(OotP) CHAPTER TWELVE: Dumbledore's Army
The days leading up to the Hogsmeade trip were painful. Ellie barely spoke to Fred, who, she knew, was waiting on the edge of his seat for her to tell him that she had written to her mother.
Out of her love for Fred, she had, on multiple occasions, sat down at her desk to try. Each time, though, she drew a blank. Where was she supposed to start? Hey, Mum, I know we haven't talked in ages, but I'd like to talk to you about sex?
It was insane. It was impossible. Even for Fred's sake.
So, instead, she kept her head down and tried to focus on everything else—her O.W.L. course load, her secret Occlumency lessons with Snape and practices with Luna, and, most of all, trying not to explode on Umbridge in class.
The last, of course, was the hardest.
Finally, the day of the Hogsmeade trip was upon them. Upon her arrival there, Ellie beelined straight for the Hog's Head, where she ordered a Butterbeer, took a seat alone, and started to drink.
There was barely any alcohol in it, of course—nothing like the concoctions she'd used to drink with Oliver and his friends.
"Don't remind me," said a voice from behind her—Fred, of course. With George beside him.
"I hate when you two do that," George grumbled as he and Fred took their seats next to Ellie.
"Sorry, mate," Fred told him with a shrug. "Can't help it. As I so often remind sweet Ellie."
She smiled a thin-lipped smile, but said nothing, as the rest of the students for the meeting poured in. She had expected somewhere between five to ten students to show up, but was surprised to find that nearly thirty had filed in by the time Hermione gathered them all to attention.
"Thank you all for coming," she said. "As you know, we are here because our education in the subject of Defence Against the Dark Arts has been seriously lacking, and we need to learn how to properly defend ourselves in light of what's coming."
"What's coming," repeated Zacharias Smith, a pompous Hufflepuff who had been a distant friend of Cedric's. He was eyeing Ellie with clear disdain. "What, exactly, do you mean by that?"
"She means," snapped Ellie, surprising herself with her own sharpness of tongue, "that Voldemort is back, and if you want a chance at surviving him and his Death Eater minions, you'd better start learning to protect yourself."
A thick, heavy silence swept over the group as everyone seemed to process the intensity of Ellie's words. Finally, Cho Chang stood up and asked, "Three of the people in this room were there that night. Weren't they?"
Harry, Ellie, and Fred all glanced at each other as if waiting for the other to answer her. Finally, Harry did. "Yes—and none of us would have any reason to benefit from lying about it."
"The attention," said Michael Corner, Cho's latest boyfriend and fellow Ravenclaw. "Not saying you're lying—just saying that would be a reason."
Ellie's blood was starting to boil. Had this been a terrible mistake? Should they have just kept to themselves and practiced amongst those they knew they could trust?
"Ellie's known across the wizarding community as the daughter of an escaped convict and the only living witch with a Perelli charm," Fred snapped at Michael. "She doesn't need or want any more attention than she already has."
"And Harry's the bloody Boy Who Lived," added George. "Same deal for him, I reckon."
"Maybe," suggested Terry Boot, a friend of Michael's, "if you just told us a bit more about what happened that night—"
"No," said Harry, rising to his feet. "I'm not here to re-hash that night, and neither is Ellie or Fred. I reckon we've all done enough of that already. If a story's what you're here for, then you should just go."
But no one went.
And that was when sweet Luna asked Harry in a bright, dreamy voice, "Harry, is it true you can produce a Patronus charm?"
Ellie felt herself release a very large breath of air she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.
"Well… yeah," Harry admitted, frowning. "But—"
"And that you fought a basilisk?" asked Neville eagerly. "Back in year two?"
"Technically yes, but—"
"And you, Ellie?" Lavender interrupted. "Didn't you save those Muggles at the Quidditch World Cup from all those drunken Death Eaters?"
"Oi!" objected George. "Wasn't just her!"
"Look," said Harry, clearing his throat. "It all sounds really great when you guys put it like that. But the truth is, we were never alone for any of it. Ellie's been with me for just about all of these catastrophes, with Ron, Hermione, and the twins not far behind her."
"And I had my shield," Ellie added. "Which makes it about a hundred times less impressive."
"Then why say you can teach us?" asked Alicia Spinnet, who had resented Ellie ever since losing her position as Chaser to Ellie back in Ellie's first year.
"I don't," said Harry. "I say we can teach each other. Sure, I'll help guide things along—and Ellie will, too. But each of us has something to offer the rest, and that's where we'll truly learn what we need to know to survive."
