Disclaimer: I own nothing but my character and my plotline. Everything you recognize, including characters, plot developments, settings, and certain scenes and lines from the Harry Potter series, belong to JK Rowling.

--- CHAPTER FOUR---

Righteous Rebellions

Juliet Christie

The term got off to a horrible start. Dumbledore's opening speech was interrupted when he introduced the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher: Professor Dolores Umbridge.

She was a short, round woman who spoke in an irritatingly high voice. She made a speech droning on about discouraging 'progress for progress's sake' and prohibiting certain magical practices. Immediately, several of the Gryffindors were concerned. Hermione was the first to realize what was happening.

"The Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts," she had said.

Not only that, but the entire school did seem to be divided over Harry's claim that the Dark Lord had returned. I had been certain that at the very least, the Gryffindor house would have banded together to see reason, but it seemed Alicia wasn't the only one who might not believe the truth.

The fact was many of the students of Gryffindor weren't taking the topic seriously. Included in the list were Seamus Finnegan and Lavender Brown. That meant there was going to be a lot of hostility brewing within the castle.

Despite the obvious tension, Fred and George continued with their usual antics. As soon as we had made it up to the common room after the opening feast, they posted a bulletin on the notice board:

GALLONS OF GALLEONS!

Pocket money failing to keep pace with your outgoings?

Like to earn a little extra gold?

Contact Fred and George Weasley, Gryffindor common room, for simple, part-time, virtually painless jobs.

(We regret that all work is undertaken at applicant's own risk.)

Katie and I left the boys to their mischief, heading up to our dormitories warily. Neither of us was much looking forward to the awkward conversation we were going to be having with Alicia.

The two of us trudged up the stairs to our dormitory after saying goodnight to the boys.

"What should we say?" Katie asked nervously.

I shot her a clueless look. "I have no idea."

I shouldered my way into our dorm, but didn't make it past the threshold of before I was bombarded by Angelina Johnson.

"Juliet, do you mind if I had a word with you?" she asked. Her eyes were wide in what looked like a pleading expression.

I was taken aback. Angelina and I hadn't spoken directly to each other in months. We had been on far from decent terms when we had last seen each other.

I considered her for half a second, before I gave her a curt nod and followed her back out into the hallway outside of the dormitories. Katie shot me a puzzled look before heading in to face Alicia alone.

"What is it?" I asked. I surprised myself when I didn't feel anger toward the girl. It seemed after everything else that had happened, the petty rivalry between Angelina and I had been put into perspective. It was unnecessary for us to behave uncivilly toward each other, even after everything she had done to me.

"I wanted to propose that we start fresh," she said quickly, as if she were nervous to be speaking to me about it. "I've been made Gryffindor Quidditch captain," she said, "and I know we'll be spending a lot of time together. I want you to know that I'm sorry for what I did. I would like us to put it in the past."

I gawked up at her for a moment, and then shook my head.

"What are you talking about…Gryffindor captain?"

She stared uncertainly at me for a moment, as though she was trying to figure out if I was going to snap at her or not.

"I spoke to Professor McGonagall about it…you didn't want the position, did you?" she asked, sounding hesitant.

I shook my head. "No, no I didn't," I said quickly. In fact, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. "But…you're a Chaser. We've already got three Chasers."

"Oh," Angelina said, "Alicia hasn't told you."

"Told me what?" I questioned, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"She's decided not to play."

I gaped at her in shock.

"What? What do you mean she's not going to play?!"

"They weren't her exact words," Angelina said, "but I think it has to do with what Harry's been saying…about You-Know-Who."

"Don't tell me you don't believe him either," I said, feeling exasperated.

"Of course I believe him," she said quickly, "but Alicia doesn't. Says she doesn't want to be on a team of people who are going against the Ministry."

I stared at her in horror.

"She told you this?"

She nodded. "She owled me this summer…said there would be a position open if I wanted my spot on the team back."

"She owled you?" I questioned, shaking my head in disbelief. "None of us heard a word from her all summer."

