Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
Chapter 7: Pride
"Hagrid? Are you sure this is…safe?" Neville asked a bit hesitant as we neared the forest.
"Of course! As long as we don't go past the border for the centaurs, that is." Hagrid answered.
"What happens if we pass the border?" I asked curiously.
"Uh- well- just don't let it happen," Hagrid stated quickly, "Now there has been some explosions in the forest. I think a few of my blast-ended skrewts may have found their way into the forest. They have been wreaking havoc and er- well we've had some complaints. So our job is to find them and bring them back to the grounds where they belong." He said proudly. We on the other hand, weren't too proud.
"You want us to tame those things!" Neville said angrily, "there's nothing to tame! They just blow up every time you try!"
"Ah Neville, I assure you they are safe." Hagrid said with a smile, "Now come on! I don't want to keep you here all night."
Luna and I were paired up, to Neville's displeasure. I think it's a manly thing, wanting to protect the girls. Of course Hagrid felt that Neville should stay with him, so we got to have fang.
"It is very quiet." Luna pointed out. Was the forest supposed to be this quiet?
"Is this normal?" I asked
"Not quite, there may be wrackspurts around." Luna guessed. Leave it to Luna to make me laugh.
"Oh Luna- whoa what was that?" I gasped at the loud noise.
"We better keep going," Luna said grabbing my hand and pulling me. We both came to a complete stop as we noticed a creature on the floor, arrows were sticking out of it.
"What is that?" I asked as we approached it, slowly.
"I think you mean, what was it?" Luna corrected.
"I think we found one of those blast-ended skrewts." Luna said as she examined the dead creature. She lifted her wand in the air and shot some red sparks.
"Who are you?" A figure said from the distance, "What are you doing here? You are not welcome!" He shouted as he came towards us. We pulled our wands out and pointed them to him quickly. He stopped abruptly. "Witches?" His face flushed, "You are not welcome here!" He said angrily.
"We are sorry, we did not know." I said shakily, as he stared at us with a really angry look."
"We told Hagrid that any wizards or witches caught in our territory would suffer terribly, we do not want part in your war!" He yelled
"we aren't-" I started,
"Ginny, Luna! There you are, what- oh Bane!" Hagrid said. He stood in front of us, blocking us from Bane's view.
"Hagrid" Bane said in disgust, "We warned you about invading our territory"
"Sorry about that Bane, they are just kids." Hagrid argued. "They mean no harm."
"We told you to stay out of our forest." Bane yelled. This time a few centaurs came to his side.
"Bane what is going on?" A powerful voice yelled from the back. A tall centaur came from behind Bane, and stood in front of him.
"Ah Hagrid, of course" the centaur said shaking his head.
"Magorian, we were just leaving" Hagrid said, he looked less tense for some reason.
"What are a group of kids doing here? Hagrid you know the forest is extremely dangerous. We cannot have wizards here, regardless of age." Magorian stated, reasonably.
"No offense, but we did nothing wrong." I said, getting annoyed.
"You are mistaken. Creatures like us, we play no part In your war. We want peace, but refuse to join into this fight where we are not welcome." Magorian said, "You may leave, just know next time we will not be as lenient." He said turning around. Hagrid quickly ushered us away.
"Okay detention is over" Hagrid said quickly as he got us to his hut, "Ye best be getting to your common rooms." He added. Neville, Luna and I turned to walk.
"You three best be careful. These are dark times. Maybe it be best if you don't work so hard to get your name known, especially you Ginny" Hagrid warned.
"I was targeted, even without speaking. This is all we can do Hagrid, we'll try not to get caught next time" I said, as Hagrid shook his head.
"Be careful" He mumbled as we walked away.
~HP~HP~HP~HP~
The days had wore on and soon I found myself once again in Dark Arts.
"So class, today is the day we have all awaited. Everyone line up, we will now begin experimenting with Crucio" Professor Carrow said with what sounded like excitement. He took out a cage filled with rats. "Everyone grab a rat and we can begin."
"I am not doing this" I said angrily staring at my mouse. Next to me Demelza glared at Professor Carrow. To my right stood Luna who was playing with her mouse.
"Class on my mark you will all test your abilities. Okay you may all begin, Now!" Professor Carrow smirked.
I just stared at the poor mouse. I could never hurt such an innocent creature. I just don't have that kind of mentality. I looked around and noticed a good amount of students, just staring at their mice. Mostly the Slytherin's had started casting that horrible spell.
"What are you all staring at? I said begin!" Carrow yelled, "You won't cast the spell on the mouse by staring at it" Some students began to twitch a little but none could find it in their hearts to hurt the poor mice. Professor Carrow started to yell at the closest students to him. "If you do not use the curse right now, then expect detention this Friday with my lovely sister and I." He yelled. Some student, twitched a little more and moved their arms, but nothing happened. Demelza looked close to tears, I'm sure she remembers my detention. A good few mumbled the curse, which hit the mouse, but no pain occurred. I think it tickled the mouse actually. Most of the class who hadn't used the spell, nor wand were of course mostly Gryffindors, a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff students. About 8 people I would say. Luna, Demelza and I included.
"We will need to work on that." Carrow mumbled at them, "So the rest of you refuse huh. Well detention to all of you." He snarled, writing our names on the board with his wand. "You get to join all the other pathetic students who have detention, apparently even the older students don't know their place."
Did that mean that Neville, Michael, Seamus and the rest of the older DA are all sharing detention with us?
~HP~HP~HP~HP~
A week passed by. Our detention was very interesting. There were about 15 of us, mostly all of us were DA members, and sadly we were all used for target practice. Luckily no one was younger than 6th year. Neville, Luna, and I figured this would be the best time to inspire unity.
"Now that you have all signed the list we can begin" I said in front of a huge group of students. There were at least 30 students here all ready and excited to be a part of our DA family. "We are here to show the Carrow's that we won't give in to their demands!" I said as everyone cheered. "We can't let them bully us! We need to fight back! The DA is here to build up our attack and defense spells, train, and most importantly create a family in these dark times. We are not alone as long as we have each other. In here we make the population, our parents are back home. They can't help us. We must be a family; working together is important." I said to the lost faces. Everyone looked so helpless. The detention we all shared together that Friday really scared many students, "I know I shared a detention with a good amount of you this past Friday. I am not saying that being in the DA means you should act careless and get detentions. If any of you don't want to do anything too crazy and just want to focus on learning spells, then that is perfectly fine. At least you are here and trying to make a difference." I said, nodding to Neville.
"Our pride is at stake along with our dignity, we can't let the Carrows take that away from us! We are strong, so let's prove to the Carrows that we are a force not to be reckoned with!" He yelled, as everyone stood up and clapped while yelling. Neville looked proud and Luna was smiling wide.
"So where do we start?" One of the new members asked hesitantly.
"We will start with a review." I said happily, "Everyone pair up. "Have any of you heard of the spell expelliarmus?" I asked.
Authors Note: Hey sorry for taking so long. I had my midterms and a small case of writers block. I hope you like it. Well again like i always say...please review. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.