Educational Decree Number Twenty-Six
Students were crowded around the Gryffindor noticeboard the next morning. Siria peered over their heads. A large, framed notice hung over the usual flyers. "Educational Decree Number Twenty-Six," Siria read to Hermione, "Umbridge has banned all 'Student Organisations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs', which she defines as 'a regular meeting of three or more students'." Siria clicked her tongue "Umbridge can let people reform, and anyone in an unapproved group will be expelled." [B5, 351-352]
Siria paused and bit her lip. She put her hands in her pockets and felt the chill of the mirrors. The others were waiting for her. "Hermione…" Siria said, "I think I've just been banned from Quidditch."
"What?" Hermione asked. She stood on the tips of her toes to squint at the notice. Siria sighed.
"Based on disciplinary record or as a disciplinary action, a student may be banned from joining student organisations, societies, teams, groups, and/or clubs," Siria read.
The mirrors in Siria's pockets chilled her fingers as she clenched them. She eyed Hermione. "The others have seen," Siria said. They hurried up the stairs to their dorm. Hermione took a mirror as Siria flicked open two others. Bianca Storm, Cedric Diggory, and Cassius Warrington peered through the mirrors and started about the new decree.
"We saw," Siria said. "We'll lay low for a week, then start up in small lessons, arranged by mirror."
"Until we find out how much Umbridge knows, assume only the mirrors are safe," Hermione said.
"And only in the evenings," Storm said. "Assume she knows we're communicating and may ask we turn out our bags."
"We'll make sure no one approaches you about the D.A.," said Cedric. "Go about today like usual."
"As usual as you can," said Cassius. Hermione and Siria shared a look.
"Same to you lot," said Siria. They closed their mirrors. Siria put them in her trunk and turned the star dial, so its actual proportions would be found if anyone opened it.
When Hermione opened their dorm door, they saw the stairs had flattened into a slide. She eyed Siria over her shoulder. "Maybe Colin or Dennis wanted to make sure we saw?" Hermione suggested. Siria shrugged.
"Not them," Siria said, "I told them it'd do that." Hermione slid down, with Siria behind her.
"How come you can get into my dorm?" Ron asked when Hermione and Siria arrived at the bottom.
"The founders were as suspicious of boys as Sirius," Siria said. "Seen the notice?"
"I was going up to tell you about it," said Ron. He stepped beside Siria. "What are we going to do?"
"Learn to sneak around better," Siria whispered back. (B5, 353)
They headed to breakfast as nonchalantly as they could. Any time a D.A. member got close, Hermione, Ron, or Siria would lock eyes with them and subtly shake their head. Angelina Johnson caught them at lunch. She took up the seat across from Hermione, Ron, and Siria.
"She's banned the Gryffindor Team!" Angelina said. There was a hearty mix of outrage and despair in her voice.
"McGonagall'll get it overturned or something," said Ron.
"And how long until Umbridge makes a decree that says other teachers can't go over her head or contradict her?" Hermione asked.
"Angelina," Siria said, "even if you get the team reformed, didn't you see the bit about students being banned in general? There's no way Umbridge would let you reform with me on the team, especially after—" she looked to Hermione and sighed.
"Siria, what did you do?" Angelina leaned over the table. "Aside from," and she mouthed "the D.A."
"It might not amount to anything," Siria grumbled at the table. She slid some shepards pie onto her plate, so she didn't have to look at Angelina.
"Where am I going to get another Seeker?" Angelina hissed. "Let alone one half as good as you," she shook her head. "Honestly, it better be worth Gryffindor's loss of the Cup," Angelina said and stomped away from the table. [B5, 355]
"Quidditch, Hermione," Siria said. She let the food drop from her fork, back onto her plate. "She put you in detention, put Hagrid on probation— even though he's been teaching better this year—, and now she's taken Quidditch from me. If it weren't for Kreacher being able to deliver mail, I'd drop a bridge on that little toad."
"You'd be doing everyone a favor," Ron said.
