Chapter Four: They Call it a Picket Line
It was not a pleasant start.
Sirius and I met in the Courtyard directly after breakfast to wait for the Hufflepuffs. There was about fifteen minutes before the first lesson started so we waited mostly in silence.
"Where are your mates?" I said after a moment.
"Peter and Remus are in lessons and James has to finish his Herbology essay so they aren't coming until this evening's meeting," he said, wringing his hands together and jiggling his feet. "What about yours?"
"All in class."
"Right…" Sirius looked at his watch. "They're cutting it close."
"What if they don't come?" I wondered and he turned to me quickly.
"Course they're going to come!"
"Okay, I was just thinking out loud," I replied, looking down and tapping my feet on the stone floor.
After another few minutes, I heard Sirius let out a little sigh of relief. When I looked up, I saw two Hufflepuff girls approaching us. Hannah Simmons and Tully James. Unfortunately, they did not look excited at all and seemed to be whispering to each other frantically. They both fell silent when they reached us and put on bright, very forced smiles.
"Hiya girls, all right?" Sirius said with an attractive grin. I saw Hannah let out a tiny sigh and she smiled back.
"Hi Sirius!" they said in unison before nodding at me too. "Oh, hey Bridget."
"Where are the rest of you?" Sirius said brightly.
"Um…" Tully looked at her shoes and nudged Hannah forward with her elbow.
Hannah shot her an annoyed look before staring at Sirius.
"Um…the thing is, Sirius…they aren't coming."
"What?" he said, his voice dropping to his usual tone.
"Well…it's just, there's only five of us and none of the Slytherins are going to skip because they all love Professor Aalgaard and the other Hufflepuffs just don't want to get in trouble."
"But all of the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors are skipping," Sirius argued, his voice even, but intimidating.
"Yes, but Sirius…we're sorry, but that's your whole class and we have to do the 'skipping' part first and we just can't do it," Tully put in.
"We? So you two are going to class too?" Sirius asked, his voice scornful.
"Oh, but please don't be angry, Sirius!" Hannah practically begged.
"I'm not angry. I just thought you'd all have a bit of backbone but I was wrong to include you in the first place," he said rather harshly.
"Sirius…" I said softly, tapping his elbow.
"I mean…why did you even agree to begin with? What, did you think that I just wanted to spend time with you? This is something that's worth getting in trouble for!" Sirius continued.
Hannah and Tully looked like they were about to cry, so I stepped forward.
"Don't worry about it. It's fine, really. We totally understand."
Their eyes darted between my face and Sirius' livid one and they repeated their apologies.
"It's okay," I reassured them. "That's the bell, you better go so you aren't late."
They nodded and looked at Sirius with distress.
"We're really sorry Sirius!" Hannah said pleadingly.
"Just go," he said, rolling his eyes and sitting on one of the low walls.
They did so hurriedly, though I saw both girls turn more than once to look at Sirius who was now just squinting in to nothingness. After they were out of sight, I joined him on the wall.
"It's okay. It'll be more effective when a whole class is gone than just a few people missing. Don't worry about it."
"I just don't fucking get why they would agree in the first place."
"They were probably just trying to make you happy. Give them a break."
He said nothing, just continued to squint angrily in to the sky. I said nothing either, I just looked in the same general direction, watching the clouds float by.
"Look, I'm like…really pissed off right now, so…"
I shrugged. "Okay."
"I mean, you can go," He said in a hard voice.
I watched his face for a moment, though he continued to stare away.
"Do you want me to go?" I asked.
He let out an exasperated sigh. "I mean, if you're going to hang around and ask me if I'm all right and try to make me feel better then yeah, you should go."
"I wasn't going to. I was just going to sit here," I said, shrugging again.
He turned to look at me in slight surprise. "You weren't going to ask me if I'm all right?"
"No. You obviously aren't…so why bother?" I said, plucking a dandelion from a crack in the wall and blowing the petals in to the wind.
"Wow…you really weren't," Sirius said, squinting back up in to the sky. "It's something my mates always do. I mean, they've gotten better now that they know me so well, but I can't bloody stand it when people ask if I'm okay."
I nodded and twirled the dandelion stem around in my fingers. "Actually…Nicola's been doing that to me a lot lately. She's always like, 'Are you okay, are you okay?' and I just want to tell her, 'No, I'm not bloody okay - my dad is dead, so if I want to have a strop or be in a quiet, sullen mood, then I will be.' I can't just go back to making jokes about lads and having a laugh about silly things because I'm not like that anymore. Almost every moment hurts and I think about him all the time and…I'm just not bloody okay."