Angelina shook her head as well, looking uncomfortable.

"I don't know what's gotten in to her," she said.

I exhaled loudly and pushed a hand to my forehead in frustration.

"I've got to go talk to her," I said, moving to push the door open again.

Angelina moved to stop me, and I remembered why she had called me out there in the first place.

"Er, right," I said uncomfortably. "As for us…I'm good if you're good."

Angelina gave me a half-smile and nodded.

"I'm good," she said.

I nodded once, and then lead the two of us back into the dormitory.

"And congrats on making captain," I said.

She grinned, and I felt oddly happy to know that we might be able to call ourselves friends once again.

Of course, where one door opens…

-------

Dolores Umbridge is a cow.

She is the single most foul and despicable excuse for a human being that I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. She is by far the worst professor I have ever encountered at Hogwarts…and that's a steep hill to climb considering the load of tossers the school has seen throughout the years. I hate her more than I hate Snape. No, I'm completely serious.

It was during the first Defence Against the Dark Arts class that the extent of her horridness was portrayed to the student body…in particular Fred, George, Katie, Lee, and myself. Angelina held a strong distaste for her, too, but seen as she hadn't been fully reunited with the group, she was still a bit on the outskirts. As for Alicia…well, Katie and I never truly got around to talking to her. She had been asleep when we made it up to the dormitory. I suppose that conversation would have to wait until later.

Umbridge opened class by announcing to the seventh years that Defence Against the Dark Arts was going to be strictly theory during her reign as professor.

She didn't get very far into her little "welcoming" speech before she was quite suddenly interrupted.

"What do you mean we won't be learning any spells?!" Fred spoke up, outraged.

"Excuse me, Mr…" Umbridge paused to look down at what I assumed to be a class list, "Mr. Weasley…you will be learning spells in my class, just as they should be learned—from your text. And I do not permit speaking out in class."

She tutted at him and straightened her back, as if to be authoritative. It was a role that she was not going to be able to manage easily, that's for certain.

"Hem, hem. You are correct, however. This class will involve theory, but your wands shall not be necessary to complete this term," she said in her ridiculous squeaky voice.

"How is that any bloody help at all?" I questioned angrily. It wasn't really like me to get so heated right out of the gate, but something about this woman really bothered me. Plus, lately my anger lay very close to the surface. It didn't take much to set me off. "We'll never know how to use any of the spells unless we practise them! You can't honestly expect us to learn—"

She smiled grimly at me. "There is no reason for you to need to use any spells learned in my class," she stated simply.

"I can think of a good reason," I cut in.

"Yeah, how 'bout…I don't know…to fight Dark Magic?" Fred said sarcastically. "That's why it's called Defence Against the Dark Arts, isn't it?"

Umbridge was beginning to look flustered and angry.

"Mr. Weasley," she said sternly, "who on earth are you expecting to defend yourself against?"

"I can think of a few possibilities," Katie spoke up, and Umbridge snapped her eyes toward her instead. Cleary, I wasn't the only one who didn't like this woman. It definitely wasn't like Katie to mouth off to a teacher.

"Yeah," Lee jumped in, "with You-Know-Who out and about again, there's bound to be plenty of chances for us to use our defence skills."

She opened her mouth to say something, her face steaming with anger, when George jumped in.

"Unless of course you'd rather see us all get blown to smithereens. In that case your method will probably work just fine."

"That is ENOUGH!" she screeched. "There will be no more speaking out of turn!"

All five of our hands shot into the air at once, and immediately we all began talking over each other angrily.

"How can you possibly expect us to learn—?"

"What's the use—?"

"—bloody ridiculous—"

"Hem, hem!" she squealed. "The next person to speak without being addressed will receive detention."

The group of us simultaneously clenched our jaws and fists in anger. We exchanged disbelieving looks, silently debating whether or not it was worth it to continue to fight with the horrible woman. We opted to bide our time, and settled for glaring up at Umbridge in disgust and loathing.

