Chapter 6
Disclaimer: Does anyone read those, really? I think I'm going to skip them from now on. Anyone who thinks I own this probably shouldn't be allowed on the Internet anyway.
Flying was one of the most liberating things in the world. As she felt the wind blow through her hair, Ginny wanted to scream with joy. The sun was peaking just below the horizon and the walls of the castle in the distance were tinted with a tinge of pink.
One of the wonderful things about Hogwarts was that while there was a very strict curfew enforced for the time everyone had to be in bed, no one really cared what time you got up. That was how Ginny had managed to sneak to the Quidditch pitch without anyone asking her where she was going or what she was doing outside.
Far above the pitch, she had the most beautiful view of Scotland. The castle on one side looked majestic; the Forbidden Forest on the other was enchanting from the distance; and Hogsmeade village in the distance looked perfectly quiet and cosy, giving a false impression of being perfectly peaceful.
She glanced at her watch when she saw three figures exit the castle carrying brooms and making their way towards her. Rose had passed the message, and they were perfectly on time. The person in the middle pointed their finger in the air directly towards Ginny and they took off together. She flew down a bit, still enjoying the wind in her hair, and met them at the edge of the pitch.
"Ginny, are you alright?" Susan asked immediately without bothering with "Hello". "Rose wouldn't tell us what happened last night!"
"I asked her not to. Carrow is hoping to get some horror stories going, and I won't let him get this pleasure. You know how rumors go around here. One minute you're in a bit of pain, and the next minute everyone is ready to count you as dead."
"Ginny, a Cruciatus doesn't quite count as 'a bit of pain'," Hannah said, concern clear in her voice.
"True, it's not. But it doesn't mean we can't overcome it either. And that's partly what I wanted to talk to you about today. But first things first: Carrow wanted me to 'practice' Cruciatus on Rose last night."
The three other students gasped, and Ernie's arm shot out as Hannah looked like she was going to slip from her broom.
"I didn't, of course, so I got punished again. The thing is, if he asked me to do it last night, it means it'll happen again in detentions in the future. And while I can take the pain... Well, not everyone can afford to say no."
The three Hufflepuffs looked at each other, slowly understanding what she meant.
"Do you mean you think student are going to have to start torturing each other?" Hannah asked.
Ginny nodded.
"But we can't go around cursing each other! I refuse to do that!" Ernie said defiantly.
"We might have to. That's what I'm getting at. Some of us can take it – or at least, we can recover from it. I can, and I'm sure most fifth, sixth and seventh year students can as well. And so if Carrow ever asks anyone to curse me in detention, I want to person to do it. I think Cruciatus is more or less strong depending on the person casting it – and I'm ready to bet it wouldn't hurt as much if one of you three did it. Really, we'd be doing each other a favour."
Ernie seemed prepared to protest again, but Susan stopped him.
"Ginny's right. The Unforgiveables, one thing that sets them apart is that to make them work, you really have to have your heart set on it. If I cursed one of you three here, it'd be very painful, for sure, but not nearly as much as if one of these bastards did it."
Ginny nodded in agreement.
"So basically, Ginny, you're saying that if you're asked, you will Curse other people?" Hannah asked; Ginny could sense a small bit of disgust in her voice.
"Only if that person agreed to it beforehand, and only if they're above fourth year. I will still make a stand for the younger students. It doesn't matter if they can take it. I think we should make clear one way or another that we're better than the Death Eaters."
Hannah still looked uncomfortable.
"Look," Ginny continued, "One way or another, we're going to end up being Cursed. What I'm saying is that I'd rather have it happen on my terms, and have the pain be a bit milder if possible. I got Crucioed twice yesterday, and while it's possible to recover from it, it's still a bitch."
Susan gave her a smile. "It's alright, Ginny, we understand. It's just a bit hard to come to terms with the idea that hurting our friends has become the lesser of two evils. I'm guessing you'd like us to pass your instructions to other people in the D.A.?"
Ginny nodded and was suddenly struck by the realisation that people were now looking at her as the person in charge. A small voice in her head answered 'Well, duh. If you didn't want to be in charge, you shouldn't have taken charge.'
