Battles to Be Fought
A/N: I would like to point out that I made a mistake in the last chapter. Dean Thomas never went back to Hogwarts. I could only remember he was a half blood so I just assumed that he went back. But in this story, he was able to prove he was a half blood, just for my sake. Ok, just a side note, I realize that Harry and Hermione are supposed to realize that Umbridge has the locket at the same time in the book, but I feel like I've pretty well established that this is a bit AU. Just a bit. Haha. Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know I realized that, but I rewrote it. For no reason really. And for where it stops, you can just assume they got out the same way they did in the book. I didn't really think anyone needed a play by play of exactly what happened in the book.
Neville Longbottom walked with purpose into the Great Hall. It was the Start-of-Term Feast and he wanted to make sure that every Death Eater present was aware that he was not afraid. He would not be a victim. Not this time. He had his friends on either side of him and his classmates to protect. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw- they were all united now. And, he dared to think, if there was one Slytherin that needed his help, he would protect them too. Someone had to do it now that Harry Potter was is in hiding.
Ginny stood to his right, carefully taking in every little detail of the Great Hall. He used this moment to study her briefly. She was tough and she certainly didn't need anyone to protect her. But she was going to need friends and Neville was determined to support her at every turn. Needless to say, he figured that Ron and Harry wouldn't be too pleased with him if anything happened to her. She was also a valuable member of Dumbledore's Army. Not only was she the Chosen One's chosen one, but she was smart, had a quick wit, and an even quicker wand.
Seamus stood to his left. The rough exterior of a brazen Irishman, but underneath a true heart of gold. He was quick to judge and would rush into a fight half strung, but was ever so loyal to Dumbledore's Army. Of course, he hadn't always been. Neville remembered those awkward months of tension between Harry and Seamus. But that was history. Seamus would die for their cause now.
They all would die to see Lord Voldemort fall. The thought sent chills down Neville's spine. Most of them were hardly over seventeen and they were living with the knowledge that this could be their last year alive. Was this what it was like to be a soldier? All he could see was a year of conflict and battles to be won before him instead of a year of education and studious learning.
He was pulled from his thoughts when Ginny spoke. "Luna's gone to talk to the Ravenclaws to see who is still interested."
"You take Seamus and Dean and spread out among the Gryffindors. I'll go talk to the Hufflepuffs before the first years get here."
As Neville headed toward the Hufflepuff table, he was instantly surprised by how few students sat at the table. Neville, Ginny, Seamus, Dean, and Luna had been some of the last people to enter the hall besides the first years, so there weren't any more coming. He looked at the other four tables and found that the Hufflepuffs had greatly diminished in size comparably to the rest of the school. Then it finally struck him: many Muggleborns are sorted into Hufflepuff. His stomach churned at the thought of how many were not welcome at Hogwarts this year.
Pushing that thought into the back of his mind, he searched for the one person he hoped could still help them. He combed the table with his eyes to find the blonde head of Hannah Abbott. Finally spotting her surrounded by her fellow seventh years, he squeezed himself between her and Ernie Macmillan.
"Neville!" Hannah threw her arms around Neville's shoulders in her excitement. "I'm so glad you made it back this year."
"It's good to see you, too," he replied with a chuckle. "I actually came to talk to you lot about the DA."
Nervous eyes flickered around the small group. Ernie, Leanne and Susan all looked to Hannah. She bit her lip before shyly answering. "You can count on me."
"Hannah!" said Ernie. "It would be safer to keep our noses down-"
"For how long?" she argued back. "Justin's not allowed to come back to school because of his bloodline and we're supposed to keep our noses down?"
"I agree with Hannah," said Susan sternly. "It's time I lived up to my family name."
Neville and Hannah both smiled at her encouragingly. Ernie seemed to pout for a moment before nodding his head slowly. "I'm a Prefect. I'm sure I can gather a few more. Hufflepuff will stand behind you."
Neville reached out to shake the young man's hand. "We will make Hogwarts proud." He stood up to go back to the Gryffindor table, but Hannah pulled him back onto the bench by his arm.
"Does anyone know if Professor McGonagall made it through the summer?" she whispered and the entire group leaned in to hear his answer. It was Neville's turn to hesitate. At first he considered lying to them, but seeing their concerned faces he remembered his Gran's words before he boarded the train. "You need to stick by your friends, my dear boy. You're going to need each other in the end and you've got to trust in one another. Always remember who you are and what you stand for. They can't take that away from you."