She put on an obviously forced, sickly-sweet look and smiled round at all of us.

"I must say, I did not expect such foolishness from a class as adult as you, but it seems the air must be cleared. I will say this once, and once only…" I was well-aware by then that the sound of her voice was going to drive me insane for the term. "Now, as everyone is well aware, there have been rumours about the return of a certain dark wizard."

She had everyone's attention, and Lee, Katie, Fred, George and I glared at her in suspicion.

"I want to assure all of you that these rumours are just that—rumours—"

"Just rumours?!" Fred roared.

"Not another word!" she screeched, realizing at once that the other four of us had jolted forward in our seats and our mouths had opened in protest.

She stared around at all of us with obvious distaste, and I marvelled at the fact that no one else in the class seemed at all outraged by what the woman was saying…aside from Angelina, but she hadn't moved to speak up about it. I was well-aware of the silence and anger radiating from Alicia two seats down from my right, and I tried to ignore the eyes on me from all angles of the room.

"Mr. Weasley…detention!"

"He didn't do anything!" Katie yelled.

"Miss Bell, would you like to join him?" Umbridge drawled.

"If he goes, we all go," Lee spoke up.

She looked pointedly at his determined face before studying the rest of us. I wasn't sure exactly what it was about the woman that made us all so set on sticking together against her, but I was certain she was against us, and none of us were prepared to let her spread lies.

"Well now," she said cheerily. "It looks as though I'm going to have to split this group up. A bit troublesome all together like this."

"No need," George said suddenly. "We're leaving."

Umbridge looked as though she was going to stop us, but she seemed to rethink it as the five of us all rose together and threw our bags over our shoulders. I was certain our stand wasn't going to go unnoticed by Professor McGonagall, and even more certain that it would be in vain. We were surely going to get into some sort of trouble by walking out during a class…but we were all so hot with anger that none of us cared as we stormed out of the room.

I could hear the mumbles and whispers from our classmates as we left. I smirked a little at the fact that she'd have trouble calming the class down after that. Of course, my self-righteousness was very short-lived. It was positive we had just gotten ourselves into more trouble than was healthy.

"She's planning something," Fred said immediately after the door had slammed shut behind us. The five of us hurried away from the room, not wanting to get caught in the corridors during class time.

"What do you reckon it is?" Lee asked.

Fred led the group of us in the direction of the kitchens. The rest of us followed obediently behind him, wanting to get away from the eyes of any passers-by.

"I think we've got to find out," George said. The rest of us nodded in agreement.

"Definitely," Katie agreed.

"Any ideas?" Lee asked.

I had one immediately, but I wasn't about to share it with the entire group. Neither Katie nor Lee knew about the fact that I was an Animagus, and I intended to keep it that way for as long as possible. The fewer people who knew, the better…even Katie and Lee might accidentally let the information slip.

Fred looked at me pointedly as if reading my mind, and spoke up.

"Well, considering I have detention with the old toad, how 'bout I do some snooping around in her office?" he offered as the five of us piled into the kitchens quickly.

None of us were much in the mood for eating, but Lee sent the house elves off with a list anyway, only to be polite as we all put our heads together, determined to come up with a plan.

"Won't it be hard to snoop around while she's in the room?" Katie asked.

George and Fred smirked at her. "Oh my dear Katie," Fred said, shaking his head. "How little you know about my stealth and cunning."

"So…Fred will do the snooping, what do we lot do until then?" Lee questioned.

"I reckon we should probably try not to cause a scene like that again," I said, although I had deeply enjoyed walking out on the horrid woman. "I bet she was sent by the Ministry to spy on Dumbledore…you heard what Sirius and your dad said," I pointed out to the twins.

"The Ministry is trying to spy on Dumbledore?" Katie asked.

I nodded. I had forgotten the two of them didn't know as much about You-Know-Who's return as we did.

"Fudge thinks Dumbledore's up to something," George said. "So it makes sense that he'd send someone to keep tabs on him."