"For now, keep it to people in the D.A., but if torture detentions start happening more, spread the word to other people you trust. And we need to start asking each other now if we may use Crucio on each other. I'm giving you my permission, and you can pass it to anyone you talk to."
The question she didn't ask hung in the air. Susan was the first to answer, loud and clear.
"Same here. As Ginny said, if I'm going to be tortured, I'll do it on my own terms."
Hannah looked uncertain, but then nodded. "Alright, I agree. But we're all clear that if anyone under fourth year gives us permission, it won't matter – they won't be tortured no matter what."
Ernie added his agreement, looking as if he felt sick. "We'll pass the message. But you know, I'm fairly sure some people would curse you with or without your agreement. I hate to talk about a member of my house this way, but Smith would use Crucio not to save your skin, but to save his own."
"Well, then, we can be thankful that he's too much of a coward to do anything that would land him in detention anyway," Ginny said with a smirk. "Now I'll get out of here before we start looking suspicious. Wait a few minutes before coming in the castle too. If anyone asks, you were just practicing Quidditch."
Heather was already up when Ginny came back in their dormitory. She looked up from her bed where she was reading a letter, and quickly hid the piece of parchment below her pillow. She looked a bit panicked about it, and didn't do much to hide it. Ginny figured she was expected to ask what the matter was, but couldn't be bothered. Whatever had Heather's knickers in a twist, Ginny had bigger dragons to hatch.
She nodded to the other girl, and went in the shower. Even though she hadn't pushed herself much, she still felt a bit sweaty from the flying. When she came back out, Heather was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. She looked suspiciously as if she'd just moved away from somewhere else; seeing the way her eyes darted around the room, Ginny quickly deduced that this "somewhere else" had been her bed. She raised her eyebrows to show the girl she wasn't fooled, and then went to her closet as if nothing had happened. Whatever the girl had been looking for, she wasn't going to find it. If Alecto Carrow hadn't found anything, Heather Smethley certainly wasn't going to either.
Heather ran out of the room, and Ginny wondered, not for the first time, what was up with the girl.
By dinnertime, Ginny realised that between Luna (who she had talked to in her first class of the day) and the three Hufflepuffs, word had been spread wide about her plans. All the members of Dumbledore's Army that she saw in the corridors signalled to her, some with a thumbs-up, others playing with a Galleon, that they had received the message. Those that managed to talk to her quickly gave her permission to Crucio them if she had to.
She found herself excited about being part of a secret society again. She felt again the thrill that she'd experienced two years before, being part of a secret club of people who didn't acknowledge each other in the corridors of the school, but all knew that there was more than met the eye. She felt almost ashamed of herself for it – the context, after all, was even worse than it had been under Umbridge – but it was sometimes truly elating to be screwing with the Carrows' plans right under their noses.
While the two Death Eater siblings clearly had some favourite targets – Ginny first amongst them – they did not seem to have singled out member of the D.A.
Snape, surprisingly, didn't seem to care at all what was going on in the school. He spent most of his days shut down in his office. He had known, of course, of the existence of the D.A., and would probably know exactly who the members were and who to watch, but if he had given any indication of that to the Carrows, they were not using them.
By the end of the first week, members of the D.A. had already given out more sleeping potions and Daydream Charms than she cared to count; and they had been introduced to several more of their sickly creative ways of enforcing discipline. It turned out that Blood Quills were not something just Umbridge used – and that unfortunately was a lesser punishment. A fourth year Ravenclaw had spent a full hour levitated upside down for missing curfew because he stayed in the library too late.
They were not allowed to go to the Hospital Wing, but thankfully, Madam Pomfrey had taken it upon herself to "lose" entire stocks of Dittany – and sometimes sleeping potions – directly in the bags of some students. While the Carrows had no idea which students were most likely to undermine them, it looked like Madam Pomfrey knew exactly who to pass her potions to if she wanted them used properly.