By the time Hermione got around to passing around the sign-up list, Ellie wasn't remotely sure that anyone outside of their core group would attend. How many of them had simply come because their curiosity got the better of them, without having any real desire to strengthen their abilities?
Apparently she was wrong, though, because in the end, every single person signed up.
The next day, Umbridge announced Educational Decree 24, which banned student groups of all kinds—including Quidditch.
"Is this karma?" wailed Angelina at breakfast. "Surely it's a joke, right? She found out about the meet—"
"Angelina!" Hermione hissed, stomping very hard on the Quidditch captain's foot. "Watch your volume."
It was quite clear, of course, that Umbridge had somehow found out about their meeting and retaliated. But how?
"No one from the meeting ratted her out," Hermione whispered. "I jinxed the list. If one of them had gone to her, we'd know."
"Know how?" asked Ron, sounding rather terrified.
"Let's just say no amount of makeup would have been able to cover it up, and leave it at that," said Hermione, blushing slightly. "Someone at the Hog's Head must have overheard—someone who wasn't with us."
"B… but…" stammered Angelina. "It's my last year here! My last chance to win the Cup as captain!"
"Give it a week," George told her gently, patting her hand with his. "With how obsessed with Quidditch this school is, she'll have stacks of complaints so high, she can't even see her desk."
"Yeah," agreed Fred. "It's not just the students she hates who are suffering. I'll bet Malfoy's over there puffing up his chest at this very moment and reciting the ole' Just wait 'til my father hears about this mantra."
Even Ellie had to laugh at that one.
She just hoped he was right.
"Well, of course we're still going to do it," said Ron later that day in the common room when Dean approached them about the Defence group. "We just… need to figure out how, exactly."
"More like where," said George. "You can leave the spreading-the-word part to us."
"I'm actually working on the spreading-the-word part, too," said Hermione. "Have you heard of the Protean Charm? I was thinking of using coins so they'd be easily disguised."
"That's brilliant!" exclaimed George, who immediately pulled Hermione aside to discuss the details.
"Has anyone thought of using the Room of Requirement?" Dean asked the remaining group. "For the D.A. sessions, I mean."
At the suggestion of Ginny's, they had agreed to call their Defence group Dumbledore's Army—the very thing Fudge and the Ministry feared the most.
"That's a great idea," Harry said, nodding eagerly. "We ask the room to turn into a secret hideout where we can't get caught."
"We're like supervillains," giggled Ginny. "I love it."
Ellie tried to smile, too, but she was having a hard time remembering how anymore.
That weekend, the beginning of October rolled in, and Dumbledore's Army met in the Room of Requirement for their first session.
Ellie scanned the faces in the room with interest as they piled in. She had noticed at the Hog's Head meeting that there were a handful of people she didn't know by name, but now, in a brighter and less obtrusive setting, she realized that she did recognize even those she couldn't name—specifically, a Hufflepuff boy she had seen in Cedric's outer circle several times the year before.
He was a sixth-year, if she wasn't mistaken. Like Cedric, he had classic good looks, though they weren't as obvious and pronounced as Cedric's had been—paler blue eyes, lighter brown hair, and a more subtle jaw line. He wasn't tall like Cedric, either, but still had a few inches on Ellie.
But what really struck her was that, unlike the rest of Cedric's old friends so often did in the Great Hall, he wasn't glaring at her.
He was looking at her, though. And when she met his gaze, he came over to her.
"Sorry to stare," he said, offering her what seemed to be a genuine smile. "Do you remember me at all? From last year?"
"You look familiar," she said, frowning. "Sorry… my brain's been a bit scattered lately."
"It's okay. Name's Liam—Liam Davies. I was a friend of Cedric's."
"Right." She felt herself stiffen at the name and the implication, even though she had already known that. "Well… sorry."
He cocked his head to the side at that, looking confused. "Sorry for what happened to him? Or sorry for your part in it?"
This time, she stiffened further. She caught sight of Fred approaching them in her peripheral and turned her back towards him in a silent attempt to reject his assistance. "Both, I guess. I see the way you guys look at me every day. I know what you're thinking."
But there was still no resentment in those pale, blue eyes of Liam's. "None of those guys think his death was your fault, Ellie. Some of them resent you for the way things went down in your relationship with him before that, but then, they don't know the full story, do they?"
She blinked at him, surprised by that. "Do you?"
