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Chapter 4: Resistance
A new world greeted me as I stopped next to Ginny, staring. I gasped as I took in the sight in front of us, and barely registered when Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came up behind us.
Ginny and I shared a grim look, thinking the same thing-
Hogwarts was most certainly not going to be the same this year.
Seven silent lines of black-robed students led up to seven desks-perhaps most daunting were the Death Eaters, even more so than all of these silent students-truly frightening.
The Death Eaters were standing at intervals of maybe ten meters against the wall, not to mention the ones who approached us-I recognized one in particular and he recognized me, judging from the sneer that fell on his stubble covered, long, crooked-nosed face. This was a lower ranked Death Eater, and I could tell he was less than thrilled to be assigned this task.
Whatever this task was.
"New protocol, parents leave kids 'ere while they're evaluated," he said in a bored tone, glaring at each one of us in the eye as if daring us to contradict him.
"But-"
"Blood status!" He roared, cutting over Mrs. Weasley; several scared looking students glanced nervously over their shoulders at us, then quickly turned back as if afraid of being cursed.
"Sir, I work for the-"
"I don't bloody give a damn, does it look like I do?" He jeered, turning his head to the side. "Now give your blood status this instant, or there will will be trouble! You!" He jabbed a grubby finger at me.
"Pureblood."
"You!" He directed his gaze at Ginny.
"Pureblood."
"I hope it's the truth, it'll be looked into up there." Ginny and I didn't follow where his shaking finger was pointing- we kept our eyes upon the three Death Eaters that had stepped forward when the greeter raised his voice.
"Why did you need to know our blood status?" I asked brazenly. I heard Mr. Weasley whisper my name in warning after he and his wife said their good-byes to us.
"Looking for muggleborns," he grunted, practically shoving the Weasley parents out the barrier.
"Be careful!" Were Mrs. Weasley's last shouted words-then they were swallowed up by the wall.
"But the Ministry rounded up all of those who didn't "present themselves for interrogation,"" I snapped at him, quoting what the newspaper had said about the horrible event.
"Stragglers," he spit the last word. "Now go. Line up by year." He shoved us toward our respective lines and strode forward to greet the next family as Ginny and I shared an odd look from our new places in line.
Craning my neck I scanned the front of the station-at the desks, a Death Eater sat at each, drilling a student with questions I was unable to hear. The majority of Hogwarts was already here and for the first time, there was no laughing, no talking, no shouting out to friends.
Death Eaters sneered down their noses even at the first years, like they thought the eleven year olds were some sort of personal threat to Voldemort himself.
Breaking my gaze away from the Ministry Death Eaters standing against the walls, and the lines, and at the front-my eyes traveled to the heavily guarded, higher up desk of someone who must have been of higher seniority.
I glared up at the woman in the high desk-I immediately had a bad feeling about that frilly pink outfit encasing the body supporting the toad-like face-this was Dolores Umbridge. My eyes narrowed at the silver patronus-cat circling her-wait-a patronus? Why would she-
I had to stifle a gasp as I realized that two of the guards surrounding her were not, in fact, human-but dementors.
I forced myself to look away, to instead focus on the white card the third year was receiving before he left the desk-he traveled to a small group of students also clutching what must have been some sort of identity cards in their hands.
The line moved slowly, and it dawned on me why we had been called so early-as each student approached the desk, their name was searched for on a long, long list, their blood status checked on an even longer scroll, questions asked...and then the white card was handed out. The process took from several to almost ten minutes.
And as I moved forward in the line and 8:00 came and passed, Dolores Umbridge sat above us, observing it all with that pert little smile. I shifted my weight from one left to the other, thinking happy thoughts to keep my optimism up as I neared the dementors. I scanned the line I stood in-with a start, I realized that Neville Longbottom stood behind me, and something about his demeanor had changed-he no longer looked to be the stuttering boy who was scared out of his wits by Professor Snape-instead, he glared with all intensity at the Death Eaters by the first year line. His face had narrowed out, and to my surprise the shadow of facial hair lingered on his skin.
"It's not right," he murmured, not a trace of a stutter in his deep voice. He was talking more to himself than me, not even realizing that I looked up at him.
"No, it's not," I agreed in a hushed voice.
