"I found it when I got lost," Colin said. "And I...uh...needed to use the loo."
"So it becomes anything you want?" I asked.
How had I missed something like this? It wasn't on the twins map, and I hadn't ever really noticed any of the bugs on the wall, probably because the space beyond wasn't actually in real space at all. When Colin had showed it to me earlier in the day I'd been flabbergasted.
"Nothing living," Colin said. "And I don't think everything in there is real. I tried taking some things out and they vanished."
"All right," I said.
I'd already tried this out but I was speaking for the benefit of the others. It was time to show them what I had learned.
I closed my eyes, and then I paced back and forth in front of the wall. I'd found that it was important to have a coherent image in your mind of what you wanted, or things could get a little weird.
A door opened, and we looked inside.
I heard the others gasp.
Inside was a representation of Brockton Bay after Leviathan had hit. There were bodies on the ground, and the devastation looked like a bomb had hit. Above was an eternally clouded night sky. The smell of the ocean in the air was unmistakable... salt and rotten fish, and other, worse scents.
"Bring everyone in," I said.
The whole thing only stretched two city blocks, but it was enchanted to look like it extended further, It smelled like it was going to rain. I felt a wave of nostalgia; it was exactly like I remembered.
They slipped into the room, more than two dozen of them. All of them looked a little apprehensive, which made sense, considering what we'd forced them to do. We'd gotten fifty members to agree to join, which was surprising when they learned what the contract they'd signed was meant to do.
No one would speak about this on pain of the worst curses our seventh years could think of. I'd had several of the older students ready to obliviate anyone who refused to sign; they'd never know that they'd refused the call.
I'd been convinced that less than half would join; we were asking for a lot, and I was sure that at least some of them would turn away.
We'd lost only two of them. Each of them had signed the pledge, some more firmly than others, but none of them had turned away.
Was it because the Ministry had pushed them into a corner? Or was it because of some quirk of human nature than said that the bigger the sacrifice, the more valuable the thing was that you were making the sacrifice for.
Was it personal loyalty to me? Since I'd stood between the entire class and the dementors, the muggleborn had been looking at me differently. It was useful, but it made me strangely uncomfortable.
Even back at home as Weaver, while I'd had the fear and respect of people, I'd never had this kind of devotion.
The twenty who had stood and fought had joined thirty of those who had been in the Hospital\ They were a ragtag group, a mixture of grades ranging from second year on up. The only first year was Colin Creevy. I suspected that the other first years had been convinced that they wouldn't have anything to offer.
The only non-muggleborns here were Harry Potter and Neville.
The door closed behind the last straggler, and I looked outside, even though I didn't have to. There was no one in the hall outside, and this was one of the halls that didn't have paintings.
I turned to them, and I could see the look of apprehension on their faces.
"We're going to learn Urban Warfare," I said. "It's the nastiest, ugliest kind of warfare there is. Most muggle wars are fought from a distance... drop a bomb and it's quick and easy. You never even have to think about the person you have killed. Even guns kill, often from such a distance that the person you are shooting barely seems human."
I stepped toward them.
"We don't have that option. Wizard spells are slow and imprecise, and that means that you need to be close enough to see the whites of their eyes before you can be sure of hitting them."
"Are we joining the army?" Colin was the youngest and he looked it. He looked tiny compared to everyone else, and he looked even more nervous than most. There was a look of hero worship when he looked at me, though.
I'd have preferred that he not have sent those pictures off to the Daley Prophet and the Quibbler, but he'd been certain that it would only do the cause good. Whether they would be published or not, and what kind of story was going to come of it was still to be determined.
If we were lucky, public outrage would cause the dementors to be withdrawn from the school. I doubted we'd be that lucky. Undoubtedly the Ministry would be quick to claim that it was a mistake, or maybe they'd claim that muggleborn had somehow lured the dementors into the castle themselves.
"We're learning to survive," I said, taking a deep breath.
I gestured, and four seventh years stepped forward.
I pulled some dark cloaks from a pile by my feet, and I handed them to them.
"The first thing I want to do is show you what real combat is like," I said. "And to do that, we need enemies. These boys are going to play Death Eaters, and you... you are playing yourselves. Good luck."
I'd gone over strategy with all four boys already; I'd taken them through this location and I'd told them what they needed to do.
All four boys whirled their wands around themselves, and a moment later their bodies shimmered and they disapparated.
