"Ready to give up, firstie?" George asked.
I grimaced, sweat running down my face. Not running was turning out to be worse than I'd thought.
Dodging spells wasn't that hard; I was quick, small and agile, and I had years of experience with my bugs help. What was hard was keeping it up; my endurance was terrible.
Worse, I was training without my bugs. I wasn't going to be able to depend on always having them, and training without them was the only way I was going to get better.
I'd finally learned to separate the two based on a difference in the freckles on their faces. To allow them their fun, I pretended that I neither knew nor cared about the difference.
"Expelliarmus," I called out, but George pivoted, and managed to avoid the spell.
Aiming without my bugs was a lot harder too, especially since spells actually were slow enough to dodge. People often weren't where they were when I'd aimed the spell, which meant that I had to anticipate where they were supposed to be.
So far, the boys had taught me and Hermione three spells... Expelliarmus, Flipendo, and Petrifucus Totalis. In return, we'd already done some minor services for them; dropping small parcels in places, giving them some information about where people would be and the like.
Neville had joined us, and he was the one Hermione and I praced on the most. Hermione had learned the cushioning charm and had taught it to me, and so we were in an abandoned classroom with all the chairs stacked against the wall.
We'd been careful that people not know what we were doing; half our value to the Weasleys was that people didn't know about our connection.
"I never knew it would be so much fun to abuse a firstie," George taunted.
I found myself flying through the air, hitting the pillows on the wall behind me. I grimaced as I fell to the pads on the floor. The boys had managed to transfigue some after I'd described what they were. What they'd come up with was something more like mattresses than athletic pads.
Moving on that kind of unstable surface was hard, but I preferred that to being injured over and over again. The unpleasantness of flying through the air was exactly the kind of thing that helped us get better.
Hermione insisted on staying just as long as I had, and to my surprise so had Neville, even though he was having a lot more trouble than I was physically. While I was slim and lithe, he was stocky and had more weight, which made him slower.
While that made him a perfect target for us to practice on, it meant that as often as not he was gasping for air by the end of the session and looking like he was going to have a heart attack.
The one thing that the twins seemed clear on was that it was better to know a few spells very well, instead of a large number of spells poorly. They'd apparently been involved in some sort of running battle with Slytherin the year before, and it had escalated, giving them more experience than they would have liked.
I'd managed another week without being attacked, even though it was just a matter of time. People were stupid, and the initial horror of what had happened to the Avery kid would fade, and the anger would still remain. People would start to rationalize and to assume that it was a one time thing, and sooner or later someone was going to try something.
Without looking weak, I'd tried to explain my position to the Weasley twins; that I did have a sense of humor, but that I couldn't be seen as weak.
They'd seemed to understand. There had already been several low level skirmishes between them and the Slytherins already this year, and I suspected that they were supporting me more as a slap in the face to the Slytherins as to actually help me.
The one thing they were doing that was really helpful was that they were giving me an idea of what fighting was like, at least at school. I had no doubt that Aurors and Death Eaters fought on an entirely different level, but I wasn't facing anyone like that.
I was dealing with school boys, although some of the upper years were getting closer to being actual Death Eaters themselves.
If I'd been Voldemort, I'd have already had some of the boys in my organization already. However, I suppose that the Dark Mark, whatever that was would be hard to hide in a place with people living as closely together as a boarding school.
I'd have created a sort of outer level, a bottom lair of members who didn't receive the mark if that was the problem. Having agents in the school itself would be helpful if I was keeping an eye on the Potter kid.
I'd heard some of the elder Slytherins speculating about the Dark Lord's interest in him. Apparently he was protected somehow during the summer, and so attacking him at school seemed to be likely.
An assassination attempt at the train station would be what I did; depending on the kind of protection he had, I'd have people attack him there or on the way home. If that didn't work, I'd station people outside his house, and then wait for him to come out. It was possible that his protection was only around his house, like the protections that I'd heard a lot of Wizarding houses had. In that case, the first time he went to a restaurant or a walk around the block, he was dead.
Wizards, it seemed tended not to go for group tactics. Battles, at least according to the Weasleys tended to be one on one duels, with larger skirmishes being rare and not involving much in the way of tactics. It was possible that they were wrong; but I hadn't managed to find anything in the library that contradicted them.