"Oh hello, Astoria. Harry said that you're on our side now," he smiled at me. I grinned back pleasantly.
"Always was, Neville. And," I dropped my voice considerably. "The Carrows...and...well, there are other Death Eaters who...well, if they try to hurt any of the students, will you stand up for them with me?"
"'Course I will," he said grimly. "We all will. Dumbledore's arm," he didn't know, but his words sounded to me like a rallying cry, a refusal to back down. This was our school, not the Death Eaters'.
"Dumbledore's army," I repeated. Not a second after, pleading filled the air, from the sixth year line to our left-heads twisted to see two Death Eaters barking at a scared-looking girl I didn't know.
"Answer me, Mudblood! Why did you lie!"
Oh, no.
"I swear, I didn't mean to, I-"
"That's enough," Ginny snapped, and simultaneously, almost as if we had trained for this, Neville, me, Ginny, and Seamus stepped forward and closed around the two Death Eaters who had just grabbed the girl's arm. All four of us locked eyes with them.
"Excuse me," Dolores Umbridge stood, her too-sweet voice slipping over to us like thick syrup- "Do we have a problem?" She snapped, and two more Death Eaters appeared at each of our backs, and the two original ones began to try and remove the girl.
"You did not submit yourself for identification along with the other muggleborns," Dolores's voice was magically magnified now, too thick and sticky to pass for nice, like syrup trying to pass for water. She gave her little cough-like "hem, hem" and I ground my teeth in frustration. I had always hated it when she did that.
"I-I couldn't, I-I-"
"I-I-I," mimicked the Death Eater holding her arm-the girl let out a sob.
"Hey!" I drew my wand, but before I could even take another breath it was snatched away, and both of my arms were twisted behind me violently, but I refused to give them the satisfaction of hearing my noise of pain.
"Let her go!" Seamus commanded, furious.
"Hem, hem. That will be enough. Take her to the Ministry-and you four," the girl, along with the Death Eater holding her was gone in an instant. "This will not go unpunished. But for now, return to your lines, we must continue!" She called her hands and sat back down. We were pushed roughly back into our lines, and I stumbled, almost tripping, if it hadn't been for a pair of arms that grabbed my own arm-I looked up to thank who had caught me, he must have been a student-my eyes narrowed at the grey eyes, gaunt face, and blond hair that my eyes had fallen upon.
I could tell he was not someone who stood with authority here-he was guarding the line as were the other Death Eaters. In a way, I relished that thought.
"Let go," I hissed at Draco and his eyes were steely with no emotion. I could tell he caught me only out of instinct and not because it was-well, me. He pushed me back toward the line without a word and I felt pain as his touch left.
My face was flushed as I re-took my spot almost at the front of the line, quickly moving to catch as the Death Eater throws my wand back at me.
"Keep it in your pocket," he snarled, and I curled my lip and nodded with disgust.
I kept my hands clenched, seething at everything-the Death Eaters, the treatment of that poor muggle-born-Anne, I remembered her name was.
That didn't make it better. And Umbridge's last comment-that this would not go unpunished-scared me. I had heard what she whispered to the Death Eaters standing hearest her-"Watch them."
What really nagged at me though, was Draco. Even though I knew he was really part of the Order, he was just...he was standing with the other Death Eaters! Though I knew it wasn't his fault, but still...it made me uneasy. With a start I realized I was next in line, and walked up to the desk, wondering why Quinn and his calming presence had to be in the back of the line.
"Name, Miss Greengrass?" A cocky black-haired Death Eater jeered-a regular at my house.
"You know my name," I snapped at Rodolphus Lestrange.
"Uh, uh uh," he tutted. "I'd be careful now, already on the watch list and school hasn't even started. I'd calm that cheek, if I was you."
I bit my lip, holding back my sarcastic remark. "Because you know, you're already being punished, sweetheart. And the Carrows are in charge of that, now."
Icy fear rose into me and my blood ran cold at the mention of the Cruciatus-happy twin brother and sister.
"Now, let's practice some obedience," he said, obviously taking pleasure in my discomfort.
"Astoria Greengrass, as you know," I said through clenched teeth.
"There, that's some progress!" he wasn't really paying attention, his eyes were already scanning the list of seventh years.