He shrugged. "Not exactly, but I was able to put the pieces together. Aleks Dolohov, Durmstrang son of an incarcerated Death Eater, harasses you all year and winds up at the graveyard where Ced died? He told us you were blackmailed into being with him. Aleks was trying to manipulate the Tournament, right? Use you as some sort of spy?"
"Well… yeah. More or less."
Ellie was intrigued by everything about this conversation and this boy, and wanted all of it to continue. Before it could, though, Harry stepped to the front of the room and announced to the class, "Welcome to the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army."
Cheers erupted throughout the room. Ellie did her best to join in the excitement, but her mind was still reeling from the conversation with Liam.
"Now, this is going to be a fluid situation," Harry said. "We'll start small, and we'll base the progress on how you're all doing. For now, let's focus on the Disarming spell—Expelliarmus."
"Seriously?" whined Zacharias Smith. "What good's a spell like that going to do against You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters?"
"It's saved my life more than once now," Harry told him. "Including in that graveyard."
"And what about those of us who mastered it years ago?" asked Marietta Edgecombe, one of Cho Chang's friends. "Do we just watch?"
Harry parted his lips to speak, but Ellie beat him to it. The truth was, Ellie, too, had mastered Expelliarmus years ago, and she wasn't here to putz around. She was here to get stronger—to have a shot at beating people like Aleks the next time around.
"If you've mastered it already," she said, "come with me, and we'll kick things up a notch."
She felt the concerned gazes not only of Harry, but also of Fred, George, and even Ginny and Hermione on her at that, but she ignored all of them, striding as confidently as she could to the far end of the room. Most of the older kids in the class, including the twins, Liam, Marietta, Zacharias, Angelina, Lee Jordan, and Katie Bell all followed her. To her surprise, Luna Lovegood also followed her.
"I'll practice Expelliarmus on my own time," Luna explained to Ellie. "I'd rather see what you've got to say."
"Well," Ellie said, clearing her throat, "in my experience, Stunning is usually the way to go. Now, I know that at your age, most of you have already dabbled in Stupefy. Some of you might even think you've mastered it. But how many times have you actually managed to render a person unconscious?"
Murmurs broke out amongst them. Then Zacharias asked, "How are we supposed to practice that here? Are we all going to knock each other out?"
"You've got me," Ellie said calmly. "You won't manage to knock me out, but I can still feel the effects of your spells enough to tell you—"
"No," Fred said immediately. "No way."
"Just in case there are some of you who don't know the spell," Ellie continued, as if she hadn't heard him, "I'll demonstrate now." She pointed her wand at a statue nearby, performed the spell, and sent it rocketing backwards.
"Can't we just do that?" asked George. "Why do we need to physically assault you, Ellie?"
"Because this way, I'll be able to tell you exactly how effective your spells are," she said without looking him in the eye. The truth, of course, was that she saw these meetings as perfect ways to strengthen her shield back up after the experience at the graveyard had left it in shambles. "Come on, Liam. You first."
Liam's eyes widened at the invitation. It was a tactic, of course. She was hoping that, as her most recent acquaintance, he'd feel obligated to appease her out of politeness.
Apparently it worked, because he stepped forward, lifted his wand, and pointed it at her.
"You're sure?" he asked her.
She nodded.
And just like that, he performed the spell.
It didn't hurt that much. After being rained down on by dozens, if not hundreds, of Unforgivable Curses at the graveyard for what felt like hours, being hit by Stupefy was more of an unpleasant itch than anything. Her shield kicked in, her feet remained glued to the ground, and her stomach simply gave an unpleasant lurch.
But it was enough of a lurch to know that Liam was a decently skilled wizard.
"Good," she said, nodding. "A bit timid. I'm sure that's because you're trying not to hurt me, but if that's how you practice, it's how you'll perform. Try to kick it up a notch. Pretend I'm not me. Pretend… I'm the reason Cedric is dead."
A silence filled their half of the room at that, and several of the students glanced nervously at each other.
She was, of course, as far as she was concerned, the reason Cedric was dead.
Liam lifted his wand to her and performed the spell again—harder this time—enough to knock the wind out of her.
Before Fred could rush to her side to make sure she was okay, Liam's eyes locked with Ellie's, and he whispered, "You're not."
But his eyes looked a little too much like Cedric's for his words to land.
Poor Ellie... and also, reckless and dangerous Ellie! What do we think about this newcomer named Liam? A creation of mine, of course, not from canon, but could make things interesting! Any predictions for where things are headed? The next chapter is going to be called "Sweet Sixteen," though there isn't much sweetness going around for our protagonist at the moment... stay tuned and don't forget to review, follow and keep on supporting!