"Don't be silly, Ron," Hermione said as she picked at Siria's mixed vegetables. "The best I can make is a rope bridge and that certainly wouldn't be much help at squashing her."
With the Gryffindor Quidditch Team still banned, they couldn't play on Saturday. Instead, the reinstated Slytherin Team flattened the reinstated Ravenclaws by two hundred and ten points. Part of Siria was sorry to miss it. She was even more sorry when she met Malfoy in an empty classroom just off the Hall of Hexes.
"But of course, you saw," Malfoy finished his recount of how he caught the Snitch right under Cho's nose. "I wish Crabbe or Goyle hit her with a Bludger, after her friend sold us out— what are you smiling about?"
"Nothing," Siria shook her head. "Anyways, I…" she sighed and smile fell. "I actually didn't see."
"Why not?" He asked. "Did you sneeze or something? There's a cold going around," he took a step back.
"I was in the Room," Siria said. "I met with what's left of the D.A. I'd've told you, but the match was perfect cover and Umbridge thinks you'd sell me out in a heartbeat."
"How much is left?" Malfoy asked. He pointed his wand at one of the dusty desks. It became clean and shiny. He sat on it.
"About half," Siria said. "Just about all the older students and Slytherins are gone, except for maybe you and Cassius and them."
"I'm here, aren't I?" Malfoy said. She nodded at the floor.
"It was so defeating to walk in and see so few people," she said. "I knew Cedric had to be at the match, but two of his friends have left. Storm won't tell, but she'll only meet if it's one-on-one with me and I can't very well do that with everyone."
"How are you organising the lessons?" Malfoy asked. He swung his leg back and forth, under the desk. Siria rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a cool, metallic silver compact. She handed it to him. He eyed the mirror, then turned it over to look at the barcode. "Is it safe to use the same system? What if someone peels off the sticker?"
"If we did it right, the sticker will only come off when someone leaves the D.A.," Siria said. She leaned against him and the desk he sat on.
"What if I'm just being cocky?" Siria asked. "Voldemort," she ignored the small jerk of his head, "and the Death Eaters have years of experience and magic we would never think to touch on their side. Sure, they and all the greats started as students like us, but how do you beat decades of experience?"
"Aren't you always saying the Dark Arts are always changing?" He asked. "I'd think we just have to be more adaptable than they are." Siria smiled. She looked up at the ceiling and knocked the back of her head against his. "You're no Hermione, but you're not half bad, Malfoy."
"Yes, well… thanks."
Sunday morning, the remains of Dumbledore's Army collected in the Room of Requirement. Siria nodded to them as she scanned over the thirty or so students that remained.
Daphne made it clear to Siria that she, Millicent, Astoria, and Astoria's friends would not risk being caught. Olive Foster and her friends left "there's so little time left before exams," she told them; it was also what she told Ron when they broke up the previous week.
Cassius's friends and Malfoy were the only Slytherins left. Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Padma Patil, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Luna Lovegood, remained from Ravenclaw. Of Cedric's friends, only Benjamin Wilkins and Gilbert Snow remained in the D.A. Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Susan Bones, and Lily Moon of Hufflepuff also stayed.
Siria was most disheartened by the drop of Gryffindors, though she smiled at those who remained. The Creevey brothers, who Siria knew would follow her anywhere, stayed. Dean Thomas, Fay Dunbar, Lavender Brown, Neville Longbottom, Parvati Patil, and Seamus Finnigan, all from Siria's year and House remained. Lee Jordan and Ginny Weasley also stood before Siria, in the Room of Requirement, waiting to hear how things would continue.
"Welcome," Siria said. She clapped her hands together as she let out the breath she didn't know she held. "There are going to be some changes in the D.A., safety precautions, but, more than anything, I'll be assigning homework of sorts."
"Boo," Fred called playfully.
"Worst club ever," George joked. Siria tilted her head slightly to the side and stared at them.
"I wrote up a study guide for every spell we've covered," Siria said. "It's also got a list of spells Death Eaters have been known to use, what they look like, and how best combat them, if there is a documented way."