It occurred to me that this was my last start-of-the-year arrival I would be experiencing at Hogwarts and it saddened me to know the memory would be darkened and marred by these people.
"Says here you're pureblood," he said it, laughing like it was the funniest joke. "But a blood traitor, that'll go on your card as well."
"What's this card business?"
No answer. I had to bite my lip from yelling something out at him in frustration.
"You'll be a healer?" He sneered.
Yes, someone needs to be around to mend all the injuries your kind causes, I said silently inside my head. But out loud- "Yes."
"Your schedule will be dictated in accordance to your career choice. There will be..." he went on to more threaten than inform me of the new school curriculum, teachers, and banned objects. Which did not include dark objects-those were tolerated now, apparently. Things like communication devices and dark detectors were banned.
I mostly tuned him out the minute he said there would be a more in depth description of the new school routine over dinner.
Why even bother to begin to touch base on it now, then? I wanted to ask.
Finally, I got my card-a small, unflattering grainy image of my face on the front corner of the credit-card size identification. I surprised even myself with the muggle reference, smiling when I recalled Mr. Weasley's attempt to explain to me muggle currency, which had non doubt been the very conversation that had me making references to a "credit card."
It had my parents and Daphne's name, and my desired occupation and schedule on the front. I was inspecting the back, and the first thing that caught my eyes were the words- Pureblood, Blood Traitor. I was directed toward the growing crowd of others who had received their card-it was almost 9:30, and the majority of people had been interviewed.
I frowned at my card, stuffing it into my pocket with my wand.
The crowd I was about to enter was pressed as far as they could get away from the Death eaters-some whispered uneasily, others (Slytherins) bragged, but most merely stood, silent.
I took one more look back to observe the almost twenty people left, trying to calculate how long it would take to finish.
My friends and boyfriend caught sight of me, waving me over-(Seamus was with Lucy) and I smiled at the welcome sight, and looked behind me at the frightening sight of all the Death Eaters one more time before I took sanctuary with my friends.
My eyes fell on Draco, who stood stiffly while Bellatrix was giving him an earful. Like he felt my eyes on him, he turned slowly to face me after Bellatrix left-his face was hard, stone-cold-his steely grey eyes bored into mine, and I realized that there was something gone from them-something had disappeared. It was love. Something I had grown used to seeing ever since first year; every single time. And now it was gone, and it was even obvious as I looked at him from so far away. I held his gaze, wondering if he was looking at me, or just the crowd in general...
The boy that I loved was gone.
It he wasn't gone, he had buried himself deep-perhaps into an unreachable place.
I turned away.
"I can't believe it, our last carriage ride," I murmured more to myself than Julie, leaning my cheek up against the freezing surface of the inside of the carriage, knowing the cold shock of temperature would break me out of my fear of the Carrows and their punishment-at least momentarily.
"And I have to face seventh year with this hideous haircut," Julie murmured for the umpteenth time that night. I blew out my cheeks, using the mask of the dark carriage to roll my eyes. It was only 4:00 PM, but the sky was dark with clouds, leaving no sunlight at all to break through the dreariness. After the train ride, I'd been noticing I'd grown used to Ginny and Hermione's sort of friendship over the summer and to my surprise, Julie's somewhat materialistic comments, like worrying about her hair when I was worrying about being tortured by the Carrows-irked me. It bothered me that, in the face of war, Julie acted like nothing was going on, that her new haircut was her biggest problem.
But I swallowed my annoyance, knowing that this was her way of coping-pretending the problems around us weren't real. I saw how pale she grew when I told her about the Carrows comment. She was worried for me.
"Look!" I leaned forward toward the thestrals, pointing to the outline of Hogwarts that appeared as the thestrals turned. The carriage behind us held Seamus and Quinn, in front of us was Lucy and Sarah. Anxiety kept settling over me albeit my attempts to push it away. Even if platform 9 ¾ had changed, did that mean Hogwarts would be so different as well?
The Great Hall sat silently as we awaited the sorting of the first years-the older students didn't speak, we were too busy taking in the new changes.
The staff table was half-occupied by Death Eaters, and their effects on the rest of the teachers reflected on the rest of the students: they rather shrunk back from the cold, hard Death Eaters-they cast wary side glances at them in between nervous sweeps of the students.
