By the next Monday, Kym had decided no one would be at the meeting. People were still avoiding her like the plague, though Sarah Wood had officialy beome her permanent lab partner. Kym had told Jason Nott the information, telling him of her cousin's plan. Even he thought it was an outrageous plan. It wasn't until Tuesday morning that she question exactly how large of a turn out they would be getting.
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Kym ran to breakfast, absolutely positive she would miss it. She rounded the third floor stairs, taking a moment to check her wrist watch, stopping in the middle of the stairs.
Breakfast hadn't even started yet. She gave a groan of frustration. Sometimes she hated that her dormmates all got up hours early to go run, as they were on the Quidditch team, or go study. It was very hard to judge when she misread her watch. She gave a tired groan, cursing her tired ind for making the mistake. She began on her way again, though much slower. Breakfast would be starting soon, she would just be eating very early.
"Weasley." an out of breath Sarah Wood approached her.
"You have a very weird habit of doing that." Kym said, laughing. "Almost every time we have our nice little chats it starts with you chasing me down." Sarah just shok her head, trying to catch her breath. As she panted, her friend, John, form the cauldron incident took over.
"This meeting people keep talking about it." He started, pushing a strand of brown hair out from in front of his eyes. "Is it serious?" Kym gave him a look. Angelina had been in charge of telling Gryffindor. She must of done a pretty good job if even the Quidditch players heard about it. They weren't always on the top of gossip, especially in Gryffindor where Quidditch was taken very seriously. It wasn't that they weren't told, as they were the most popular in their houses, they just didn't care if it didn't have to do with Quidditch or House fighting.
"It was Angelina's idea, but she wants me to teach it." Kym said, nodding seriously. They all looked slightly surprised and impressed. 'All' was really only Sarah, John, and two other guys she didn't know, but still. She figured it was a good sign.
"Awesome" Sarah said, smiling. "You would be involved in making this hapen though. A group dedicated to all four houses, when none of them can sem to get along."
"That's sometihng we're working a lot on." Kym said, giving a smirk that made the guys uncomfortable. Sarah had always said she had a very evil looking smirk, which always made Kym smirk more just out of amusement. Sarah just laughed and turned to the guys.
"We'll be there." Sarah smiled. "With friends. This is going to be huge."
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During the text two periods, until lunch, Kym was much more aware of the stares and glances she was getting. Keeping in mind how Sarah reacted, Kym saw things a little different. People were trying to size her up. Apparently the only fact that was getting passed around was that Kymberly Weasley was teaching people to duel, and it would be a worthwhile lesson. People were staring not because she was an outcast, but because they were intrigued by what she was trying to do. For some reason it had become some unwritten rule that Dumbledore's Army wasn't to be talked about openly. Her friends were much more vocal about their opinions.
"I can't believe you're going through with this." Tarin said, looking "You were never very good with large groups."
"The groups not going to be that large is it?" Kym asked, suddenly getting nervous. She knew there were going to be some people, but it didn't really occur to her that there would be a large group.
"Are you kidding?" Dana squealed. "Everyone's talking about it"
"Seriously?" Kym suddenly felt very nervous and sweaty. Tarin and Dana shared an incredulous look. Kym suddenly felt very naive for not expecting a large group.
"Seriously." Tarin said, as if she were stating the obvious.
"Everyone?" Kym's head was spinning and refusing to accept the facts.
"Everyone." Dana said, mimicking Tarin's tone.
"This was bad idea." Kym said, standing and preparing to run from the Great Hall. "This was a serious bad idea. Why did I agree to this? Why did you two let me agree to do this?"
"Oh no, no, no." Tarin said grabbing Kym and pulling her down.
"A professor would've been so much better to do this." Kym continued, though she let herself be pulled down.
"Stop." Dana said, popping and orange slice into Kym's mouth, who immediately grabbed it and ate it herself. "You are plenty qualified. You are the best duelist anyone here has seen. Are you really going to back out now? No one would do better than you." Dana said, giving Kym a one armed hug. Kym took a deep breath.
"No one understand why this is as important as you do, Kym." Tarin said. "You know why we have to do this." Tarin stood and walked out of the Great Hall without so much as a goodbye. Others stared at her but Kym just looked at her plate of food. She understood. Just like Tarin understood the fight just as well as Kym. Tarin's parents were mysteriously murdered the summer before last year. She lived with a foster family now in downtown London. They both could see the fight ahead. It was a personal fight for both of them. Kym looked up at Dana and gave her a determined stare.
