dark Lord wanted a change.

"Imperio." Tonks' voice rang out as she placed Cho Chang under the Imperius Cruse. Draco looked at his childhood friends Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson and realized something that was very hard to accept. He could not relate to them. As he watched while they smirked at this poor girl being made to do things against her will, he realized that he truly did not understand them. And, for some reason, that bothered him a lot more then he thought it would.

These thoughts were still running in his head after Umbridge and Tonks had dismissed the Inquisitorial Squad. He was so caught up in his thoughts, he walked right into Severus Snape. Upon realizing who it was, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Professor, I have to talk to you. It's about Chang." He wasn't sure why, but he could have sworn that he heard Harry scream in the back of his mind.

Harry was going mad. Absolutely, bloody mad. And it was all Draco's fault. Ron looked over at Harry in sympathy. Harry really tried his best to pay attention to Draco's words, but his lips were quite distracting.

'I'll be fine, if Ron doesn't leave us alone.' Harry thought to himself. And, as if he heard him, Ron stood up and left the room. Harry had a fleeting holy-crap moment. But Draco's voice pulled his attention back to the blonde in front of him. Mad. Absolutely Mad.

Harry finally lost what little control he had and kissed Draco. Draco tasted of chocolate and rain. He whimpered, lost in the taste of Draco. How had he denied himself this? Why had he denied himself this?

Ron pushed Lavender away from him.

"Look, Lavender, Could you just slow down a bit?" Lavender looked at him in calculated confusion.

"Don't you want to do it, Ron?" Lavender asked tilting her head in a manner that she thought was cute.

'Crap. I need to be close to this gossip girl... how am I going to do this without having to have sex with her?'

"Well, Lavender… don't you think it will mean more if we wait?" Ron was desperately hoping that Lavender would agree, otherwise Harry's plan might not work.

'Well, technically, you don't know that. After all you don't even know what his plan is… holy crap, I'm referring to myself in third person.'

"Not really. Everyone is doing it; why wait?"

'Well, there goes our relationshit.'

"Look. I don't want to have sex with you. Not now, or ever. So, I think maybe we should stop dating."

"What was that?" Draco panted out, looking at Harry with a confused look. Harry was panting too, his hands on both Draco's shoulders, keeping the other boy a safe distance away. He was looking away from Draco, eyes glued to the wall as if it were the most interesting thing on the planet.

"That was me losing the last strand of self-control I have." Harry responded, closing his eyes. He felt Draco's hand on his cheek, forcing him to acknowledge the other person in the room.

"So, I take it you've wanted to do that for awhile?" Draco brought their foreheads together.

"Since Third Year to be precise." Harry ran his hands down Draco's arms, noticing the shiver Draco gave.

"Why?" Curiosity saturated Draco's whispered voice.

"For reasons you would not understand right now." Harry kissed Draco again, whimpering when the other boy pushed him away gently.

"It has something to do with the bond between us, doesn't it?" Harry tilted his head to the right, smiling the creepy, chilling smile that Draco hadn't seen for awhile.

"Yes. No. Doesn't matter. It is there, but it doesn't control me, if that's your question." Harry pushed Draco over, so he was straddling the other boy's waist.

"Are you frightened of me, Draco?" Harry could hear it, the beating of Draco's heart. It was loud to his ears, beating erratically. A steady drum that Harry would constantly have in the back of his mind now that the two were reconnecting.

"No."

"Then why is your heart beating so fast?"

"I don't know." Their lips came together again, ending the conversation.

Lucius Malfoy did not sneak. He did not eavesdrop from around corners. He did not peek into offices, or tiptoe. He did not hunch, period.

He strolled haughtily. He sauntered sexily. He happened to overhear conversations made by incautious idiots. He happened to find his way into other people's offices when they weren't there.

"Malfoy, what are you doing?" Arthur Weasley whispered from his "hiding" place. The two men were currently spying on Tonks and a young girl from Hogwarts, whose name escaped Lucius. The two of them were in the records room, looking for something or another. The Ministry tended to use the records room like a storage closet. It was hell trying to find anything in there, as things from laws to bloodlines were stored in the room. Even copies of burned or banned books were in this bloody mess of a room.

Speaking of blood, Lucius was sure this book next to him was a copy of How To Do Blood Magic by some distant relative of his. 'Onto other matters: I can't hear them...'