Flitwick offered Luna some advanced lessons in Charms, and spent hours teaching her healing spells. Professor Sprout took Neville as special assistant, and put in his care certain plants that were excellent ingredients for healing potions. Coincidently, Professor Slughorn started a special module on those same healing potions in the advanced potions class that Ginny took.
Ginny and the other members of Dumbledore's Army fully understood the message sent by their teachers: they'd do anything they could to help, but at the end of the day, the students had to manage on their own. Remembering the horror that the school had been after Umbridge fired Dumbledore, Ginny could only agree with them. Things were already difficult enough – if the Carrows managed to fire the teachers that were on their side, it would be a complete disaster.
Standing in front of Ron's former closet in the seventh year's boys' dorm, Ginny frowned. Two weeks into the term, their stocks of Daydream Charms (disguised as boxes of blank parchment) were dwindling much faster than she had thought they would. If the twins sent too many of them, even disguised, it would raise some red flags. They were incredibly complicated to make from scratch, and she didn't feel like she had the energy to make many of them anyway. Adding the essence of a Cheering Charm to a sleeping draught was no beginner's game. She already had her hands full with the Healing Potions on top of being the Carrows' most hated student.
She made a note to ask the twins to send her as many disguised Daydream Charms as possible without becoming suspicious. They were bound to run out at some point, but she'd cross that hurdle when she came to it. She had enough to worry about for the moment.
She jumped two metres backwards when Seamus and Neville barged in the room talking excitedly, both with giant smiles on their faces.
"Merlin, you two scared me!"
"It is our dorm, you know," Neville said, beaming.
"What got you two so chipper today? I didn't realise we had anything to be happy about..."
"We heard the coolest thing ever," Seamus answered.
"Ever. Really. It's amazing," Neville added excitedly.
"Michael Corner heard it from Tabitha Tides, who heard it from her aunt this morning in a letter."
"And Romilda heard almost the same from her older sister who works at the ministry."
"Amazing, Gin. Really incredible."
"Fine, I get it, whatever it is, it's amazing. What is it though – did Harry finally send Ugly Snake Face in hell where he belongs?"
"No, not quite. But almost as good." Neville was practically bouncing around the room. "Harry, Hermione and Ron broke into the Ministry and freed a bunch of Muggle-borns who were about to be shipped to Azkaban."
Ginny sat on her bed, not quite trusting her legs.
"Apparently, according to Tabitha's Aunt, they also got as far as Umbridge's office and got Mad-Eye's Magical Eye."
"Of course, it's all hush-hush – the Ministry's not about to admit that they got their behinds handed to them by three teenagers. Apparently they were using Polyjuice and passing as Ministry employees – but then, one of the fake Ministry employees conjured a Patronus – a giant stag, and really, there's no mistaking whose Patronus that is."
"And Romilda's sister said there was also an Otter – that's Hermione's Patronus, right? And there was a third person who didn't make a Patronus, but we can all figure out who that was too."
"Well, at least, we figured it out – as far as Ministry employees know, three persons broke in and liberated Muggle-borns, we sort of figured out who they were on our own," Neville concluded with a giant smile.
Ginny's jaw had dropped. She didn't know whether to be elated and scared. They were out there, they were taking charge, but they were in so much danger. She swallowed a cry – Ginny Weasley did not cry in public. She was so proud of them, and she was absolutely terrified too.
"They escaped?"
"Yeah, they did. You can be sure that if they had caught any of them, the Ministry would be announcing it pretty loud by now. But since they haven't, they're trying to cover it all up. You won't read about this in the Prophet, I'm sure."
"I'm sure we'll read about it in the Quibbler, though. Too bad most people don't read it. Everyone should hear about this. It would boost morale a bit," Ginny said. Despite her fears, she felt a triumphant smile growing on her face. "So we'll have to make sure everyone does read the Quibbler."
"What do you mean?" Seamus asked with a frown.
"I mean that the D.A. has found its second mission of the year. Hogwarts had better be ready for us."
AN: I've looked in my copy of Deathly Hallows to figure out when the Trio broke in the Ministry, and I couldn't find any definite indications – but I sort of guessed that it was sometime in September. If I got it wrong, sorry!
Many thanks to my reviewers. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!