Sirius had turned back to me now and was staring at me quite intensely. I didn't look back because my eyes were stinging, so I simply looked at my feet dangling off the edge of the wall. After a moment, in my periphery I saw him turn and squint back at the sky.
"Yeah…" he said.
We sat in comfortable silence for almost half an hour before he stretched and jumped off the wall. He turned to me and smiled his little half-smile.
"Well, I'm going to go find James. See you in Transfiguration?"
"Yeah, McGonagall hasn't done anything wrong," I chuckled.
He laughed. "Oh Minnie could never do anything wrong."
I rolled my eyes and jumped off the wall too. "I guess I'll head to the Library and start the Charms essay Flitwick set yesterday."
"How is Filli, by the way?" Sirius said and laughed as I shoved him away from me.
After Herbology later that day, Sirius and James met up with me with identical looks of excitement on their faces.
"This is going to be brilliant. I can't wait to see the reaction on that old toad's face," James said, rubbing his hands together.
"James is more excited than we are. He even stashed away some food in a broom cupboard to start an impromptu party," Sirius laughed.
I smiled at this, but was starting to worry. Skipping class was one thing, but skipping class to have a party seemed like something else altogether. I sort of tuned out the boys' conversation and walked quietly alongside them, inwardly panicking that I'd done the wrong thing initiating this protest.
When we arrived at the courtyard, James disappeared for a while before returning with two picnic baskets.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
"You're a nutcase, mate," he said, happily patting the stone seating where James placed the baskets. Potter's eyes were shining and he ran a hand through his messy hair making it look even wilder.
"Well, dig in, Bridget. But don't eat the chocolate éclairs, I'm saving them for someone," he said helping himself to a treacle tart.
I glanced at Sirius who was rolling his eyes.
"Chocolate éclairs are Evans' favorite dessert," he explained and I smiled, declining the sandwich he offered me.
"I just think we ought to run a little under the radar to be honest," I said, when he raised his eyebrow at me.
"Bridget, the point is to make a scene!" Sirius said shaking his head at James who nodded enthusiastically with a mouthful of food.
"Yes, but we're not supposed to be skiving for fun, it's supposed to be to make a point…" I said, worriedly wringing my hands together.
"Doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves a bit," James replied, handing me a glass of pumpkin juice. "Come on Willoughby, live a little."
I took the glass, a frown on my face but I sighed in acceptance. I was a bit thirsty.
"Oooh! Who's brought the spread?" Nicola asked as she and Arron arrived and sat on the step below us.
"Excellent - chocolate éclairs! They're my favorite!" Arron said, grabbing one and taking a huge bite.
"Wait- I'm saving…" James started to say before shrugging and nodding hello at my friends. "So where is everyone else?"
"I hope they aren't bowing out," Sirius said, looking at Arron a little too severely.
Arron rolled his eyes. "Relax, they're on their way. Besides, I see more Ravenclaws right now then Gryffindors!"
Sirius ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "Oh, they'll be here."
And as if on cue, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Marlene McKinnon arrived and joined us.
"I love this. What a brilliant idea Bridget! I'm so excited to teach that nonsense Professor a lesson!" McKinnon said patting me on the back as she brushed past me to sit on Sirius' other side.
I grinned but shrugged at her. "It was mostly Sirius' idea."
"Yeah, well I've already told him what I think about it," she said, smirking at Sirius who smiled back sheepishly, running another nervous hand through his hair and looking away. Marlene looked a little put out but shook her head slightly and grabbed a sandwich.
"Weren't Mary and Jen in Herbology with you?" Remus Lupin said to James and Sirius as he broke off large chunks of Honeydukes chocolate and passed it around.
Sirius glanced at me and frowned. "Actually, yeah…I wonder where they got off to?"
I frowned back and tapped my feet nervously. If just one person didn't show up, the plan wouldn't be nearly effective enough and I could tell Sirius was just as worried as I was.
"Oh, here they come! And aren't those guys your Ravenclaw mates?" Marlene said, standing up and putting her hands around her mouth to shout to her friends.
"Oi, Jen, Mary - we're here!"
Jennifer Crawley and Mary MacDonald arrived and smiled at the group.
"Sorry, we got confused about where we were meeting and went to the common room," Jennifer said, looking at Sirius worriedly.
Sirius coughed and I caught him discreetly rolling his eyes, which made me smile. I glanced at Arron and Nicola who looked like they were going to burst in to laughter. Like we always said, some Gryffindors were complete idiots. They busied themselves with greeting Benjy, Matt and Ollie, who were delighted with James' picnic baskets.