"Shut up, Weasley. I'm getting closer to hear what they're saying." He walked silently to a closer bookshelf. The bookshelf was nothing more then a very big, very wide pile of parchment and books. Lucius spotted the Potter and Weasley bloodlines and quickly handed them to the other man.

"Very good Chang. Just get me that book over there." Tonks spoke as if to a dog, petting the girl's hair in a similar manner. The girl reached towards something out of sight. Lucius shifted where he was so he could try to see the young girl's face. The first thing he saw was her vacant eyes, staring at nothing.

"Shit. The girl's under Imperius." He hissed at Weasley. The other man frowned, fire dancing in his eyes.

"Tonks put a child under Imperius?" Arthur hated adults who harmed children or took advantage of them. It was one of the reasons he was with the Order.

'When did Tonks become the exact type of person I hate?'

"Chang, take that to Umbridge."

Lucius looked at Arthur, confused. 'Umbridge?' He mouthed to the other man. Arthur turned pale, whispering a shaky reply to Lucius' question.

"Umbridge is the new Defense teacher at Hogwarts."

Harry was walking back from the Dungeons; he had just walked Draco back to his room. On the ground floor he saw the doors open and Cho Chang came slinking inside. She was holding something. Harry stood in the shadows of the entrance to the ground floor, waiting for her to pass him by.

Cho came into the light and Harry immediately recognized the signs of the Imperius curse. He also recognized the book in her arms.

'Shit, what to do, what to do?'

He choice the option that first came to mind: He came out in front of her, blocking her way. Chaos ensued quietly and quickly. She whipped out her wand, his hand enclosed around it, and his other hand connected with the side of her head. She was unconscious before Harry caught her gently, ripping the book from her grasp. He shrunk the book and put it in his pocket. He pulled them both back into the shadows of the dungeon entrance.

The door opened again, and Tonks was coming in.

He got his wand out and pointed it at her temple.

"Schicht Offen Spielzeug" Cho changed into a small plush peacock. He picked her up and shrunk even more into the shadows of the entranceway he was in. Tonks passed him by and Harry moved forward quietly. She went upstairs and disappeared into the empty room right next to the stair-top. If he went up those stairs she'd catch him, and he was out after curfew.

The stairs moved and Harry made his way towards them, walking up to the new landing. He looked towards the door to the room he knew Tonks was in. It was cracked open. The stairs leading to the second floor were in the middle of the floor, so he made his way towards them. Upon putting his foot on the first step the door he had been watching opened and Tonks was coming out. Harry froze, looking at her cautiously. She pointed her wand at him, he tensed, preparing to bolt.

"Stupefy!" The red light whizzed past Harry as he ducked and bolted upstairs.

"Confringo!" Harry was on the third floor now, running with Tonks chasing him.

"Diffindo!" Harry dodged that spell as well. He would have fallen if he didn't catch the stairs to the fifth floor. He catapulted up those stairs, hearing Tonks pounding up right behind him. She shot something he didn't catch and he dodged it. The spell hit a portrait and it collapsed into itself. He saw a flash of blond and red fly past.

"Stupefy!" Ginny and Luna's voice rang out as one. He turned around to see Tonks dodge, grabbing Luna and throwing her down the stairs. She cried out as she hit the forth floor.

"Confringo!" Ginny shouted. Her spell hit Tonks' shoulder, covering Ginny in blood as it exploded. Tonks fell, but was getting up. Ginny turned to Harry.

"RUN!" Harry nodded, turning and heading to the stairs leading up. On the sixth floor he heard footsteps again, turning he saw Tonks, wand in hand, left arm missing. He pounded up the stairs once more, landing on the seventh floor.

As he got closer to the gargoyle he realized he didn't know the password.

"Please, open!" He didn't really expect the request to come out in parseltongue, but he didn't care when he saw the gargoyle jump to the side. He threw himself onto the moving stairs, breathing out in relief when the gargoyle closed right before Tonks could get to him.

When the door he was leaning against opened he fell onto his back. Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus, Lucius, Arthur, and Mad-eye were all in the room. Sirius shot up, helping Harry up, fussing over him in a fatherly fashion.

"Hi." The occupants in the room gave him a funny look.

"What happened, dear boy?" Dumbledore asked him, giving him a look.