There was a sound of pounding feet, and a moment later four of the children standing and staring went down due to invisible stunners. The others were still staring. That didn't bode well for their reaction speed; we were going to have to work on that.
"I think you'd better run," I said.
They scattered in panic. Half of them were down in the first minute.
I was pleased to see that Hermione, Neville and Harry were not among them. Our training last year had been one on one, not in group tactics, but at least it had taught them how to move and how to dodge.
Ducking slightly to the side, I avoided a stunner that one of the seventh years launched at me. He was known to be a joker, and I'd been expecting something like this. I pointed my wand behind me without looking and directed a stinging hex at him.
No more spells were directed at me.
Using my bugs, I was able to keep track of everything that was happening. Some of the students tried hiding, but against an invisible enemy it was useless.
It took five minutes to get the last of them. Hermione was the second to fall, and Harry was the last. He was surprisingly nimble and fast, and some of the others had already woken up and were watching as it took four seventh years to finally bring him down.
I made a note of the others who had lasted the longest; they were the ones who had potential.
When everyone finally woke up, I said, "If those had been real Death Eaters, you'd have all been dead."
"We can't fight Death Eaters!" Colin said. He sounded a little panicked.
He wasn't the only one. I could see that a lot of the confidence the group had been showing when we'd stepped into the room was gone. I couldn't afford to leave it that way. These kids weren't recruits to the Wards. They hadn't signed contracts to join up to a paramilitary organization. That meant that I needed a lighter touch.
"I'm going to show you how," I said. I paused. "What do you know about wolves?"
"They're like dogs, right?" A fourth year asked. "But meaner?"
If this had been a group of purebloods they wouldn't have known even that much. But the muggleborn had watched television; their image of wolves was formed by innumerable dramas and possibly from nature documentaries.
"They hunt in packs," Hermione said. "Attacking from all sides."
"Unless you are fighting Dumbledore or the Dark Lord himself, most Wizards will go down if they face enough spellfire. You probably will never be good enough to beat a Death Eater by yourself. But ten of you?"
"You supposedly beat six Death Eaters as a first year," a sixth year said. He stared at me.
"I cheat," I said bluntly. "I don't care about honor, or being heroic, or any of that claptrap. When people are trying to murder me, I murder them back, and even better. The Bible says an eye for an eye... I don't believe that. If they take my eye, I'm going to take both of their eyes, their hands and their feet... and probably their friend's just in case."
I saw some people wincing, but others seemed more open.
"I don't expect you to be that way," I said. "I've been through some things, and your lives have likely been better. But you have to be pragmatic if you are to survive. You know what our motto is..."
"Sly as a Slytherin, brave as a Gryffindor, Smart as a Ravenclaw, and Loyal as a Hufflepuff," everyone said.
Hermione had been the one who'd come up with it; she'd said that we needed something to show that we were more than just our Houses. The house system was designed to pull us apart, and we needed unity.
"It'll take qualities of every house to keep us alive. We can't just be better than them, we have to rub it in their faces. They think that Muggleborns aren't good at magic... we'll be the top of our class. They think we are lesser? We'll prove them wrong."
"How?" Colin asked. "They get to do magic during the summer, and the purebloods have tutors."
"We help each other," I said. "If one of us is bad at something, the rest of us help to lift them up. If we see someone being bullied, we will not stand for it; if you aren't brave enough to do it yourself, come and get a teacher or get someone who can."
I'd been thinking about this for a while now.
"The system is stacked against us. Being allowed to do magic during the summers gives the purebloods a huge advantage over the rest of us; so does having family libraries and tutors. The only way to counteract that is through hard work."
Hermione stepped up next to me.
"You all signed the contract," she said. "And you know what it means if you tell anyone outside of this room. The official story is that we considered creating an organization, but we decided that we didn't have time."
"If there is someone you want to nominate for membership, come to us, and we will consider it," I said.
I very specifically hadn't signed the contract, and I wasn't bound by any of its tenets. No one had questioned that, which I considered to be a good sign.
The fact that no one questioned two second year girls making decisions for the seventh years was a miracle in and of itself. We looked ridiculous next to the sixth and seventh years. In the regular world they would have looked at us as children, but no one here was looking at me that way.
"Now, it's time to learn tactics," I said. "Let's split up into squads of five. I want people of different years in the same squads; that'll force those in lower years to catch up."