"Lets do this." Kym said, smirking once again, making Dana laugh.
Annapolis, Maryland
1 Shipwright Street (Evan's House)
Hermione at in her room, staring at a picture of her and Aiden from his last birthday. It was a funny shot of Aiden on Hermione's lap with a birthday cake in front of them, except Aiden was busy trying to shove a piece of cake into Hermione's face as she tried to stop him. She had been remembering everything and it was very disconcerting. It seemed like everything she thought was completely wrong. Including Aaron. He was becoming increasingly nervous and controlling.She remebered Kym. Her daughter. Her daughter that she abandoned. And Fred. How much this must have hurt him.
But they don't care Hermione thought sadly They weren't exactly sending out a search party.
"Yes they did." a voice said. It was Aaron. Hermione turned, surprised. "Don't freak out, Hermione. You were thinking out loud again."
"Why would I freak out?" Hermione asked, ignoring the second part of his comment. "Do I have a reason?" She patted her pocket instinctively for her wand, but cursed when she remembered she didn't have it.
"I have something to tell you." Aaron said, acting jittery as he had been all weekend. "I wanted you to hear it from me, not someone else. I've been trying all week to tell you, but it's complicated."
"What is it?" Hermione asked, cutting off his babbling, feeling very tense.
"I'm a wizard." Hermione wanted to scream. Tricked again."No, it's not like that." Aaron corrected when he saw her face. "I didn't know you werea witch, Hermione.I swear I had no idea until all those wizards came into our house. I was trying to escape the wizarding world, I didn't want to be there anymore. I thought you were my escape."
"Why did you react the way you did when they came, then?" Hermione asked. Aaron had come in swinging a candlestick for Merlin's sake.
"That candlestick is where I hide my wand for emergency situations. Didn't seem practical to throw it away." Hermione nodded. It was kind of difficult to accept this information.
"Why did you want to get away?" Aaron looked somewhat guilty.
"I come from a pureblood family." He said, as if that explained everything. At Hermione's look he added on. "They were death eaters, and that's all they were interested in me becoming. I saw what they did during the last war and was horrified. After nothing happened to them, I lost my faith in the Wizarding world. Bad guys may get away in the muggle world, but at least they have an excuse. They don't have the resources we do. It seemed that muggles were a little more pure, so I decided to come here."
"Okay." Hemione said,nodding at him. She took a deep breath, still having trouble acceptinghis information. "Thank you for telling me, Aaron."
"I needed to tell you, Mia, because I love you." He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Once I discovered you were a witch, my need to tell you only grew. I want to stay with you, no matter what. If that means moving back to the Wizarding world, so be it. If it is what you want, I'll do it. As long as I have you, I'll be happy. Just please say you'll stay with me." Aaron said, looking in her eyes. Hermione's eyes watered at the intensity behind his words. Aaron was such a great guy. And he would always be there for her. He was the perfect guys for her. All guilty thoughts of Fred pushed aside, she smiled at him.
"Of course I'll stay, Aaron." Hermione said, giving him a tight hug. "Me being a witch doesn't change how I feel about you."
"Good" Aaron whispered, breathing a sigh of releif into her hair.
The Burrow
The Kitchen
The entire surviving Weasley clan sat around the Kitchen table, more than half of them giving Fred questiong glances. He hadn't spoken one word to them since they had returned to the Burrow days ago. He would only speak with George, and even that took a lot of prodding. Ginny sat at the counter preparing a nice iced lemon pound cake for everyone, tapping her foot impatiently. Ever since Hermione's supposed death years ago, there had been doubt, but Fred would speak nothing on the subject. He wouldn't talk about what happened after they were captured. He would only break down and keep saying 'they took her, they took her. I wanted to do the right thing'
"Okay, that's enough, Fred." Ginny said, slamming the now ready pound cake on the table. "We need to know what happened. Everytihng. That means who took you, where, why, and what they did to Hermione." Everyone gave her shocked and almost offended looks, but no one protested as they all turned to Fred, waiting to see if he'd answer. He didn't. Instead he just stood and walked from the room, apparating away once he was outside the wards around the house.
