Chapter 14

Rose POV.

Draco's gray orbs fell on me and his satisfied smirk softened slightly, a look of surprise and horror seeping through. He hadn't expected me to be there, much less be one of the two founders of the organization that he had been chasing down for who knows how long. I didn't care. This was the ultimate act of betrayal, and my gift burned to be let loose and retaliate against the blonde. I kept in check to the best of my ability, not letting anyone see the rose colored sparks that shot across my fingers. What he did at the beginning of the school year didn't even remotely compare to this. How could he do this to me? I thought we'd been friends.

I glared daggers at him as the members of the Inquisitorial Squad began rounding up students. He let Cho go and walked toward me. I was so furious that I wanted to slap him or hex him into oblivion, but I was so furious that I was frozen in place. I was involuntarily motionless long enough for Draco to come up behind me, take my wand that I had caught in a death grip from my hands, and force my hands behind my back before we were led out of the room. "I'm sorry." He whispered as he pushed me out of the room. I found out that the Minister of Magic was standing outside the blasted-out hole in the wall.

"I'm very disappointed in you Rose." He said sadly. Had I been any less angry I would have lowered my head in shame.

"I'm sorry Minister." I replied as evenly as I could, keeping my head defiantly up.

Draco pulled me to the back of the procession before it broke apart, taking the majority of the students to another part of the castle, probably the dungeons, while Harry – being dragged along by my cousin Percy, his work with the Ministry seemed to have turned him from a cousin that I liked to one who I now despised– and I were taken up to the Headmaster's office. This did not bode well for us.

I kicked Draco in the shin. He winced, but didn't go down. "You're sorry? How could you do this to me Draco? I thought we were friends. Or at least had been." I seethed quietly. None of the people in front of us heard anything. Umbridge was too busy yakking to the Minister about all that she'd found out about the "unacceptable practices" at the school.

"This is the only way." The Slytherin answered back quietly.

"The only way for what?!" I demanded, but he refused to say anything more.

I was forced up the eagle staircase that led to the Headmaster's office.

Umbridge kept squawking into the Minister's ear. "You see, I told you that there was something fishy going on here. I knew that all of his fear mongering was a smoke screen. Dumbledore has instigated this 'Army', in direct bid to take control of the Ministry."

Draco kept my hands secured and shied out of the way when I tried to kick him again. I was beyond furious.

The Headmaster was stoic. Harry spoke up then before Percy tugged on his collar to quiet him. "No, he had nothing to do with it, it was me." Harry was taking the fall so that the Headmaster would not be taken from the school. He knew how much we needed to keep professor Dumbledore in his position. He was the only one between Umbridge and her desire for complete Ministry control over the school. I had to help. It had been my idea in the first place.

"And me, Minister. It was my idea, and I run it with Harry." I added.

"Stay quiet Rose." Draco whispered in my ear. I glared at him.

"I thank you, Harry, Rose; for trying to take the fall for me, but if you'll notice Minister, as that paper clearly states, the organization is called Dumbledore's Army, not Potter's or Braddock's. I instructed them to create this organization, and I and I alone am responsible for its activities."

"No, Professor." Harry spoke up again. I thought it wisest to stay quiet.

"Dispatch an owl to the Prophet at once; if we hurry, we can still make the Morning Edition. Dorrish, Shacklebolt, you are to escort Albus Dumbledore to Azkaban to await trial on charges of Conspiracy and..." The Minister started officially, taking command of the situation, or trying to. Even I could see that he was terrified of the Headmaster.

"Ah, I see that we've hit a little snag." Replied the Headmaster as he got out of his upholstered chair and moved to stand behind it to keep a set distance between himself and his accusers. "You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to... what was the phrase? 'Come quietly?' Well I can tell you this, I have no intention of going to Azkaban."

"Enough of this!" spurted Umbridge. "Take him!"

