Chapter 6 – I knew you were trouble
"Andy, this is your N.E.W.T year and Nat, this is your O.W.L year. I want both of you to study well." My mother told us the night before we left for Hogwarts. We are having a nice family dinner.
"I would prefer it if you both don't draw too much attention to yourself." My father added.
"There's a lot to study anyway." Andy said. He has always been the nerdy geek of the family. He is always tweaking with our spare television or other muggle stuff to make it work without electricity. He's already successful in running some battery-operated devices with magic.
"I don't think you should be sending us to school anyways." I told my parents.
They looked at me with amusement. "Why would you say that, baby girl?" Michael asked me. I'm Michael's favourite sibling. He told me.
"He is out there. And I want to fight him and take him down."
My family laughed at me excitement. "How do you expect to fight when you are not even allowed to do magic out of school?" My mother asked me.
"Mom, you always find a way to dampen my spirits."
"You're welcome, love. Now tell me that you will do well." My mom said.
"Yes, mom."
Hermione had already started preparing for the O.W.L.s. This has to be some sort of a Hogwarts record. During the last few days of the holidays, I told them what I found out about Voldemort. Harry and I told them about the locket and the other things we found out from Kreacher. All this interested them but Hermione declared that there's nothing more we can do. She is right. Harry was thinking something else.
"I was thinking we could destroy the locket like the way I destroyed the diary." Harry said after Hermione and Ron came back from the prefect meeting. I'm really surprised that Harry didn't get picked as prefect.
I agreed with Harry but Hermione is hard to convince, "First of all, Harry, we don't if it'll work. We don't even know if the locket really has anything, it's just an assumption. Something you both are basing on a feeling. I still think you should talk to Dumbledore about it."
Hermione is quick to dismiss things based on a feeling. Unless, there are actual facts to support it, she won't believe you.
"Hermione, how many times do I have to tell you, I would have spoken to Dumbledore if he was around. He just doesn't want to talk to me for some reason."
"We are going to be at school now, so I guess, you can go and talk to him." Ron suggested.
"I hope so." Harry didn't sound too enthusiastic.
Our compartment door opened and there was Draco with Crabbe and Goyle. He was smirking at Harry, "Tsk, tsk tsk. I really pity you, Potter."
"Malfoy, leave now." Harry warned him.
"You might want to keep that anger in check. I've the power now to give you detention or other punishments for your actions. Tell me Potter, how does it feel to be second best to Weasley?" I could tell Draco is having a lot of fun saying these things.
Before any of them could say anything, I quickly said, "Malfoy, please go bully someone else, we're not interested. Cause unlike you, we've important things to discuss." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Shepherd, don't mess with me. Do you want to get detention along with your boyfriend?" he asked me slyly.
I rolled my eyes at his antics, "Malfoy seriously, no one is interested here. Why don't you go and blow your trumpet in someone else's ear?"
"Watch your mouth. Or you might just ended being the first person I hand out detention to." He narrowed his eyes at me. Before leaving he shot me the smallest of smiles.
Like he would ever hand me a detention. These public interactions with Draco really amuse me. Draco doesn't like it when I get in his way of insulting my friends. In my defence, I butt in only when things are about to get out of control. I love to mess with Draco.
We were one of the last ones to leave the train as Harry didn't want people staring at him. There was just one carriage left when we got out of the station. Harry stared at it with shock. "What the hell is that?"
"That's the carriage." Ron said like Harry has just lost his mind. I wanted to laugh.
Harry rolled his eyes, "No, not the carriage. The thing that's pulling the carriage."
"Harry, there's nothing pulling the carriage. The carriages are charmed to take us to Hogwarts."
Harry went and stood in front of the carriage, "Don't you guys see it?"
We shook our heads. I learnt long ago if Harry says he hears something then he actually is hearing something. Last time it turned out to be a dangerous muggle-born petrifying basilisk, which Salazar Slytherin left as a gift for us. So, I'm going to believe it, if he says he sees some creature. I wonder which dangerous creature this is and which founder decided to leave them. How the hell am I going to fight it, if I can't even see it?
"It's a Thestral." A calm voice from the carriage said. I recognised the little girl from Ravenclaw with long light blond hair. She poked her head out of the door to look at us.
"Who are you?" Ron asked before I could say anything.
"It's Loony…I mean Luna Lovegood." Hermione said.
"Hermione, that's no way to address someone." I reprimanded her. Sure, the girl is a little weird but that's no way to call someone. The poor girl gets bullied so much just because she is strange. "Hi Luna. How are you?"