"Geez, Gin." Charlie said. "Wrong time to let the Weasley temper fly." He didn't sound mad at her, just shocked. Sense havng her triplets, she hadn't really let her temper flare very much, in fear of it affecting her children.
"She's not completely wrong, though." Percy added in, almost relaxing into his chair as he spoke, but somehow retaining a perfect seeming posture the whole time. "Doesn't it seem imperative at this point for him to tell us?" Everyone was quiet for a moment until George shook his head.
"I'm going to have to hurt Fred for putting me in this situation."
"What's that." Bill asked, slightly amused as he could see what was coming.
"I haven't had to admit that Percy made sense in years." George let out an exaggerated shudder. "It just doesn't feel right." Everyone laughed but George remained standing. "I'm going to go find him."
George walked out the door, trying to think of where Fred would go. Suddenly it made sense. When they were younder, whenever Fred wanted to get away, he'd simply apparate to the one place he said would always make sense to him. George chuckled to himself and made his way to the reptile house at the muggle zoo on the outskirts of London. He was shocked to find that he wasn't there. He almost thought that maybe there was some invisibility involved, but shook it from his mind.
Next he apparated to Fred's house in muggle London.Immediately when he got their some muggle alarms went off but they wre quickly disarmed as George knew the passcodes.
Fred sat at his desk in the study, staring at the blank piece of paper in front of him. He had been trying to write a letter to Kym. It really was harder than it sounded. It was coming up on the fifth anniversary of when Hermione was taken, and Fred was dealing just as well as he had dealt every other year, which wasn't very well. He couldn't help but think of Hermione and their child. It would be almost 5 years old. Fred scoffed at himself. He was too cowardly to try and defy the people who kidnapped her, in fear that they would kill her, so he didn't even know the gender of his own baby. He dropped his head onto the desk in dispair. He couldn't help but miss Hermione, and feel guilty. He had decided quickly, wanting Hermione to stay alive and have the choice of happiness even if it wasn't with him. But what if she didn't have it? What if she were completely miserable? A few tears slid down his face before he could wipe the tears, and Fred pulled out a second piece of paper, sliding the one he had addressed to Kym off to the side. This letter had to be written before he lost his nerve.
"Brother of mine, where are you?" A voce called from the kitchen. George waltzed in and laughed at his brother's deer-in-headlights look. Before Fred could react, George snatched the letter away from him and began reading, thinking it was a funny letter. As he read, the smiled dropped from his face and was replaced by a look of complete horror and revulsion. "What have you done, Fred?" Fred immediately started sobbing.
"I thought I was saving her." Fred said, finally breaking down into sobs. He continued to explain the truth behind the kidnapping and his release. George sat down in the chair opposite Fred's as the story progressed, his legs failing because of the shock. His brother had done the most unselfish thing, in a way. He let himself be miserable so that Hermione had a chance to live and raise their child, even if he would never meet him or her.
"I don't blame you for anything, Fred." George said, shaking his head. "I think we should go to Dumbledore about this."
"No! Don't you remember what I said. Dumbledore is not himself." Fred said exasperatedly. It seemed his family was having problems seeing Dumbledore as evil in any way.
"He could be now. Someone could only have been using the body for a while to search for something. If you won't go to Dumbledore, we need to at least tell the Order. They can help us find her."
"No!" Fred said, shocked. "What if they find out. I don't want the mother of my children or my son to be killed. I've done enough harm already." They sat in silence for a few moments, until a thought came to Fred. "Wait, if the Order doesn't know, why was McGonnagal at the house? As far as I know she still teaches at Hogwarts."
"She does." George said, nodding. "Still teaches Transfiguration."
"I'm sensing the Order isn't exactly keeping us informed." Fred said, looking puzzeled. George nodded, realizing maybe there was a little bit more to the situationthan they were being led to believe.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The Room of Requirement
Kym walked into the Room of Requirment and nearly fainted at the size of it. She'd only willed for a room big enough to fit all the people plannig to come to tonights meeting. She groaned softly, knowing that the room was probably closer to correct then she was on the number of people coming. She looked down at her parchment, which she had filled with things to say to the people who came, and tore it in half. It seemed wholly inappropriate and not good enough. She sat in on of the many chair adorning the sides of the room and sighed. This was going to be an interesting meeting. Or a complete disaster. Maybe both. She worked a hand through her hair, which was apparently now poker straight for eternity thanks to one Vincent Malfoy.
