Chapter 5
Chapter 5
One year later…
Harry poked his head around the corner circumspectly to look at Umbridge as she strode down the hall with her Inspector Squad behind her. He didn't get a good look at the members because he was afraid of being noticed. There was no doubt in his mind Umbridge was coming to break up the group. Quickly he retracted his head and motioned for the group to disperse out the back door. It was a nice addition to the magical room they had found to house the organization Harry and Draco headed. The room was one of Harry's most favorite late night discoveries. Whatever you could think up the room would create it. So right now it was filled with dummies for defense spell practice. If Umbridge found them they would meet a swift punishment. Harry didn't particularly care he had increased his dislike for Umbridge exponentially in the last few weeks. She especially irked him when she outlawed meetings of more than three students.
Harry had been surprised that Draco had joined him in heading the Serpent Order (It may have not been the most creative name but the members represented the Slytherin's against Umbridge basically.) Umbridge had joined the school as a Ministry adjutant to Dumbledore. Apparently the Ministry expected Dumbledork to do something wrong or not politically correct, so they had sent in the pink frog lady. Harry also suspected that the Ministry was suspicious about Professor Moody's situation last year; they probably felt that there was no way that a Death Eater could have infiltrated the school so well.
Harry motioned Draco to him. The blond jogged over to Harry's position at the door. He had been teaching a group of third years how to disarm someone. Harry had been surprised in the least that Draco had joined the Serpent Order. He had thought that Draco would choose his father and family's loyalty to the Ministry. Of course they were only loyal to the Ministry because they could dupe the current administration easier than any new one. Harry chalked it up as Draco's form of rebellion against his father.
"We are going to have to create a little distraction here if we want to give the rest time to leave." Harry said and pulled his wand out of his pocket and carefully aimed at the cobblestones in the wall behind Umbridge. She had slowly been able to get more and more authority in the school. At the moment she almost had more power than Dumbledore. The students that followed her were genuine kiss-asses. They only joined her to save their own skin. Harry knew that this was usually a distinctly Slytherin personality trait. This was one of those Slytherin traits that Harry didn't have. Even though he was a Slytherin he was loyal to his friends.
This made Harry angry when his "friends" joined Umbridge and the Inspector Squad. The blast from Harry's wand sent the stones the wall was built out of, flying in every direction. One conveniently hit Umbridge square behind her head. She fell down completely knocked out. The Inspector squad also suffered several causalities. Soon several had their wands out sending curses and hexes at the room's entrance. Harry ducked back inside. "Well, Malfoy I guess that was enough. Now let's get the hell out of here!" Harry ran to the back entrance and slipped out into the hallway.
"Wait, Potter for a second I'm going to hit them again. They are definitely not going to like this!" Draco called from the door. Harry paused and turned around. Draco shot a hex that sent several hissing snakes slithering at the Inspector Squad. Harry cracked up laughing. He thumped Draco on the back as they hurried out of the deserted room. Draco began to laugh with him.
"That was perfect choice of hexes. I mean it symbolizes us so well. Did you see the look on their faces? Hilarious!! Absolutely hilarious!! I don't think they will bother us for a while." Harry said as they came upon the Slytherin Common Room. They were both still laughing when they entered the Common Room. Harry stopped laughing when he noticed that Jessica was missing. "Has anyone seen Jessica?" He looked around the whole Slytherin complex extremely concerned. "Did anyone see her leave the Room of Requirement?" The other members in her year shook their heads.
Harry couldn't find out anything from anyone. He did get some conflicting views. One fourth year boy thought that he had seen her at the meeting at all. Then a third year girl said that she had seen her leave the meeting in the middle. Harry knew that the truth was probably something in between. He didn't believe that she would have left the meeting without telling him. He stayed in the Common Room during dinner waiting for her to come back. Time passed and everyone soon returned from dinner. Harry became more concerned. She should have returned by now. Malfoy had said that she wasn't at dinner.
Harry sat in the armchair for hours until 10 o'clock at night. Finally he saw the door tot eh Common Room slowly creak open. Harry didn't say a word, waiting to see who it was. It was Jessica. She was covered in small bruises and looked almost exhausted. Harry still didn't say a word, wondering what she would do. She let out a gasp of relief. The she headed toward the girls dormitory. That was when he noticed the badge on her chest. He read it in dread. It said, Inquisitorial Squad (Umbridge's fancy name for the Inspector Squad.)
Harry jumped up off the armchair and latched on to Jessica's arm. She jumped into the air at the unannounced touch. Normally when she felt Harry's touch it was warm and loving, but this was as cold as steel. "I cannot believe you. You treacherous bitch! What made you sell us out?" He said whipping her around on the staircase. His face was pale with rage.
"They were going to ruin my pureblood status. What was I supposed to do? That is everything in this house." His face didn't change at all.
"How could they take away your status? Or are you pureblooded? I can't believe I've haven't been dating a pureblood. This relationship we had is completely over. Don't talk to me again and I won't say a thing." He said as he let go of her arm to head to the boy's dormitory. She practically crawled to her bed. Once there she sobbed herself to sleep.