Snape was in Dumbledore's old chair- a chair that he would never, ever, not in billion years deserve.
The only good thing was that apparently Umbridge had only left her new spot in the Ministry temporarily-she wouldn't be taking up permanent residence at Hogwarts.
The walls had been stripped of all house banners except Slytherin-although there were black silk banners emblazoning the Dark Mark in vivid green stitching.
The ceiling at least hadn't much changed-only the candles were gone, and the warm glow with them. Now cold light was supplied from silver, heat-less flames blazing from the braziers.
Not ever the regular staff was talking.
As my eyes roved over the silent hall, my gaze met Ginny's-she was sitting at her table, shoulders stiff like the rest of us.
The first year Sorting came and went, and McGonagall joined the staff table, lips pursed.
To our surprise there was no speech, but right away came the food-now I was uneasy.
At this point, come of the students had began to talk, mainly the Slytherins, but even with the bit of noise I no longer felt like someone was ready to jump out at me every time I swallowed.
Why would they want to postpone the speech until after we ate?
I hadn't even touched my food, fork scraping around my plate when Sarah started-"Astoria," she said quietly. "When I was getting my card, I heard them talking-you're not getting off the hook." I tightened my grip on my fork, hands clammy. It wasn't the prospect of punishment that scared me, it was their type of punishment.
"What do you mean?" I asked, barely above a whisper, leaning forward over the table toward Sarah and Julie.
"I don't know...look, Snape's standing up, they're starting!"
I was barely listening to their talk of Harry Potter and his friends, how we were to report immediately if we'd even heard the slightest whisper of their whereabouts. Or the "consequences would be severe."
Then that faded into new rules, new regime. Then finally, what I'd been dreading all night.
"And lastly," Snape spoke slow, deliberately. His unforgiving eyes seemed to bore into mine, and it felt as though he was trying to make me squirm.
"Ginny Weasley, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, and Astoria Greengrass-come forward. Now."
My heart jammed itself into my throat, and looking back, I could never remember how I managed to get to the front of the Great Hall.
"These four students you see before you have managed to impeach on the rules even before the year is started. This will no longer be tolerated at Hogwarts, and the severity of the deed will be matched to the severity of the punishment. In this case, these students have interfered with the process of removing filth," he spat the last word. The four of us stood with out backs to the hall, facing Snape. We had no idea of the crowd's reaction.
"And this girl," he held a finger out to me and all color drained out of my face. The Death Eaters sneered in appreciation to my discomfort. "Drew a wand on a teacher." The Carrow twins rose simultaneously with a motion from Snape to stand before us. Overly dramatized gasps from the Slytherin table somehow seemed to erode my fear, and I glared into the coward's eyes-because that's all he was-a coward. "Of course, they all had wands drawn, which in itself..." he shook his head, trailing off to let us imagine the worst. "But to actually point one at a teacher," his head swiveled toward me.
On either side of Snape, looking at us in anticipation, were the Carrows.
"Alecto, Amycus," Snape said in a slow voice, and you could hear a pin drop in the hall, silent with dread and thick with anticipation for what was about to unfold.
"Let this be a lesson, a warning, to you all," Snape suddenly roared, black cloak snapping as he whirled on the rest of the students. "Let this serve as a warning to those students who wish to defy us, and a message to those who would follow in their footsteps. Amycus and Alecto Carrow are in charge of student punishment, and I disclose to them the power to deal with this situation however they see fit. You may begin." As if he didn't know what would happen-the Cruciatus Curse. Neville reached for my hand, I reached for Ginny's, and she took hold of Seamus. The four of us were linked together, and unexpected defiance rushed through me in our small step of rebellion, the four of us holding hands in the face of our punishment. Facing it together.
I steeled myself for the pain to come, gritting my teeth and locking every muscle into place.
But it could in no way prepare me for the agony I was about to endure. Neville and I would be first.
The two of them raised their wands high, above their heads. The sent them down, cutting through the air, screaming, "Crucio!" Red light shot out towards Neville and me and we crumpled to the ground, oblivious to anything but pain. A high pitched scream sounded in my ears. Stars danced in my eyes. Someone was burning me alive, my bones were being snapped slowly. Time didn't exist in this bubble of pain, the worst, unbearable agony I'd ever suffered in my life.