She sighed again and leaned back, trying to think of how this was going to work out. It would be interesting. Her winging an important meeting in front of a lot of people. At the very least it would give everyone there a chance to laugh at her. She looked around a little more closely and noticed something. The entire room was done only in colors not found in any of the houses. There was no green, maroon, blue, silver, gold, yellow, bronze, or black. The entire room was done, albeit plainly, in shades of brown and tan. The stone walls only had draperies with brown backgrounds with pinks, whites, oranges, and purples. It made her laugh a bit. Even the castle was trying to bring an end to the stupidity that had overtaken the school.
She re-organized her thoughts in her head, arranging a lot of them on the houses. Finally, with about an half hour until the beginning of the meeting, people started arriving. Kym was shocked at how fast they were coming in. Finally, at almost exactly on time, the doors were shut and there was a loud buzz of conversation regarding the organization of the room. Kym had taken three other seats, for an obvious purpose, to the front of the room. Beyond that it was a free for all. There were no defined areas for group, just a big empty space with a few chair lining the edge of the room. As everyone quieted down, Kym smirked. They had done exactly what she had hoped.
"Okay." Kym said, somewhat loudly, but no one seemed to hear as they kept talking. "Can I have your attention, please?" She tried again but with no luck.
"Every one shut the hell up" A voice bellowed. Kym turned and saw Sarah Wood giving her a smile and a thumbs up. Kym took a deep breath and managed to return the smile. At this point everyone had stopped talking and was staring at her. Kym felt the panic building in and almost ran when she felta hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw why everyone had become quiet, and it wasn't Sarah's shouting. Jason Nott, Christopher Goyle, Vincent Malfoy, and Sabrina Zabini were all standing there, looking bored. Kym suddenly lost her shyness thanks to their attitude. She rolled her eyes.
"Take a seat." She hissed, pushing thme forward. They walked forward slowly and sat off to the side. Kym rolled her eyes. "Rule #1- If you're late, you don't want me to know. You come in quietly and sit down." She eyed the Slytherins. "We don't need to waste our time with your theatrics." There was murmur through the room as people realized she was serious and this was starting. "Rule #2- Starting immediately, you are not allowed to sit next to a house mate." She stopped and watched but no one moved. "That means now." Still, no one moved.
"Okay, if this is how everyone is going to act, we should just stop right now." People looked around to see if she was serious and she was, She packed a bag and stood in front of the room. "What good is learning to fight an enemy if the only war you are going to pay attention to is which House is winning the House Cup. Just one question. What's going to happen after Hogwarts? When there are no houses? How are you going to know who to hate then? If the only thing you learned from school is that your house is the best?"
"What's the point?" Someone yelled. Kym looked but couldn't tell who shouted it. She dropped her bag and faced the group.
"If that's seriously how you think, then why are you here?" She asked, sneering."Wanted to see a duel? Anyone who thinks that, could you please get up and leave now? You're wasting our time." A few people did stand a walk away, but a majority stayed. "We have to learn to fight together, people. It doesn't matter what House you were in if a powerful Wizard comes here. He's not going care. Being in Gryffindor and winning the House Cup isn't going to save you from an Unforgivable." People shifted uncomfortably.
"We can live with that, but why do we have to sit with them?" A small Ravenclaw called out. Kym smiled.
"Name five people, from and House besides Ravenclaw, that you are friends with and that you are confident would have your back in a honest to goodness duel" The small boy stoof for a moment in silence, thinking, before grabbing his bag and walking to the dead center of the Gryffindor group and sitting down.
"Now lets move." Kym said again. Again, no one moved. Then Vincent Malfoy stood and walked to the opposite side of the room, where all of the Hufflepuffs were sitting, and sat down. Then Sarah moved and sat next to the Slytherins. Then John went and sat with some Ravenclaws. Soon everyone was up and moving around. Once everyone was seated again, Kym almost had to laugh at some of their expressions. Sarah had ended up next to Christopher Goyle, and was looking as if she might be sick. Jason Nott ended up near a few giggling fourth years, and was looking as if he might run and jump off the North Tower. Suddenly Angelina came up to her.
"What are you thinking?" Angelina asked, not looking very happy. "People didn't come here for therapy time."
