Fifth Year

"I can`t get over the look on Potter`s face. Ah, don`t you just love what Umbridge is doing to the place?" Draco said, lounging in his usual chair.

Pansy, as per usual, agreed with Draco. "Totally. I`m so glad we finally have a professor who knows what she`s doing."

"Lupin wasn`t that terrible. At least he actually let us use our wands and didn`t dress like a pink puff ball." Lydia said, resting her legs on the coffee table. She hated it when everyone agreed with Draco.

Pansy snickered, and accidentally bumped against Goyle, making him drop some muffin crumbs on my legs. Lydia sighed and brushed them off. "I told you, that`s disgusting to just shove it in your mouth all at once. Don`t you have any pride?"

"Sorry" he said with a mouth full of muffin, crumbs and spit landing on her and Draco.

Lydia sighed again to let him know she didn`t appreciate the shower and wiped the Goyle off herself. Being friends with Goyle was like having a pet ape: he wasn`t intelligent, but you had to be patient with him and try and train him to do the right thing. Also, it was impossible to instill manners.

"I`m going to the owlery. Does anybody have anything to send?" she said, standing up.

"Yeah, I`ve got a love letter to send to Zambini's mum." Draco laughed. Balise chucked a balled up piece of parchment at him.

"Whatever, Malfoy."

Lydia fished her letter to her parents out of her robes as she flaunted out of the common room.

Her parents kept sending her letters every week and expected her to reply to every single one. Normally she and her parents didn`t write each other during the year, she left that to Rachel, but ever since summer break when Lydia and Rachel refused to talk to one another their mum had been constantly on Lydia to apologize to her sister.

"It`s just a row mum. Stop going crazy." Lydia had said.

Lydia`s mum wasn`t hearing it. "She`s the only sister you`ll ever have! You two used to be thick as thieves, and now you're fighting over something that was months ago? Just go tell her you`re sorry!"

"It`ll blow over, just leave me alone. Rachel will get over it eventually, she knows I didn`t mean to hurt her, I was only trying to help."

Anyway, Lydia wasn`t going to be the girl to knuckle under. The girls wouldn`t even look each other in the eye if they passed in the hall.

At the owlery, Lydia`s owl, June, was eagerly waiting. "Another one for Mum and Dad." Lydia whispered as she gave June the letter. "Please don`t wait for Mum to write a reply, just get out as fast as you can after she gets the letter."

Lydia heard a crinkle of parchment behind her and jumped.

It was Rachel, standing in the doorway.

"Look," Lydia said, unsure how she was going to finish her sentence.

Rachel walked up to her and silently shoved the letter at her before darting out.

Raising her eyebrows, Lydia ripped open the letter. A galleon on a chain and a note fell out.

Dear Lyd,

What you did wasn`t okay. Please don`t ever pose as me again without my permission and muddle things up. Also, it wasn`t okay that you kissed Dean while pretending to be me. I don`t like him and you know it, you were just making everything much harder and more complicated.

I`m sorry about sticking the money to you. That was a bit cruel, I`ll admit.

I`d be willing to forgive you if you forgave me and did a small favor for me.

You know how Umbridge is not teaching us to defend ourselves and pretty much ruining Hogwarts? Well, Harry Potter started this thing called Dumbledore's Army, which is a club where he teaches people how to protect themselves and pretty much everything Umbridge isn`t teaching us. I`ve gone to one of the meetings with Dean and he`s really good. I suppose he has to be, considering he`s fought You-Know-Who.

Anyways, I really want you to come with me to the meetings. I know you don`t like Umbridge either. If you want to come, meet me on the seventh floor by the tapestry with the trolls, and the galleon (I made it into a necklace so you wouldn`t forget and accidently spend it!) will tell you the day of the next meeting, if you look close enough.

Please don`t tell the other Slytherins or Umbridge-supporters about this. If she finds out, there won`t be anything stopping her from completely taking over the school, and I think we both know that would be insanely bad.

Please come. I miss how things use to be, and I don`t want to lose you.

Rachel

Lydia took a spare piece of parchment out of her pocket and hastily scrawled a reply, which she sent off to her sister via a school owl.

Rach,

I`m sorry about the whole bit where I pretended to be you and messed around with your friends, I was just trying to protect you from getting hurt later. I guess Seamus means more to you than I thought, and you ended up getting hurt anyway. I promise it won`t happen again. By the way, I totally deserved the sticking money to me thing, I was acting like a total prat, I`ll admit.

See you at the meeting.

Lyd

"So, do you want to study in the library with me on Friday?" Rachel asked her sister as they walked out of Lydia`s second DA meeting (Rachel`s third). Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel could see Katie, Seamus, and Dean waiting for her down the hall.

"Sorry, can`t. Anyways, your friends don`t like me."

"They barely know you. You and Katie get along, right?"

"Kinda. But, like I said, I can`t. I`m going to a party."

"Another one? Which Slytherin is arranging it this time?"

"Malfoy, as per usual. He`s managed to get firewiskey somehow, so it`s going to be even wilder than usual."