And suddenly, it was over.
Gulping in air, I lied there, staring at the ceiling. Through a slight haze, I watched McGonagall, heard her voice from far away.
"Severus! Look at them, look at these students! You cannot-"
"This is my school, Minerva. And with it I will do as I please."
"They called you up and we were all whispering, and lots of people were going to do something if it went on much longer, we were going to storm them if it went on for too long-but when it actually happened..." Sarah shuddered. "We were all too terrified to move. The Carrows only had you for about eight seconds-" That was odd, it had felt like hours- "and there were first years crying, well, you could tell on everyone's face they were shocked. Even the teachers were, but they looked like they half-expected it. Hagrid started yelling but someone put a body-binder on him, I think it was Snape. And Pomfrey, Sprout, and Flitwick stood up after the shock wore off, but McGonagall beat them all to it and stopped it." Sarah relived from her perch on the edge of my bed. The rest of the evening had been a blur, and between McGonagall stopping the torture and Pomfrey giving us potion to stop the shaking and overall after effects, and to stop us from passing out...well, that was about all I could remember clearly. Until we got to move into our seventh year dorm rooms, where we were now-I was propped up against the pillows of my four poster bed, and Lucy, Sarah, and Julie were sitting with me in the room that looked just like the one we'd had in sixth year-albeit bigger.
I was extremely shaken after my first experience with the torture curse.
Wondering in the halls wasn't exactly forbidden now, but sharing the space with Death Eaters certainly slimmed the number of wanderers. And anyone who did dare to walk the halls was silent, talking in whispers to friends, if they talked at all. It seemed as though the resistance was dying. And that was how it continued for the next month into October; the Death Eaters constant, suffocating presence seemed to be draining the life out of everyone. Quidditch wasn't even allowed anymore.
Renunciation was pronounced in bowed heads, whispered words and cowed looks. All the color, all of the life seemed to have slipped away from Crucaitus Curse reigned over all of the newly instituted physical punishment, and fighting the way the new punishment was run only made it worse. Like fighting a many-headed monster-but one off at the neck, and two more heads grew in its place. How were we to fight Voldemort like this? Standing up to the Death eaters in small ways seemed to be the only option day to day-like standing up for the younger students who were constantly harassed by the Death Eaters.
Yet this type of fighting alone wasn't near strong enough to bring down Snape's new reign. Resistance was embodied in so many of the hearts at Hogwarts, yet we could only fight back if we banded together.
One day, the answer came.
"Quick, we're going to be late, hurry Tori! Don't you remember what happened to Nev-"
"You go! I'll be there in a minute!" Sarah looked torn, but eventually fear of the Carrows won out and she darted out of the room, headed toward breakfast. Where was my identification card? I knew I'd thrown it at the general direction of my open trunk last night, and now I was rummaging through it at the foot of my bed, tossing items over my shoulder, contributing to the growing pile behind me. They often did random I.D checks, and...well, to put it lightly, the Carrows were eager to punish and never merciful. I was down to the last layer of junk at the bottom that always managed to filter through the larger items-I gasped as my fingers brushed over something the right shape and pulled it out.
The effect was immediate-I felt as though I'd missed a step on the stairs, reacting as if what I was holding was acid-I flinched and released the picture of Draco and I holding each other at the Astronomy tower. I quickly foraged my brain for something to distract myself, to erase these last few minutes from my memory...
Quinn. That was what came to mind. Calming, quiet Quinn, the balance to my fiery temper. My boyfriend of almost two months. Whom I very well liked, I told myself. Sweet, sweet Quinn.
But what if you don't want someone mellow enough to balance you out? A tiny voice prodded, whispering silkily. What if you want someone strong enough to hold you, who knows you better than he himself?
Knew, I corrected it bitterly. I sat back on my knees. There's no use going to breakfast now-I'd call more attention to myself if I ran in late than not at all.