"It won't hold some of us back?" Jeffries asked.
"I'll have more advanced training for you later," I said. "You will be the leaders and you need to learn how to lead."
I had plans for these kids. I'd have felt guilty about it, but the alternative would have been even worse. At least I planned to help them defend themselves.
"All right," I said. "The first thing that I'm going to teach you about cover. You know what the only thing that can stop the Killing Curse is?"
"Harry Potter?" Neville asked.
Everybody laughed, and the mood in the room suddenly changed. I'd been right to bring him along. Despite being a pureblood, he was well liked by the people who knew him.
"Besides that," I said. "Actual physical barriers can stop it. I've wondered why Wizards don't use tower shields to stop it; I'd have thought that it would be easy enough to enchant to levitate in front of you."
"It blocks the vision," Jeffries said. "And won't stop a lot of spells."
"The muggle police make transparent plastic riot shields," I said. "Why not use those?"
"A good wizard would just blast the shield, and then hit you with a Killing curse after," A sixth year said. "Or transfigure the shield into something else."
"And while they're doing that, you've got time to use the entrail expelling charm on them," I said. "It seems like a win to me."
"What if you're facing more than one wizard. They could crack it a lot easier than a regular shield, right?" Colin asked.
"What if you used a hardening charm on it?" Hermione asked. "Then it might protect you from other things too."
"It's something we'll need to think about," I said. "But the truth is that you won't have a shield most of the time. That means that you will have to learn to use the terrain around you. How many of you have seen action movies?"
Everyone raised their hands except Neville and Harry.
"Some of the things you see in those movies is wrong. Using two guns just means missing with both of them. Bullets will go right through a car door; if you want to hide; a car will provide concealment but not protection. If you want protection, hide behind the wheels or the engine block. There's other things, but the thing they get right is people hiding behind things when the bullets start flying."
"It doesn't seem very Wizardly," a sixth year complained.
"I'd rather be a living muggle than a dead Wizard," I said. "And a living wizard is even better. How to most Wizard battles seem to go?"
"One on one," Jeffries said. "Best man wins."
"And you're hoping that your man is the one who is just a little quicker than theirs," I said. "We don't have that kind of luxury. If we want to win, we have to fight like muggles."
"We don't have guns," Colin said nervously.
"Just because I'm an American doesn't mean that I'm obsessed with guns," I said. I looked at everyone's expression. "Oh... it's not because I'm an American."
Apparently everyone just assumed that I'd use guns.
I could see the appeal, but guns were too complicated to transfigure unless you were already an expert. They required parts that worked together to very small tolerances. They were loud and noisy, and I still wasn't convinced that a shield spell wouldn't work against a bullet.
I suspected that it would, actually. A supersonic rifle round might be able to kill a wizard before he had a chance to cast a spell, but this was Britain. Back at home I could have gotten guns and explosives easy.
Here I wouldn't even know where to start looking.
I had other ideas already, though. Ambushes while disillusioned, with overwhelming force. Multiple wizards with waves of blasting curses acting as artillery. Wizards on brooms as a hit and run strike force.
But first I had to teach them the basics. I had to teach them teamwork, how to move, to take cover. There was a lot to cover and I couldn't be sure how much time we were going to have.
"Let's just split into groups," I said tiredly. "And let's see if we can't turn the lot of you into the kind of people the Ministry is going to be afraid of."
"Why the Ministry?" Jeffries asked.
"Because we aren't going to be able to make the Death Eaters afraid," I said. "And we scare the Ministry more than the Death eaters do."
"What?" This time it was Hermione who spoke.
"Think about it. If the Dark Lord takes over, it'll pretty much be like it is now, at least for them. As a pureblood, all you have to do is keep your head down and don't make too many waves and you'll be fine. The half-bloods will have it worse, but really the only ones it'll be a disaster for is us."
"But why would they be afraid of us?" she asked. She looked confused.
"Because we represent everything changing. They're afraid that we'll demand some of the stuff we've gotten used to... electric lights, television, ball point pens. More importantly, if we gain power, they fear that means they'll have to lose it. They've been resting on the accomplishments of their ancestors for the past thousand years, and the thought that they might actually have to work to find their place in the world terrifies them."
Power was the one universal constant. No matter what world I was on, I was sure that it would always be the same. The people who had power would do anything they could to maintain it.
"Groups of five, people!" I said.
All I could hope was that it was going to be enough.