"So it wouldn't be wise for us to get on her bad side…although it seems we've already managed to," I said with a grimace. "She's going to be suspicious of the whole lot of us now."

"Especially since she knows we believe Harry's story," Lee pointed out. The rest of us frowned grimly.

"We could get ourselves into a lot of trouble," I said. "The Ministry is really keen on pretending like nothing's wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if they had us all removed from school for sullying the minds of young students."

"Well what's that Umbridge woman going to do to us anyway?" Katie asked, looking round at all of us. "It's not like she can punish us for believing what Harry and Professor Dumbledore said. We haven't done anything wrong."

"We'll just have to make sure we keep it that way," I said. "Or at least…don't let her find out what we're up to."

"And if she does, what's the toad-woman going to do about it?" George asked. "She can't do any worse to us than putting us in detention with Filch…and we've all been there."

We all laughed, feeling more at ease after talking out our seemingly ridiculous fears of the woman. There was no way she'd be able to do any harm to any of us. After all, she did dress all in pink. How much damage could she do?

…

Oh, if we had only known.

-------

Predictably, the whole lot of us were called in to speak to Professor McGonagall once she caught wind that we had walked out during Defence class. I was mildly surprised that she asked to speak to all of us at the same time rather than splitting us up, but I was under the impression that good ol' Minerva McGonagall wasn't too fond of our resident powder puff, either. Even so, the lot of us were called into her office after dinner that night.

"Take a seat, all of you," she said to us curtly after ushering us all in and closing the door firmly.

The five of us did as we were told, all lowering into our prospective chairs. I scrutinized Professor McGonagall's face. She didn't look angry.

"It's been brought to my attention that the five of you were speaking out of turn in Professor Umbridge's classroom," she said. Her voice sounded tired…almost annoyed, but it didn't seem to be directed at us. "You…challenged her method of teaching, and implied the Dark Lord was back in power…is that correct?"

"She deserved to be challenged," Fred said, speaking first.

"And the Dark Lord is back," George said.

"And she's a cow," I put in.

The others nodded in agreement.

McGonagall sighed, and gave me a look that warned me to keep my opinions to myself.

"I would have thought as seventh years, the five of you would have more sense than to go against a teacher," she said, her tone still unusually unprofessional. I was quite certain she wasn't going to punish us for what we had done.

"She got us worked up," I explained. "We know it was stupid."

"Well you are going to have to keep your collective anger in check," she said sternly. "As it stands, Mr. Weasley is the only one who received a detention. You are very lucky you were her first class of the day. She grew much less understanding with students in later classes."

"Who—?" I started.

"Mr. Potter found himself in a similar situation," she said curtly. "And I'll tell you exactly what I told him. You must tread carefully while dealing with Dolores Umbridge. You can't afford to be reckless with her."

"Is it true?" Fred asked. "Is she here to spy on Dumbledore?"

McGonagall looked mildly taken aback, but quickly recovered. She was dealing with some of the most mischievous minds in Hogwarts. It couldn't be too surprising that we had figured out what she was doing here.

"Clearly all of you have got your heads on straight," she said, looking round at all of us. "But I urge you…do keep your tempers in check. Dolores Umbridge can do far worse damage to you than dealing out a few detentions. Do you understand?"

"Keep our heads down," Lee said. It was strange coming from him. Lee didn't tend to be the voice of reason in these situations, but we all knew he was right.

"Precisely, Mr. Jordan," McGonagall agreed. "Let's not have another outburst. Just do as she says and stay under her radar."

We all nodded grudgingly. It wasn't good news to any of us to know we had to bow down to the toad woman. She certainly deserved all of the hardship she got. But Professor McGonagall was right. It was in our best interests to stay out of her way…especially since she was working for the Ministry.

"You are all free to leave," McGonagall dismissed. "Mr. Weasley, please ensure you are on time for your detention tomorrow night."

Fred didn't give a reply as we all rose from our seats and began to trudge out of the office.