"Hi Natalie. I'm good."
"How is it that you know everybody in the school?" Ron asked me.
"I like to network, Ron. It's good to know people."
"What is a thestral?" Harry asked quickly ignoring Ron and I.
"These are the invisible creatures which are use to move the carriage. They are superb flyers with exceptional sense of direction. People can only see them if they have seen death." Luna answered in her dreamy voice.
That completely explained why Harry could see the thestral.
We got into the carriage and it began to move. I put my hand on Harry's and squeezed it lightly. Harry smiled at me.
"So, Luna how was your summer?" I asked.
"Daddy and I went to Iceland for two weeks to find the Crumpled Horn Snorkack but we had no luck and then the Nargles infested our gardens but that's under control now. Other than that, my summer was good." She turned to Harry and said, "Harry, I want you to know that Daddy and I believe every word you said. Daddy even ran an article in the Quibbler supporting you over the summer to show support to you."
"Nobody reads the Quibbler. Nothing mentioned in the magazine is true." Hermione said rudely.
"That's right. Nobody reads the Quibbler." Ron supported Hermione.
"I do. And my father is the editor." Luna held up the magazine in her hand. I snorted. She started reading the magazine.
"Please tell your father thank you, Luna. I'm sure Harry appreciates the support." I told her.
"Yes, please tell him I say thank you." Harry said quickly after me.
"Now, I know why people call her Loony." Ron said when we got to the Gryffindor Table.
"Ron." I warned. "Do not call her that. She is a nice girl, a bit quirky but nice."
"Why are you defending her so much, Nat?" Harry asked.
"She doesn't have a lot of friends. Ginny hangs out with her sometimes. Everybody deserves to have friends, that's why I started talking to her."
"I don't know how you can stand it when she talks about all those rubbish creatures which don't exist. Ginny told me she talks about creatures and plants she's never heard of." Hermione said.
"H, you of all people should believe in impossible things, more than me. Before you got the Hogwarts letter did you believe that magic existed?" She went read in the face. "She believes these creatures exist and she's going to try and find them, who are you to rubbish her beliefs? Just because no one 'worthy' according to you has said they exist, doesn't mean that they don't. We live in a magical world for God's sakes, there are so many things we yet have to discover. This is just like people telling Thomas Edison that he can't invent the light bulb."
"You're right, Nat. I need to be more open minded." Hermione agreed with me.
"So, Thomas who?" Ron asked.
Harry explained who Edison was. During my speech, the sorting had begun. I looked at the Slytherin Table. He looked at me a few seconds later and discreetly smiled at me. I smiled back at him. I have been worried about him despite his repeated reassurances. I felt like someone was looking in my direction. I moved my eyes to the Ravenclaw Table. Was Cho Chang really looking at me and smiling? It took me a while but I realised she was looking at the boy next to me. Harry smiled back at Cho. But I could tell he was confused.
"Aww…look at you, blushing because your first crush is smiling at you." I teased Harry.
He looked at me quickly, "She smiled at me first."
"It's okay. I won't hold it against you. I don't have a problem if you smile at or talk to other girls Harry."
Dumbledore stood to give the start of the year speech. He introduced the substitute teacher in place of Hagrid – Prof. Grubbly-Plank. Now, I realised Hagrid was not here. Where is he? Next, Dumbledore introduced the new defence against the dark arts teacher – Prof. Umbridge. She interrupted Dumbledore to give a speech of her own. No one's ever done that before. The moment she opened her mouth I knew, I was going to hate her. And the all pink attire didn't help either, she looked like a giant cotton candy. I've never hated pink more in my life.
I heard Hermione whisper, "Ugh! I'm so changing my favourite colour." I snickered at her.
Hermione was outraged by Umbridge's speech, since she's the only one who actually heard it. Once she explained to us that she is here only to suppress us, we were outraged too. What was Dumbledore playing at?
When we got to the common room, Seamus picked an argument with Harry. He said that Harry was lying and that he only wants attention. Harry got angry and yelled right back at Seamus. It would have become a full blown fight if Ron had not stopped Harry and Dean had not stopped Seamus. Another non-believer.
The first day of school couldn't be worse. All the professors gave the speech about how this is our O.W.L year and they were going to drill us this year. I've never had so much homework on the first day of school. The worst of all was Umbridge's class. She prohibited us from doing any magic. She actually prohibited witches and wizards from doing magic! If Umbridge's speech last night hadn't made her agenda clear to us, her first class sure did. Harry got into an argument with her and she gave him detention. I wondered if she is a death eater.