The Headmaster winked at us, then the call of Fawks split the air as the Headmaster clapped his hands above his head and the instant that Fawks flew to his master, the room exploded with light and power, and all but Harry and I, strangely, collapsed as the Headmaster disappeared. When we regained our barrings, a small bit of light, all that was left where the Headmaster had been, winked out of existence with a loud zip as if Professor Dumbledore had torn the fabric of reality and walked through it.

Kingsley Shacklebolt stood and said – out of breath, "You may not like it Minister, but you can not deny, Dumbledore has got style." The Minister just looked at the dark-skinned man as if he'd grown another head.

After the Headmaster disappeared, the Minister said, breathless again, "Delores Umbridge, I hereby name you the Headmistress of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Umbridge beamed. "Thank you Minister." She said. My stomach twisted. I was feeling so many emotions towards so many people that I couldn't contain it all.

She moved towards the Headmaster's chair and sat gingerly in. An image of what this office would look like when she was through with it, nauseatingly pink with endless kitten plates, flashed through my mind. I could only hope that the staircase would not let her in after we were done in here. I was almost positive that our life was about to become a living nightmare.

She looked serene in that seat, and I noticed then that she wore a peculiar locket around her neck; a large, thick, elongated octagon with an S in the shape of a snake emblazoned on it. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was moving.

"Thank you Minister." The new Headmistress dismissed the Minister of Magic, and he stepped into the fireplace, disappearing in a plume of green flames. My cousin let go of Harry and followed the Minister back to the Ministry. Harry staggered, but glared daggers at Draco as he took hold of Harry's collar. "My first order of business," began Umbridge, her voice sickeningly sweet, "Is for all of your little friends and yourselves to be put through detention with the Blood-Quills you all love so much tomorrow after classes. Lead them away." she finished.

I paled, barely able to stay on my feet as Draco led us out of the room and down the stairs into one of the main corridors. "Don't think I won't be watching you, Rose." Draco whispered before he let us go. Finally fed up with him, I whipped around and slapped him across his perfect face, my hand leaving a cherry red mark on his pale cheek. The redness suited him; he should be slapped more often.

"How dare you?" He seethed, stumbling back and stroking his sore face. I didn't care if I'd made him angry, he deserved far worse.

"That is for all you've done to me." I snapped back as Harry looked on. He would probably be mad at me till next school year at least, but I would loath him for all eternity I was sure.

Harry and I helped each other up to the common-room and went straight to bed. I hoped Harry got a good night sleep. I sure as heck didn't. I tossed and turned in my bed for half the night while Hermione slept peacefully in her bed, not knowing what lay in store for her tomorrow. I was too terrified to tell her. What I worried about most was if I would be able to keep my gift contained during our detention. Since it seemed that what energy was used to heal or harm people other than myself was taken from me, it was very possible, with either thirty three or thirty four students being tortured with Blood-Quills tomorrow, that if my gift escaped it could kill me. That is what scared me the most; my relative inability to control the curse. I fell asleep with these thoughts bouncing around my head.

I woke up the next morning cold and weak, and couldn't bring myself to tell Hermione or any of my cousins for that matter what they had to endure. Harry told them. I felt guilty that I didn't have the courage or strength to tell them. I even felt that I was disgracing Gryfindor by being the exact opposite of what my house stood for.

My panic rose as Detention grew nearer, and when it finally arrived I could barely make myself fall into my chair I was so scared. Umbridge came up and passed out the dreaded quills while we looked at her furiously. The older students did at least; the younger students just looked at her as terrified as I was. Most had never even heard of a Blood-Quill. They'd been outlawed before they were born.

I expected her to say something like, "You will write I love Umbridge until there is no blood left in your body," but instead she said, after falling gracefully into her overgrown throne whilst wrapped in a fluffy pink housecoat, "You will write, 'I will not defy the Ministry,' until your papers are filled."

My breath caught. I knew what happened when you wrote a sentence more than once with a Blood-Quill; the words cut themselves deeper and deeper into your flesh, drawing ever more blood out of your body onto the paper. I knew now that my life literally depended on me keeping my shaky grip on my gift.

"You may begin."