"Firewiskey?" Rachel said, raising her eyebrows, "You know if you guys get busted with that, you could get thrown out of school."

"Please. We won`t be caught, and Malfoy`s dad and his ministry buds wouldn`t let us get chucked out anyway."

"They won`t let him get chucked out, but who says he`ll bail the rest of you out?"

"Look, stop worrying so much."

"So you`re not going to the party?"

"I`m going to the party! You just need to chill!"

"How can I 'chill' if you get expelled?!"

"I`m not getting expelled, and I`m going to the party!" Lydia said, starting to walk away.

Rachel put her hand on her sister`s arm, stopping her. "No, you`re not!"

Lydia spun on her. "Just because you`re slightly older doesn`t give you power over me, so get over it!" Lydia pushed her hand away and walked off.

Rachel joined her friends and they headed back to the common room. "What was that about?" Dean asked.

"Nothing, just…sometimes she…." Rachel let out an angry huff. "I just wish…never mind."

"It`s a Slytherin thing, probably."

"No, it`s not. She`s not like most of them. Lyd`s down to earth and has a soul, but I just wish she would listen to me more often!"

"Sometimes you just have to let people do their own thing." Katie said gentility.

"Not if it`s dangerous!"

"How dangerous? Like She`s-a-Death-Eater dangerous? Tell-Dumbledore-because-she-is-going-to-severely-hurt-herself dangerous?" Seamus asked

"No, nothing like that, she knows better."

"If she knows better, maybe she`ll come to her senses and do the right thing."

"I hope so. But what if she does it just to prove me wrong and something bad happens?"

"Then I think you should do something to protect her." Seamus said.

Protect. Rachel remembered how Lydia had said in her letter that she`d been trying to protect Rachel when she pretended to be her.

Rachel didn`t want her sister to be expelled.

So she had to do it.

"Hey Draco."

"Lyd." Draco said to the blonde who had scurried up to him.

"So, Pansy and I were wondering if you`d gotten everything ready for the party yet. She said you guys were probably bringing the firewiskey into the castle a couple hours before, but I thought you guys might have already hid it somewhere so that it would be on hand for the party."

"We hid it already. Crabbe and Goyle were able to help me with that earlier this week."

"Did you hide it well? I heard a Hufflepuff whispering about finding something behind a book in the library, and I was afraid it was the firewiskey."

He laughed. "No, that wasn`t it. We stashed it in a place nobody ever goes, well, not unless you like to hear whiny complaining. Don`t worry about it."

"Alright, sorry I bothered you about it. I`m sure the party`s gonna rock! You`re doing such great preparations." She smiled and walked off in the direction of her next class, Slytherin robes fluttering in her wake.

It had to be here. This was the only place that fit Malfoy`s description.

Rachel burst into Moaning Myrtle`s bathroom. It was desolate and unused as ever.

"Live out my days alone, forgotten..." Myrtle was sobbing.

"Myrtle?" Rachel said, her voice echoing.

The ghostly girl came out through the door of one of the stalls. "What do you people want with me?"

"I`m sorry Myrtle, I need your help with something. Do you know if any boys brought something in here recently?"

"Boys? In my bathroom?!" She cried.

"Yes, they would have-"

"They put boxes in my stall!" Myrtle shouted. "No respect for the dead! They just piled it right in! I have half a mind to flush the boxes."

"That`s what I`m going to do." Rachel said. "But you can`t tell anyone that I did it."

"Flush the boxes! I won`t tell." the ghost laughed hauntingly.

"Which stall are the boxes in?" Rachel asked.

Myrtle flew into the second to last stall on the right. Rachel walked over and opened the door. There were two large boxes of bottles of firewiskey.

Rachel opened a bottle and threw the whole bottle into the toilet. As long as the bottles weren't open, they wouldn`t float.

One down.

Friday afternoon, when Rachel saw Lydia across the hall, arguing with a few Slytherins, she felt satisfied and a tad bit guilty. Lydia looked up and caught her eye. Rachel tried to remain calm as her sister marched over.

"What did you do?"

"Huh?" Rachel said, and felt Dean and Seamus appearing at her sides, ready to protect her.

"Don`t pretend, Rachel. We both know what you did." Lydia said, fuming. Her blue eyes were icy and sharp, unlike anything she`d ever directed at her sister.

"I was just trying to protect you." Rachel said as Katie walked up behind her, wand ready.

"Protect me?! I`m a big girl, Rach, I can handle myself. You don`t need to constantly protect me. I`m strong, probably stronger than you! Is that what this is?" Lydia said, lifting up the Dumbledore's Army galleon necklace.

"No, I-" Rachel said, trying to say strong and keep from crying.

"I don`t need you constantly looking over me like I`m a child! I Don`t want your protection! I don`t want this!" Lydia ripped off the necklace and threw it at her sister.

"Lydie," Rachel said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Lydia held up her hand. "Don`t."

She walked away.

The next morning, Rachel received an envelope.

Inside was a cap from a bottle of firewiskey.