"I do not wish to have to speak to any of you about this again," Professor McGonagall said. "Let's try and enjoy your last year, shall we?"

I snickered a little, but didn't reply. Katie offered a polite "thanks, Professor", and the lot of us were once again conversing in the corridor.

"I reckon McGonagall's not too fond of Umbridge," Lee said.

"Who would be?" Katie asked. "Do you think she'll actually split us up in class?"

"Of course she will," I answered. "Can't have the lot of us stirring up any more trouble."

The others grumbled in response as we wandered back toward the common room.

George was the first to break out of the slump. He rolled his eyes. "I think we're in need of some cheering up. What d'you think, mate, reckon any new blood have signed up to be our guinea pigs?" he asked Fred.

Fred's mood immediately lightened.

"George, you always know just what to say," he answered with a wide grin.

When the lot of us made it back up to the Gryffindor common room, there was indeed a group of eagerly waiting first and second years gathered around the notice board. I very nearly pitied them. They had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into.

"Excellent!" Fred and George said enthusiastically.

"Need help?" Lee asked, looking hopeful, eyeing the younglings with a bizarre kind of blood-lust.

"You're always welcome," George answered. "You in, Jules?"

"Of course," I replied with a cheeky grin. "Someone's got to be the brains behind the operation."

"I'll watch from the sidelines I think," Katie said, throwing a teasing look at the twins. "I want to see the look on Hermione's face when she catches you lot."

"Seems like a good way to break the new Prefect in," I said with an evil sort of smirk.

"Ooh, perhaps Ron'll come around and try to discipline you," Lee said eagerly.

"That'd definitely be worth watching," Katie said with a grin. "Perhaps he'll give you detention. Two in one day, Fred. And on the first day back, no less. That'd be a record even for you."

Fred waved off Katie's comment then clapped his hands together authoritatively as she wandered over to take a seat in one of the squashy armchairs.

"Alright, let's get down to business," he announced. "Lee and Juliet, you two get started with the group. Have them sign these release forms."

Fred yanked a handful of crinkled parchment out of his cloak pocket and handed them to me. "George and I will gather the rest of the supplies."

"Be back in a jiff," George said with an enthusiastic wink.

Lee cleared his throat, leading the way to the group of anxious students lingering in the corner of the room. They tensed when we neared, and our faces split into wide grins.

"Good evening!" Lee greeted cheerily, immediately taking the lead. "My name's Lee Jordan and this here is Juliet Christie. We're associates of Fred and George Weasley. I assume you all know why you're here?"

I chuckled at Lee's professionalism. He certainly was well-spoken.

The students exchanged wary looks with each other before a small boy with dirty blonde hair and crooked teeth stepped forward. Apparently he had been elected spokesperson for the group.

He extended his hand first to Lee, and then to myself.

"My name's Aaron," he said.

"Nice to meet you, Aaron," Lee greeted. "And hello to the rest of you as well."

"The sign said we'll be getting paid," he said immediately, interrupting the various "hellos" being offered to us from the other girls and boys.

"Ah, straight to the point, very good," Lee complimented. "Yes, you will be getting paid for your efforts. But before we get to that, we need everyone to sign a copy of this form."

"Fred and George will be handling the payments," I explained. "I'm sure they'll get to it in good time."

I handed out forms to the thirteen young boys and girls as Lee savoured his power over them. It was short-lived, however, because Fred and George launched themselves back down the stairs just as I was collecting up the release forms again.

"Ah, good," Fred said, "you've got everything rolling. Thanks, Lee, I'll take it from here."

Lee stepped aside graciously, awaiting instruction from George.

"It's a good looking group we've got here, George," Fred said, surveying the lot. "I think this will work out just fine. Hello everyone, thank you for coming. As you've probably already guessed, I'm Fred Weasley, and this is my brother George. Does anyone have any questions before we get started?"

A frightened-looking girl with short, curly brown hair raised her hand timidly from the back of the group.

"Yes, you there in the back," Fred said, pointing to her.