"To be honest, we're not sure. She basically went on a suicide mission to save Ginny and Hermione. No one has heard from her since." He glanced up to the head table where all the Professors currently sat.
The Heads of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were staring at their respective tables. Professor Sprout was watching him interact with her Hufflepuffs carefully. Professor Slughorn had his hands clasped in his lap and was staring intently at the empty plate in front of him. Hagrid sat beside the Head of Slytherin, equally silent. On the other side of the table, Madames Pomfrey, Hooch, and Professors Sinistra and Babbling were also sitting in an unusual silence. In the past, the four were always in some sort of conversation or another. But usually, there were five in their party...
"Where is Professor Burbage?" His companions did not seem to know either and he turned back to the table. The traitorous bastard was sitting in Professor Dumbledore's chair and to his left were two people Neville only recognized from known Death Eater pictures in the newspaper. To his right was an empty chair. The Deputy Headmistress or Headmaster's chair.
"One of those Death Eaters is replacing someone."
"Probably Professor Burbage," said Susan sadly. "I didn't think she was a Muggleborn, but I guess teaching Muggle Studies is bad enough."
"I hope McGonagall is just fetching the First Years." Ernie shifted uneasily in his chair. "Hogwarts will be bad enough without Dumbledore, but to lose both of them..."
Neville tried to sooth their fears by saying, "If they had killed her, we would know. I'm sure they would parade that around."
Just then, the shuffle of feet and far off whispering could be heard. The First Years were making their way into the Great Hall and at their lead was none other than Professor McGonagall. Neville let out an audible sigh of relief he didn't know he had been holding. She looked thin and her robes hung about her as if she had lost a fair amount of weight in a short period of time. Her eyes didn't seem to have the same emerald gleam and her cheeks had a certain pallor to them. But other than that, she looked just as much their fearless leader.
Her eyes swept the Great Hall when she entered, not bothering to pay attention to the scared eleven year olds behind her. When her eyes found Neville's she tilted her head slightly to the side and arched an eyebrow as if to say, 'Mr. Longbottom, I do believe you are at the wrong table'. He merely grinned back at her with a new wind in him. They could do this. As long as McGonagall remained, they could fight these coming battles together.
Neville waited until the First Years had gathered at the front of the Hall before sneaking back over to the Gryffindor table to take his seat by Ginny and Seamus. Ginny hardly noticed him as her eyes were glued to McGonagall who was currently reading the names of the new students. Taking this time to look around the room, he noticed a lot of the older students whispering to their young Housemates. Eyes would flicker in their direction and there were nods here and there. Neville smiled to himself. It was going to be a long year, but Dumbledore's Army was recruiting.
The next day, in London, Hermione Granger straightened her navy blue robes nervously. Well, they weren't her robes. Nor was this her body. She hoped that Mafalda Hopkirk was normally quiet or Dolores Umbridge would know something was out of the ordinary. It didn't matter anyway: Hermione's ex-Headmistress had been talking nonstop since they had left Harry and the Minister. So far all Hermione had to do was smile and nod.
She couldn't help but be disgusted by the amount of pink the woman had managed to squeeze into one outfit. Especially since most Ministry employees wore the plain navy blue robes. Even the stockings on the toad-like woman's squatty legs were such a gentle shade of pink that it gave the illusion that her legs had begun to change color. Hermione had spent an entire school year with the dreadful woman, but she had been so worried about the awful things Umbridge had been trying to do to Hogwarts that she had never paid a great attention to Umbridge's clothing and accessory choices. At least not like the other girls did.
Were there really that many shades of that God-forsaken color on Earth? The only thing that wasn't pink was a silver chain around Umbridge's neck. That stuck Hermione as odd. She did not remember Umbridge wearing anything so simple before. As she took a closer look, she let out an involuntary gasp of surprise.
There, wrapped around the neck of the Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, was a piece of Lord Voldemort's soul.
Hermione took a deep breath and tried to control the instinct to just reach out and rip it off the woman's neck. It had never occurred to the three of them that Umbridge would actually be wearing the necklace. This was completely different than the original plan: they were not only going to have to steal the necklace and get out of the Ministry unseen, but now they were going to actually physically take it from around Dolores Umbridge's neck.