I wasn't hungry, anyway, I tried to convince my protesting stomach. No matter, I still had to find my card for the classes after. Scraping around the wrappers and tightly folded notes in the corner, my hand closed around-
"Ooh, a galleon!" I said aloud. With no parental allowance, I was limited to absolutely no money. That was bad. I had left than a year of school left...but I did have an after school plan. Healer training. But I pushed the thoughts away as I looked closer at the galleon, frowning as I tried to place a memory struggling to take form. And more than one answer came to me in that moment.
The clock rewound two years ago..students united, in a time of need, we pulled through it together...my eyes lit up as I stared at the coin in my hand, thinking that this could be the key to a whole new type of standing up to the Death Eaters.
United, we just might have a chance to end this dark era.
In Dumbledore's Army.
Draco
That very morning, Draco watched the Death Eaters' faces smugly as they sat up at their high table. They had no idea how completely Draco had pulled them under.
Not even his Slytherin friends' meaningless chatter could bring him out of his gloating now, not even Pansy who repeatedly tried to engage him in conversation, persistently tried to play with his hair.
Fabricating his story since the summer previous, he had been conniving enough to make them believe him.
To believe him enough to think that his relationship with "the Greengrass girl" had meant nothing, only been a stab at trying to, possibly, get closer to the Order. But like he'd said, as he remembered, hiding a smirk, that he told them... "Astoria has proven to not be connected with members of the Order as I originally thought. She knows less than that useless Longbottom scum." Throwing in bits like the last, insulting people, helped win him favor. It also reminded him who he was-he was a Malfoy in the Order, now some corny fool in love.
Neville
Neville ran hard, feet slapping on the hard floor, the sound bouncing off the walls as the Carrows chased him.
"You can't run forever, Longbottom!" The female cackled, and Neville instinctively ducked as the sound of a whizzing curse missed his head and struck the wall behind him as he turned the corner, skidding and breathing hard as he dove behind a suit of armor.
He'd refused to punish a first year that had been late to class-it was Snape's class, but the Carrows were filling for his absence today and felt Neville needed...how had they put it? Toughening up. But Neville would rather chop off his fingers, or conduct some other grisly act to himself, ten times over rather than inflict the curse, even once, that had driven both of his parents to insanity.
The small boy had arrived breathless and late to the Dark Arts (the words "Defense Against The" had been cut off) and the Carrows had brushed of his explanation of getting lost.
Amycus's eyes falling immediately on Neville, they promptly decided that if Neville wouldn't preform the torture curse on the first year as "practice," they'd called it, for NEWTS, than the curse would be preformed on Neville.
Hence, he had run and was now hiding, making a conscious effort to quiet the heavy tone of his breath, while debating if he should make a break for the door that had appeared in front of him, across the hall.
It hadn't been there a minute ago, Neville was sure of it. But now it was as present as the odd tapestry of trolls hanging next to it.
And the whole bearing looked extremely familiar-Neville knew he'd better hurry up and tell his feet to move if he wanted to make it to the door in time because the Carrows were sure to drop back once they noticed Neville had evaded them.
He positioned himself to run, straining his ears for the sound of footsteps-in a heartbeat, his feet were pounding toward the door without consent from his head and he flung himself into the room, feeling thousands of times more secure once the door was shut and locked behind him.
The Carrows wouldn't enter unless Neville wanted them to-in fact, no one could.
Because he now resided in the room of requirement. The small room contained a single hammock hung from the lower beams of the ceiling, and Gryffindor banners covered the walls-there was even a crackling fireplace.
Overall a nice place for a overnight stay, Neville thought. By publicly refusing an order, and running, he had been trying to spare the boy and draw the attention of the Carrows to himself instead. Hopefully now they would be mad enough to forget to punish the boy.
As he stumbled forward to warm his hands by the fire, he remembered how this room had brought together all those students for a common goal-and suddenly, he was imagining the room expanding, its walls pushing outward and its ceiling shooting toward the sky-more hammocks would have to appear, of course, and there would be a variety of house banners on the wall. Excepting Slytherin, probably.
As soon as he could get out of this room, Neville thought, he was going to tell a select few of his plan for a reunited Dumbledore's Army.
Luna, Seamus, Ginny, Luna...Astoria and Quinn too, probably. They'd all proven themselves many times over in the past few months. So had several others, and Neville began to develop a mental list of names...
And then the idea would expand, and the room would open up to all of those who would resist Snape and all that he had brought to this school.