"Um…" the girl cleared her throat nervously. "The form said what we're doing is potentially dangerous…we're not going to be doing anything…scary are we?"

"Certainly not scary," George assured her. "The forms are just a precaution. Everything we test on you has already been tested by Fred and myself, as well as Juliet and Lee here."

"Then what do you need us for?" the boy called Aaron asked, a little defiantly.

"We have to see whether everyone has the same reaction," Fred answered easily. "Anyway, the point is you've got nothing to worry about."

Fred went ahead giving instructions to the group, and George turned to Lee and me.

"Juliet, you can record observations," he instructed, handing me a clipboard. "Fred and I will dictate."

"What do I do?" Lee asked.

"You'll be on pulse-check," George said cheerfully.

My eyes widened a little bit.

"Just a precaution," George assured me. "We're not going to kill them on their first day of school."

"Of course," I said sarcastically. "We'll leave that for their fourth or fifth day."

"If they're lucky," George joked. "Alright, looks like Fred's already getting started."

"Excellent," I said, watching as Fred handed each of the first and second years a colourfully-wrapped sweet.

"What is this going to do to us?" a blonde boy asked as he eyed the sweet suspiciously.

"Merlin, for a group of volunteers you lot certainly are reluctant," George said.

"We can't tell you that," Fred answered, "because we have to ensure the reaction is legitimate. But I promise you its safe."

I looked on in amusement as they all stared warily up at Fred. I was a little amazed as they all began popping the sweets into their mouths. If it had been me, I doubt I would ever trust the Weasley twins.

They all sat, munching with expectant looks on their faces before one by one, each of them slumped over in their seats and passed out. Lee and I laughed openly as Fred and George surveyed the crew with thoughtful looks on their faces.

Lee immediately began checking on each of the individuals, announcing with a pleased expression that each of them seemed fine.

On-lookers chuckled in appreciation as I began to write down what George was dictating to me.

"Fainting Fancies, test group one of thirteen students aged eleven to thirteen, all reacted successfully," he said. "Regular dosage," he added.

"That's quite good," Fred commented. "I sort of expected at least one would react badly—not that I'm complaining, mind. I wouldn't actually enjoy causing damage to a first year."

"You should have thought of this a long time ago," Lee said. "It would have saved us the torment of testing your products for you."

"And they're getting a better deal, too," I said. "We never got paid for it."

"Just because we didn't offer you money doesn't mean you didn't get paid," Fred said with a cheeky wink that oddly enough caused me to blush. He noticed, and reacted by grinning widely. My good mood must have been shining through, because I couldn't do anything but grin back at him in response.

"How long 'til we wake them?" Lee questioned, reclaiming both mine and Fred's attention. He prodded one of the boys who was starting to drool on his shoulder.

Fred opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted.

"That's enough!"

The four of us looked over to see Hermione approaching. She looked positively livid.

Fred and George eyed her with mild surprise.

"Yeah, you're right," George said with a nod, looking at me, "this dosage looks strong enough, doesn't it?"

I nodded in agreement and jotted it down on the parchment I was holding.

"I told you this morning, you can't test your rubbish on students!"

"We're paying them!" Fred said indignantly.

"I don't care, it could be dangerous!" Hermione said. She was very clearly outraged.

"Rubbish," Fred disagreed.

"Calm down, Hermione, they're fine!" Lee said, as he walked around to each of the passed-out first and second years and began placing the purple counterpart sweets into their open mouths.

"Yeah, look, they're coming round now," George said.

Several of them were now stirring, beginning to sit up in their seats. They all looked shocked and confused. I held back a laugh. Others in the common room were openly chuckling, now.

"Feel all right?" George asked kindly to a dark-haired girl who was lying on her back at his feet.

"I—I think so," she answered shakily.

"Excellent," Fred exclaimed.

Hermione reached out and snatched his bag of Fainting Fancies from his hands, grabbing his clipboard at the same time.

"It is NOT excellent!"