There were things I could do to take advantage of that; I could teach Wizards the advantage of attacking each other en masse, of taking cover, of tactics. But if I did, it wouldn't take the other side long to pick up on how useful those tactics were, and once they did, I'd have started an arms race that might not stop until their entire culture was in flames.
Most Wizards were relatively lazy, from what I'd heard from Neville and the Twins. They did the minimum to get by, and the powers they had ensured that they didn't have to do much. Most Wizards didn't have to pay rent, or get insurance, or even maintain a car.
They had to pay for some food, but most of their other expenses could be covered with magic. Like most people in the muggle world, they tended to specialize; one wizard might be good at making a certain thing, but no so good at another. He would trade with someone who had the opposite skills, or they'd both go through a broker.
No Wizard was good at everything, which was why the economy worked at all. There still had to be people to write the books and raise the food and animals and sell things in shops. If Wizards had been able to simply conjure everything they needed, there wouldn't have been much of a need for them to interact with each other at all.
Despite this, they were much less interdependent than muggles, and most of them didn't really have to work much.
From what I could see, they weren't required a lot of the education that Muggles received either. They didn't study government, or history. I had a vague idea that Arithmancy was something like mathematics, but otherwise I couldn't see any muggle subjects that were being taught.
That meant that most Wizards had the equivalent of a sixth grade education. What did that do to their critical thinking abilities? Did it make them more credulous and more easily led?
Was that why the education system was set up the way it was, to make ruling over the average Wizard that much easier?
It wouldn't surprise me to find that the people in power made sure that their children had private tutors and received a better education at home.
Limiting their education would also limit opportunities for muggleborns to simply slip back into the muggle world should they find the prejudice too great. Job opportunities without a high school diploma, or whatever the British equivalent was would be just as limited in the muggle world, and I had a nasty suspicion that was the point.
Still, before I stared suggesting ways to improve Wizard tactics, I'd best master theirs. It was possible that there were limitations on Wizardly warfare that weren't readily apparent.
Despite the cushioning charms, my body was covered in sweat, and I was aching. Hermione and Neville didn't look much better.
"As much fun as this is," George said. "We've got to get back to working on our great Halloween project."
I took a deep breath and rose to my feet.
I grabbed a towel and wiped my face. "I appreciate that you guys are actually following through with this."
"We're getting better too," George admitted. "There's some real twats over in Slytherin, and we've already had some run ins with them this year, even if the professors are keeping an eye on us."
I'd already seen some low level skirmishes in the halls between the different houses. Slytherin and Gryffindor seemed to have the biggest rivalry, although no one seemed to be immune. The Hufflepuffs at least seemed to stick together, which was something that I needed to push for whoever I was going to be working with.
"Are you ready?" I asked Hermione. She was wincing as she rose to her feet from where she was working with Fred.
She'd questioned why we were starting so violently, but I'd explained to her that it was the very unpleasantness of the experience that made you learn faster. Without something at stake, even if it was just a little pain, no one would ever be motivated to learn to do better... and that would be deadly when stronger spells came into play.
Hermione nodded, wiping sweat from her brow. "I think I'm getting better," she said.
She was, and faster than I was. I'd started with an advantage from my years of fighting, but she was moving forward with a sort of focused intensity that was surprising. I would have been proud to have had a recruit as motivated back on my old Protectorate team.
"I'm going to need a bath," I said.
I always checked my bathtub with insects these days; no need to have someone turn my own trick against me.
Hermione and I separated. Her house was in one of the towers, and mine was in the dungeons. As I made my way down the stairs, I stiffened as I heard a whispered conversation through my bugs.
"Are you a snake or a pig?" I heard a mocking voice say.
Millicent was alone, and two large Gryffindor boys were standing over her. She was staring at the floor.
"Do you think she even knows?" the second boy asked the first. "Must be confusing, trying to decide whether to crawl on your belly or stick your face in a trough."
"I can see which one she's been choosing," the first boy chortled.
I heard Mildred sniffle, although she was doing her utmost to pretend that nothing they were saying bothered her. I'd heard her and Tracey talking at night, when they thought I was asleep, and her own family had been making comments to her like this for her entire life.
"Is the little baby going to go cry to mama?" the second boy asked. "Because I doubt that the other snakes are going to care. You're part muggle."
"Part muggle, part snake and part pig... what does that make her?"
"Stupid," the second boy said. "Just look at her face. She shouldn't even be here."
I hesitated.