Astoria
Several days later I still hadn't gotten the chance to speak of my plan to anyone yet-Julie, Sarah and Lucy hadn't been in Dumbledore's Army the first time around, and I'd wanted to talk first to someone who had... Ginny, Quinn, Neville, Seamus, Luna...I had taken to keeping the coin in my pocket at all times, its familiar weight a comfort.
And sitting in Transfiguration in early October, the coin was the last thing on my mind at the moment. I was wondering where Neville had gotten to. He'd disappeared for a few days, and he was back now, but the staff was in a twist as to where he'd disappeared to. He couldn't have left the castle, not when dementors and curses stood guard at every secret exit. And Hogwarts's secret passages were blocked off.
The whole class was sitting silently: the only sound were quills scratching on paper.
Transfiguration was a combined class between Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and I hated how Draco lounged in the corner with Pansy, not a care in the world.
I traced the bruise blossoming on my left cheek from speaking out in class-
When I felt my pocket began to emit heat.
I coughed, clearing my throat to mask my gasp. Still loudly coughing, I stumbled up to McGonagall's desk, barely even aware that I had the attention of the entire class.
"May I go to the bathroom?" I rushed, pressing my hand on the outline of the coin on my black robes, even though I knew it would be impossible to see. She looked a bit taken aback by my outburst, but she replied, flustered- "Yes, you may go-come back quickly!" That last bit I had barely heard, because I was out the door. I knew where I had to go, where someone must have activated the coins-
"Seamus, Quinn!" I greeted them as they both came out of the Charms classroom. After greeting Quinn with a quick kiss I asked immediately-
"Did the both of you..." I trailed off, glancing over my shoulder. The hallway was empty of anyone but us, but we three knew better than most that you had to be extremely cautious about saying what I was about to-or you just might find yourself at the receiving end of a pointed wand.
"The coin?" Seamus muttered quickly, under his breath.
"Careful," Quinn warned just as quietly, taking my hand. "Wait til we get there."
Ginny, Luna, and Neville were waiting for us outside the door and we quickly entered together before our group of six could attract any unwanted attention.
Quinn was still holding my hand and I thought back to our first kiss. Several weeks ago it had happened, and I kept trying to alter my memory and convince myself that it meant more than it actually had.
We entered the room now, and I knew I wasn't the only one greedily drinking in the sight of the room of requirement, perhaps the only room that remained unblemished by the Death Eaters.
"It's not much changed, is it? Different layout of course, but that's just part of the magic," Luna's dreamy voice entered my thoughts.
Seamus wolf whistled, running and diving into one of the low-strung hammocks. I stopped walking as I noticed the walls expanding and the ceiling growing-the room was getting larger, and new hammocks were appearing. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw banners joined Gryffindor. Ginny and I shared a grin.
"Carrows were chasing me one day," Neville started, "And I re-found this place. It was smaller before, with one hammock and only Gryffindor hangings-" he gestured to the walls- "And I started thinking..."
"We need Dumbledore's army to reunite," Ginny and I supported together.
"I've been thinking the same thing lately, actually," I added on. "That's why I've got my coin. I guess you all thought the same thing, because we're all here. Neville, however did you reactivate the old charm that Hermione put on it two years ago?"
"It wasn't completely gone, just waiting to be brought back," he grinned mysteriously. "And I'm not going to ask any of you to stay with me, but I'm going to be here to see it we have any others who're waiting to come in after class-"
"Neville, don't be ridiculous!"
"I'm staying, Neville. All day if I have to," I added to Ginny's first exclamation.
"Me as well," Luna smiled.
"I'm staying," said Quinn.
"Staying," Seamus nodded resolutely, crossing his arms.
"Well then," a slow grin spread across Neville's face, and I unconsciously mirrored him. "It looks like we've got our leaders then, since Harry's gone, and Ron and Hermione."
"For them. For the trio," I put my hand out.
"For Aberforth," Neville's hand goes on top of mine. "I'll explain later."
"For the teachers who hate the Carrows," Quinn added.
"For Dumbledore," Ginny said.
"For the students opposing those bastards!" Seamus gave a grin.
"And for the magic of the room," Luna puts her hand on top.
"DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY!"