"'Course it is, they're alive, aren't they?" Fred pointed out angrily.

"You can't do this, what if you made one of them really ill?"

"We're not going to make them ill, we've already tested them all on ourselves, this is just to see if everyone reacts the same—"

"If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to—"

"Put us in detention?" Fred asked.

He and George exchanged I'd-like-to-see-her-try glances with Lee and me.

"Make us write lines?" George said with a smirk.

Nearly everyone in the room was laughing now, aside from Ron who seemed to be hiding in his chair. Katie was looking on with an amused I-told-them-so look, but she was certainly enjoying herself.

"No," Hermione said, her voice quivering with anger, "but I will write to your mother."

I quirked my eyebrow at her in surprise. Hermione knew how to play.

"You wouldn't," George said, sounding horrified. He took a step back from her.

"Oh, yes I would," she said. "I can't stop you eating the stupid things yourselves, but you're not to give them to the first years."

Fred and George eyed her furiously. She glared back threateningly, before thrusting the clipboard and paper bag back into Fred's arms. She turned to rejoin Harry and Ron by the fire, but not before sending me a disapproving look as well.

I shrugged.

"You know you'll never stop them, Hermione."

She glared at me, but didn't reply. I had a feeling she knew I was right.

-------

Although Hermione seemed to have temporarily shut down the progress we were making with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, by the end of the day I was feeling a lot more cheerful than I had in the morning. Of course, my good moods tend not to last long these days. This one was no different.

I was one of the last to head up for bed. I stuck around a little longer to stare into the fire. My mind was wandering again, back to Cedric and Peter Pettigrew and the evil that lurked in the wizarding world at the moment. It wasn't until Fred and George announced they were going to bed that I realized everyone else had already gone, too.

As I trudged my way up the stairs, I heard angry voices coming from my dormitory. I immediately recognized the voices as Katie and Alicia. I scowled at the sound of their arguing, and wasted no time in hurrying into the room to support Katie. I felt a little guilty that she had had to face her alone.

"Alicia, what is going on with you?" Katie was asking incredulously.

Alicia stood at the far end of the room, looking angrily at Katie. Angelina was seated on her four-poster bed with wide eyes. All three of them looked to me upon my entrance. I bit down on my lower lip and stared at them quietly.

I was uncertain what I should say, so I opted for "What's going on?"

"Alicia has left the Quidditch team," Katie said fiercely. I frowned. I had failed to tell the others about that today. I was a little preoccupied with Dolores Umbridge at the time. "She's quit because she doesn't want to be around the lot of us anymore."

"Why would I?" Alicia countered. "You've all made yourselves known for being disloyal to the Ministry. Why would I want to be friends with people who are looking to disrupt the wizarding world?"

My jaw dropped a little bit. This was the first time I had spoken to Alicia since before Cedric died, and this was how she was greeting me? This was how she was going to start off the school year? My good mood had instantly vanished.

"Disrupt the wizarding world?" I repeated, my voice disbelieving.

"She reckons we're all in on some plot of Dumbledore's to overthrow the Ministry," Katie said sarcastically.

"And I'm supposed to believe that You-Know-Who is back in power and is hiding in the shadows, am I?" Alicia asked. Her voice was equally sarcastic.

"How can you not believe he's back?" I asked incredulously.

"If he were back, why in the name of Godric would he be hiding?" Alicia asked. "If he were back the world would be in chaos by now."

"The world is in chaos," I disagreed. "We've been completely divided. It's exactly what he wanted."

"Right," she said. "It makes perfect sense that he would return, not kill Harry Potter, and then stay hidden and not make a move. If he's back then he's strong enough to take over the Ministry."

"So is Dumbledore," Katie countered. "If he wanted to, he'd have done it by now."

"Maybe he was waiting for you lunatics to show you'd support him when he did it," Alicia said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, shaking my head in irritation. "This has nothing to do with Dumbledore."