"We can't get better till we fix what's wrong." Kym shrugged. "How many of you know why this group was created?" A Ravenclaw girl rasied her hand. Kym pointed to her and she stood, making Kym feel kind of small. The girl was most likely muggle-born as she was sporting a pair of jeans and a shirt for a band called The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Her robe was lying on the floor next to where she had been sitting, obviously tossed away without a second thought. She was really tall, which was why Kym felt small. She had to be almost 5' 11". She tossed a pieace of her light brown hair over her shoulder.
"Aren't we here to learn how to defend ourselves?" She said with a thick American accent that threw Kym off. She hadn't known there were any American's here, let alone one in her own house.
"Yes, we are." Kym said, nodding. "But from who?" The girl shrugged and sat down. "This group was made when our parents were our age. They had someone they were fighting. A dark wizard named Voldemort." A few people squirmed uncomfortably. "That threat is here again. Now. That is what we have to defend ourselves against. Someone has chosen to continue his work. That is why we're here." She stopped and the entire room was silent. Kym turned and saw Angelina, who looked shaken and unhappy.
"What are you doing?"
"Teaching." Kym said. "They have to know what we're up against. Why don't you want me to tell them?" Kym was confused. This was Angelina's idea, and now she wanted them to censor what they told everyone.
"Not everyone believ..." Kym stopped listening and turned to the class.
"Who doesn't believe me?" Kym asked the nervous looking crowd. "The killing has already started. The disappearances. It is just like before and, just like before, no one wants to believe what is happening." She paused and was met with more silence and fidgetting. "Anyone who doesn't want to be apart of this anymore can leave. We have a threat, we have to learn to protect ourselves." About a little over half left, thogh some paused when none of the Slytherins stood and walked away. They were down to just about 20 people. The ones left looked determined, not nervous. Kym looked and saw that, from Gryffindor, the only ones left were Sarah, John, the 2 other Quidditch team mates from earlier, and a girl she didn't recognize. Angelina had left. Ravenclaw, unsurprisingly, had the largest representation but, very shockingly, Hufflepuff had the second largest.
"We're ready." Sarah called from her spot in between a Hufflepuff fifth year and a Ravenclaw seventh year.
"Okay." Kym said, smiling "The two most important things you should know when dueling is how to cast a sheilding charm, for obvious reasons, and how to stupefy your opponent. We are going to start off by learning these. Who knows these already?" A few seventh years raised their hands, but not many. "Lets start with the sheilding charm." They went on and by the end of practice, 17of the 23 club members were able to succesfully cast the charm.
Kym made her way down the hallway, trying to be stealthy because it was hours after curfew. Just as she passed the statue of Gireo the Greusome, which she nerver liked because it really gave her the creeps, someone grabbed her.
"Who's there?" Kym shouted, grabbing her wand form her pocket and trying to locate whoever pulled her into the alcove.
"Wait." The voice shouted. "I didn't mean to scare you. I was calling your name but you didn't answer." Kym lit her wand and saw the girl who answered her earlier in the meeting.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Kym apologized. "Who are you"
"I'm Kelsey." The girl said, smiling. Kym almost started laughing.
"You have a really thick accent, where are you from?"
"I'm from Tennesse." She said. "My mom's from Surrey, that's why I still got a letter to come here." She had pulled her layered hair to one side and was playing with it, making the layers stand out more.
"And you're a Ravenclaw?" The girl nodded.
"Seventh year." Kym gave her a confused look. "I don't really care about houses too much, most of my friends are in Hufflepuff so I go over there a lot."
"Why did you need to talk to me?" The girl's smile fell from her face, her eyes, which Kym had originally thought were just a light blue, darkened to a steel grey color.
"Is it true, what you said." She paused, looking desperate."You know, about another Dark Wizard coming?" Kym merely nodded and the girl started to break down.
"What's wrong?" Kym asked. "You don't have to be upset. We can fight. We can win." The girlshook her head.
"That's not what it is." The girl said, managing to stop her tears. "Last time, though I don't really remember because I was young, they came for my parents and my brother. My dad is a muggle but apparently my mom was a squib from a pureblood family. They got her. They took my mom." The girl managed to stay calm, but Kym could tell she wanted to cry more. "I just don't want to loose anyone else"
"I can't promise you wont." Kym said. "And I know that sucks, trust me. I lost my mom too. Five years ago, when things hadn't really started yet." Kelsey looked surprised but Kym nodded. "All you can do is what you're already doing. Learn what you can and hope for the best."