Siria turned to a table behind her that had thirty some odd identical stacks of bound parchment. She, Cassius, Alice, and Hermione passed them around until everyone had one. She fanned through her copy. "It's review until page thirty six, then," Siria smiled. "If you'd all place your wand on your stack, like so," Siria demonstrated. The tip of her wand sat on the middle of her parchment stack. "Long live," she said and they repeated.
"What is this?" Terry Boot asked. "It's like a mash of subject notes," he said. Siria's smile widened.
"That's exactly what it is. That'll turn your books into a collection of excerpts from Ministry approved material— so the Slinkhard book, our Transfiguration books, the Magical Herbs and Fungi, and so on," Siria explained.
"How do we get the guide back?" Hannah Abbott asked.
"I solemnly swear to choose what is right over what is easy," she waited as they repeated. Siria stole a glance to Hermione, who nodded as she watched people flip through their revealed guides.
"Did Hermione do this?" Terry Boot asked. Siria took a half step in Hermione's direction, which blocked Boot's vision.
"More or less," Siria said.
"Siria, don't be so modest," Hermione said. She peered around Siria's arm. "Siria did most of it herself."
"How did the Sorting Hat put you both in Ravenclaw?" He asked.
"They're more brave fools than they are closet nerds," Malfoy answered. Siria cocked her head up a bit. Her nose wrinkled and wanted to say Hermione was definitely out as a nerd, but continued instead.
"Anyways," Siria said with a roll of her eyes. "The last page has the code for who is when. We're going to be doing groups, on rotation, and by House," Siria explained. "It's less suspicious, unfortunately, if people of the same House happen to 'run into each other' and go the same way or are hanging about."
D.A. members asked their questions about what they would be learning next and how best to practice. They left in small groups, staggered by how long it took the previous group to reach their destination on the Marauder's Map. Malfoy hung back, at Siria's request.
"I've been putting off telling you," Siria said, "because I didn't know how you'd react."
"That's hardly fair," Malfoy said, though there was a small, sad smile in the corner of his mouth. She nodded at the ground. Siria took a breath and raised her gaze to his eyes.
"I gave another interview about what happened in the graveyard," she said much quicker than she meant to, but with the same sense of purpose she hoped for. "In it, I named your father as one of the Death Eaters in the graveyard."
A shadow crossed over Malfoy's face. His possibly playful, curious expression became guarded. He rose his head higher, though he was still shorter than Siria.
"And why would you do that?" Malfoy asked in his old, cool drawl. Siria considered saying that Alice convinced her to, but took a breath.
"It's the truth," Siria said, "you know I'm a terrible liar." A bitter smile met a snarl on his face. Siria reached to cross her arms, but shifted and tucked them into her pockets.
"Boot wanted to know why you aren't in Ravenclaw, but the better question is how you're not in Slytherin," he said. "You're cunning, a halfblood, ambitious, and you hate being told what to do."
"I'd also fall on my sword to save Hermione," Siria said.
"You would have only seen her in passing, if you were in my House."
"Then I might've gotten a crush on her— pretty, smart, and vicious."
"We would have steered you away from her; she's Muggleborn."
"Everyone telling me 'no' would have only pushed me closer."
"He might think of sparing you, if you were in Slytherin."
Siria pulled on a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She shrugged with her hands in her pockets. Her head tilted a little to the side. For a flicker, she blinked longer than usual.
"Malfoy," Siria said as she opened her eyes. The flecks of blue in his silver felt so cold and sorry. "Voldemort wants me dead, and my House won't change that. I'm cunning because I have to be. My ambition, for others to live through this. Besides," Siria shrugged again, "I'm a closet nerd and a brave fool, not really the Slytherin type."
"I'm starting to think all the Houses have at least a few brave fools," he said with a glance around the room.
"Are you angry with me?" Siria asked.
"Furious," he said in a flat tone that didn't match his reply. "But it adds to the narrative others think when they see us. How could the son of a Death Eater be friends with 'The Girl Who Lived'?"