"This has everything to do with Dumbledore," Alicia disagreed. "You-Know-Who is not back. It's just a clever ruse by Dumbledore to get everyone to think the Ministry has failed. That way he'll be free to step in and take charge."

"Oh, of course," I said sarcastically. The anger was definitely building up stronger than ever. "And Cedric just dropped dead of his own accord, did he?"

"I don't know what happened to Cedric," she said, "because Harry Potter neglected to tell us all the truth."

"What he told us was precisely the truth," Katie said. "You-Know-Who is back and Cedric was murdered by the Death Eaters!"

"And you're going to believe some stupid boy with a sick need for attention," Alicia sneered.

Angelina's eyes were wide as she watched the three of us. She looked uncertain whether she should say anything or continue to keep quiet. It looked as though she wanted to say something, but sensed perhaps she shouldn't. I didn't really blame her. This was ugly enough as it was.

"Are you listening to yourself?" I said. "You're not making any sense!"

"It's not my fault the two of you are completely delusional!" Alicia snapped. "I mean, I can understand why Juliet's being unreasonable. She'd believe anything that would help her get through Cedric's death, but you, Katie…"

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. Angelina and Katie were wearing similar expressions of shock. I was downright outraged.

"What did you just say?" I asked, my tone low and menacing.

"I don't blame you, Juliet," she said in a patronizing tone. "It's understandable that you're not in your right mind."

I very nearly lost it. I rubbed the sides of my head with both of my hands and focused all of my energy toward staying calm.

"You honestly believe the bullshit your father is feeding you?" I asked through clenched teeth.

She glared daggers at me.

"And quitting the Quidditch team just to get away from us," I continued heatedly, ignoring the way her eyes were bulging unpleasantly. "You've been our friend since first year, Alicia. How in the name of Merlin can you just disregard six years of friendship like that?"

"It's you who have disregarded your loyalties," she spat. "The Ministry has been watching out for all of us since before we were born, and suddenly you think you're better than them. It's disgusting."

"What's disgusting is how ridiculously mindless you've become!" Katie shouted. "Harry lied about Cedric's death? Are you kidding me?!"

Alicia glared defiantly at us.

"You know what, I'm not getting into this with you," she said harshly. "If you want to delude yourself into believing You-Know-Who is back and out to get all of us, then fine. You can live your lives in idiotic fear. You'll be the ones who come out looking like idiots when he doesn't show up."

"What?!" I said. "Do you think we actually want him to be back? We didn't ask for this to happen, Alicia. But it did. You-Know-Who is back."

She shook her head angrily.

"I'm not having any more of this. I'm going to bed," she said.

Katie and I didn't have a chance to say anything more to her, because she shut herself in her four-poster bed, pulling the curtain around her forcefully. She even made a show of putting a silencing charm around her to cut herself off from us completely.

I glared at the curtain surrounding her bed, having half a mind to rip it down and scream at her until my face turned blue.

The three of us who remained sat silently. The fight with Alicia hung heavily in the air. I was certain everyone in the tower had heard it, and I knew Fred and George would have immediately known it was us.

Katie was the first to break the silence as she tugged her sheets down to climb into bed with more force than necessary.

"Bloody idiot," she muttered, shaking her head. "You'll talk to George?" she asked me.

I nodded, moving to yank my pyjamas out of my trunk for bed.

"He's better off without her," I replied bitterly.

"He is," Katie agreed. She extinguished the lantern on the windowsill next to her bed and punched her pillow before laying her head down on it.

"Night Juliet, night Ang," she said. I could tell it was hard for her to keep her voice steady.

"Night Kates," I answered, just as Angelina replied with an awkward: "Goodnight."

I didn't say anything more, but dressed in an angry silence. I couldn't believe after everything we had been through that Alicia could say those things to me and Katie. Aside from being unbelievably angering, it also truly hurt. It seemed everything was going to continue to get worse before it got any better.

I was certain as I crawled into bed that night that the friendship between Alicia and I would never be the same again.

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A/N: Reviews are my motivation!