I'd been working on getting the goodwill of the other houses; the last thing I needed was for Gryffindor to turn against me, especially as I valued the alliance with the Weasley twins. Getting involved in this would threaten everything I had been trying to put together, and it wasn't like Tracey or Millicent had ever done anything for me.
No one had seen me, and it would be easy for me to turn and walk the other way. No one would ever know, and no one would look down on me for something they didn't know I'd tried.
Millicent tried to push her way past them, and one of them shoved her back.
I closed my eyes.
How many times had I gone over my own bullying in my mind? It had lasted years, and while the locker had been traumatic, with bugs crawling all over me, and being trapped in a small, dark space, that hadn't been the worst part.
The part that had broken me was that there were dozens of onlookers, people who knew what was happening, and none of them had helped.
They'd cared so little about me, that it wouldn't have mattered if I'd died.
Objectively I'd known that most of them had probably been too scared to do anything; afraid that they'd end up a target of Emma and Sophia. Still, none of them had so much as put a quiet word in a teacher's ear.
Could I really turn myself into a member of that crowd? Could I make myself into exactly what I had hated?
No.
Sighing, I reached into my pocket for some darkness powder, then I hesitated. I needed to send a message, and attacking from behind would make me seem like just another crazy girl.
I could see some first year Hufflepuffs watching from behind the other corner as well. I had no doubt that they would quickly report whatever they saw to their friends.
Stepping around the corner, I said "Leave her alone."
Both of them turned and stared at me.
"Well, if it isn't little Miss Crazy," the first boy said. He didn't seem particularly worried.
"Facing us in the light," the second one said. "Not too smart."
I strode toward them. "Let her go, and I won't hurt you too badly."
"Making threats," the second boy said. "Like we're Slytherin cowards."
"I warned you," I said.
I spun to the side as a stunner flew where I had just been. I had bugs on the boys, but I missed having a defensive screen of bugs.
"Flipendo!" I shouted, and one boy went flying.
My left arm went numb as the other boys spell clipped me. I ignored it, and I continued walking toward him.
"You think the stories about me are overblown?" I asked. "Exaggerated?"
I lunged forward and grabbed his wand. He held onto it tightly, and with a twist of my wrist, I snapped it. I stuck my wand in his face and I said softly, "Diffendo."
Hairs fell from his bangs. He grimaced and lunged forward, and I spun out of the way. He tripped and fell, and suddenly Millicent was on his back, pounding his face into the floor.
The other boy was rising to his feet, but I quickly petrified him.
Once I had both boys petrified, I levitated the first one by his clothes, and I moved him toward the head of the stairs.
"I've had some pretty good luck with stairs," I said to Millicent. "Do you think anyone would know what happened if I dropped him off the side here?"
I could hear muffled groans coming from him. The Hufflepuffs had already left. I wasn't planning to do anything terrible to him, but I needed him to understand.
Floating him out over the side of the staircase, I flipped his body so that he was facing straight down.
"I hope you invested in good quality robes," I said. "If those rip, it's lights out for you."
"Or you could start leaving the lower years alone," I said. "Most of them aren't Death Eaters yet, but it's almost like you want them to be."
There were muffled cries from the two boys; the other boy was watching what was happening with wide open eyes, even as Millient was punching away at him. She was doing a good job.
I let him drop a little bit, and I could hear a muffled scream.
There was also a little ripping sound. I swung him around so that he was back up on the landing.
"You could try to take revenge on me," I said. "But I can get to you even in your own room."
Letting the boy drop to the floor, I leaned forward and whispered, "I even know the password to your common room...it's Mongoose."
The boy muttered something about Neville.
"Oh, Neville didn't tell me. I know how to get in the Hufflepuff common room and the Ravenclaw too. Nobody is safe, and if you should happen to catch me by surprise... well, I'm not even angry with you now. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry, I don't think. The last person who made me angry was Mr. Avery, and where is he now?"
I stood up and kicked the boy in the face. I might have loosened some teeth and broken his nose, but I didn't do any permanent damage.
"Come on Millie," I said. "They aren't worth it."
Although I kept my face neutral, inside I was grimacing. This was going to cause problems with the Gryffindors; hopefully I'd be able to explain it to the Weasley twins in a way they could understand.
The last thing I needed was to have two houses against me.
I stiffened as I felt Millie grab my left arm. She was looking up at me with an expression that seemed strange on her face.
Her eyes were shining.