Umbridge finally stopped talking when they reached the Courtrooms in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic. Hermione began to feel a familiar sensation of never seeing a happy day again in her life, when she realized that there were Dementors guarding the Muggleborn 'prisoners'. Panic ran through her, partly due to the presence of the Dementors, but also she was going to have to produce a Patronus. She figured that the odds that Madame Hopkirk and herself shared the same otter Patronus were slim to none.
"Expecto Patronum!" said Umbridge in a fairy like voice. A fluid silver Persian cat came pouncing out of her wand. Hermione held her breath for a moment, but when it appeared that Umbridge did not expect her to also produce a Patronus she slowly let it out. "All these filthy animals bred from Muggles stealing our magic. Every day I have to remind myself what a good deed we are doing for the community to force myself to be in their presence."
"Right you are," muttered Hermione through gritted teeth. Umbridge thrust a folder into Hermione's arms.
"As per usual, we will begin at the top of the list." Umbridge straightened her pink jacket before entering the courtroom. Hermione scanned the names as she followed the woman in. She recognized many surnames from friends and acquaintances at Hogwarts. Some of the names she recognized as being important figures in the Ministry only a year ago. Her heart broke for them and she tried hard not to let her rage show.
Hermione quickly adjusted to her job in assisting Umbridge and tried to think of ways to get the necklace back before the Polyjuice Potion wore off. Not only were there Dementors looming overhead, but Yaxley stood to the side of every Muggleborn who was forced to sit before them. She was running out of ideas short of stunning everyone in the room and producing a Patronus charm at the same time when Harry entered the room. Or rather Albert Runcorn entered the room.
"Can I help you, Runcorn?" asked Umbridge sweetly, her squatty face turned into a patronizing smile. Yaxley turned to greet the newcomer with suspicion. Hermione used this opportunity to motion to Umbridge and to her own neck. Harry stuttered as he tried to answer Umbridge while trying to understand Hermione's mime. Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the Chosen One, whom at this moment couldn't be more clueless.
"I was just...um...I thought- I thought you could use some help." Harry managed to stutter out before plastering a fake glare on his face at the last minute. Hermione concluded they needed to work on his acting skills if they ever did this again.
"We have it under control," said Yaxely, clearly having taken offence to the thought he could not handle a couple of Muggleborns.
From her seat, Hermione mouthed silently, 'She has the necklace' and frantically motioned to Umbridge. She began to take out her wand, but Yaxely turned back to face Umbridge. Harry seemed to get her message because he took out his own wand and pointed it at Yaxley's back.
"Stupefy!" He shouted and a beam of red light struck Yaxley squarely on the back. The Death Eater fell face first onto the stone floor as Umbridge let out a shriek.
"Runcorn!?" She grabbed for her own wand, but Hermione disarmed her from behind. "Mafalda!"
Harry sneered at her confusion which, in retrospect, would have never been near as intimating as it was on the older man's face that he currently wore. "Hello, Professor. I'm sure you don't recognize me. But just let me make it clear that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have gotten the best of you once again."
"Harry!" cried Hermione as Umbridge's silver cat disappeared at the mention of their names. Harry quickly stunned Umbridge and turned to create his silver stag. Hermione rushed to grab the necklace from around the woman's neck.
"Where's Ron?" asked Harry as they scampered out of the room.
"I thought he was with you!" she shouted back , but stopped suddenly causing Harry to nearly knock her over. "We have to free them. All of these people we have to help them escape!"
"Hermione, we don't have time for that-" Whatever he was going to say next, he swallowed the words back as he looked around at the scared and sad faces staring at him. "Alright. Everyone follow us! You need to leave the country. As soon as we make it out, you run for it! Got it?"
Soon Harry and Hermione were leading a pack of people through the hallways of the Ministry of Magic, running full speed the entire way. Hermione could feel herself changing back and as she looked over at Harry, she could see he was starting to return to himself as well. She mentally cursed at their situation as they ran like mad men. They were starting to draw attention. This was not how the plan was supposed to go. Not to mention they still had no idea where Ron was. Oh, goodness. They still had to find Ronald.
Preview: Draco looked between his two professors as if they had gone mad. "So we're actually seriously looking for a crown? And what are we going to do with said crown once we find it? Establish a new monarchy?"