Harry told us she gave him lines. That was pretty lame considering how Harry pissed her off. Then he told us about this quill he had to use, it uses the writer owns blood as ink. How horrible! Isn't this like child abuse? He showed us the 'I must not tell lies' scar on his hand.
"You should tell Dumbledore." I said.
"No. I don't want to give her the satisfaction that she's had an effect on me."
"Harry if you're really so interesting in give away your blood so much you might as well do it for a good cause like it was saving someone's life."
"Come on, Nat. It's only for a couple of days more." I was angry but I didn't say anything else. By the end of the week, a lot of the other students had similar detentions.
Hermione was up to something. She didn't tell me what it is but she was definitely thinking hard about something. Then finally one day she told us what has been thinking about. She said she wanted Harry to teach us DADA. He was shocked. But what she said made sense. For the Triwizard Tournament, Harry had to learn a lot of spells. Hermione said it would be similar to a study group.
Harry was not convinced but we at least convinced him to think about it. The next Hogsmeade weekend, Hermione surprisingly took us to the Hog's Head. This definitely looked like the place to do shady business. At first, few people turned up namely, Fred and George, Ginny with Michael Corner, Luna, Dean and Neville. After a while, a lot more people turned up. This turn out is solely Hermione's choice. She wanted to include people who seemed trustworthy.
Harry and Hermione very briefly told the group what they are trying to achieve here and why? Thankfully all the people present agreed with us and didn't need a lot of convincing. All of them signed up. After everyone left Hermione told us that she has charmed the parchment. If anyone betrayed us, we'd know. She can be a badass if she wants to. Now, we only needed a place to practice.
A few weeks later, Neville stumbled upon, one such room. The room of requirement. We informed the rest of the group through the charmed galleons that Hermione gave everyone. We started practice. We named the group – Dumbledore's Army. The very first meeting, Harry started off with a simple disarming spell. A lot of people were surprised to hear that a disarming spell saved his life against Voldemort. We tried to meet up as much as regularly as possible. Since everyone was on a different schedules it was difficult to set a time, but yet we somehow managed.
Meanwhile on the outside, Dolores 'Toad' Umbridge was ruining the school for everyone. She was coming out with decrees, which quite frankly were ridiculous. I was so tempted to write to my grandfather and ask him about the legitimacy of these useless decrees. I also wanted to ask him if he could use his power as a member of the Wizengamot and get her removed. To top it up, she started something known as the Inquisitor Squad, which contained most of the Slytherins. To my disappointment even Draco was a part of it, in fact he was leading it.
Along with classes, homework, Dumbledore's army, I had to squeeze in time with Draco as well. As per our marriage contract, Draco and I have to spend at least an hour every week. This clause was added so Draco and I get to know each other. Normally, when we meet up, we talk or he helps me out with Ancient Runes, Arithmancy or Potions. I love Hermione but Draco is a way better teacher than Hermione. He is very patient with me. I'm a slow learner. Sometimes, Hermione forgets that not everyone can suck everything from a book.
"What the hell do you think you're doing by joining the Inquisitor Squad?" I asked him as soon he closed the door of the unused classroom, we decided to meet up in.
"Hello to you too." He said sarcastically.
"Answer me."
"I still don't get it why do I let you talk to me like this? You're so mean." He mocked me.
"Draco…I'm serious."
"Nat, My father ordered me to join it. He says it'll put me in good books"
I snorted. "Your father totally changes the meaning of good."
He ignored me. "Besides, I didn't tell anyone that you and your friends have formed and are running an illegal group." He smirked at me.
"You know?"
"Of course, I know. You lot are not very good at being discreet. You all wear way lot of emotions on your sleeves."
"You're not going to tell, are you?"
"How long have you known me? Do you really think I would do anything to put you in danger?"
I shook my head and hugged him, "I just needed to hear you say that."
"How are things going on in between you and Potter?"
"Draco, I love him. I want to tell him but I'm scared. I don't want to freak him out."
"Nat, you know, I think he's not worth it but if you really do feel that way then you should tell him."
"You think?"
He looked sad for a moment but in the end he nodded. Why did he look so sad?
I'll be including the instances which i like from the book but they may not be in the same order!
Please read and review! thank for reading so far!
Enjoy! Neepa :-)