Sirius had pulled a notebook out now and I noticed a list of names written in his very, polished handwriting. He was running his finger down the list, ticking names off and looking up to see everyone. I looked around the group, observing the Gryffindors who I didn't often see outside of lessons. They were loud and boisterous and seemed to be laughing at practically anything, but they were friendly and were mingling enthusiastically with my housemates.
Jennifer Crawley had her back to Marlene and Sirius and was twirling her hair as she talked to Ollie and Matt, giggling at things that didn't seem very funny to me. I wondered if she was angry at her friend for kissing Sirius, because the last I remembered was that she'd seemed quite obsessed with him.
Mary MacDonald on the other hand seemed to be attempting to keep peace by speaking to Marlene, Nicola and Arron. I did catch her glancing between her two friends several times looking a bit worried. Marlene did not seem concerned that Jennifer wasn't speaking to her but seemed very interested in what Nicola and Arron were saying about Ancient Runes. Benjy, the only Ravenclaw in our year who was a Quidditch player was talking to James, Remus and Peter, discussing the upcoming Hufflepuff vs Slytherin match.
"Who're we missing then?" I asked Sirius, noticing that the two of us seemed to be the only ones not talking.
Sirius chewed the end of his quill and shook his head.
"Evans and her mates. Damn, I knew they'd be the tough ones."
"Who are her mates, again?" I asked, looking at the courtyard entrance, trying to picture who I normally saw Lily Evans with.
"Alice Smith and Dorcas Meadowes," Sirius said, groaning. "Oh, if they spoil this I will kill them."
"Oh, don't do that."
He chuckled and sighed, nudging McKinnon who turned to him immediately.
"Any idea what class Evans, Alice and Dorcas just had?" he asked her.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and chewed her lip attractively. "Um…isn't Alice in Herbology with you?"
"No, I think she takes it at another time," he said, shaking his head. "We take the same subjects but she takes a couple extra ones."
"Oh…so then they were probably in Arithmancy. I think Vector keeps them late."
"But they're never late to Defence. Oh, bloody hell - I'll kill Evans."
"Hey! Padfoot, no!" James said loudly and the Gryffindors all burst in to loud laughter. The Ravenclaws, however, exchanged looks of confusion. We knew Potter had fancied Lily Evans last year but we hadn't realized it was a running joke in Gryffindor House.
"Oh relax Prongs, I won't touch a hair on your precious Evans' head," Sirius smirked.
"Well, I should hope so! Your hands look filthy."
I looked up to see Lily Evans, Alice Smith: a girl with a kind, round face and short black hair and a tall, lanky girl with a cloud of pale blonde hair called Dorcas Meadowes standing in front of us.
"Just got done with Herbology, Evans… I hear dragon dung is great for the complexion," Sirius teased, wiggling his hands at her face, wearing a huge grin now that everyone had arrived.
Evans made a face and backed away before joining her friends on the floor in front of the steps.
"Evans! I saved you a chocolate éclair - I know they're your favorite," James said, straightening his glasses excitedly and digging in one of the picnic baskets. Lily glanced at her friends with a look of bewilderment.
"How could you possibly know that Potter?"
"'Cause he stalks you?" Sirius replied, before ducking away from a punch on the arm from his friend.
Dorcas and Alice laughed together and Evans shook her head.
"Well, I won't say no, all the same. I do love them."
"Bloody hell - who ate the last one? I told you I was saving them!" James said emerging from the basket looking red-faced at the group. Peter Pettigrew was stuffing the last piece in his mouth and he looked at James guiltily.
"Wormtail!" James groaned, smacking his forehead.
"Well, thanks anyway Potter," Lily shrugged and several of the Gryffindors, including Sirius whistled loudly.
"Oh shut up!" Lily said, with a light laugh and a roll of her eyes.
James on the other hand was grinning and when I looked at him he threw me an excited wink.
"Well, now that we're all here - I suppose it's time for speeches," Sirius said, standing up and stepping up to the highest stair. Everyone turned to look at him and he smiled.
"Thanks for coming. Basically the point of this protest is to show the Staff how much we hate Professor Aalgaard and his stupid, backwards views. And we owe it all to one person for finally giving us some inspiration to stand up and fight back," Sirius said.
"Oh, be modest Sirius," James piped up, making the group chuckle.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Obviously, I didn't mean me. I meant…Bridget Willoughby," he said, gesturing to me dramatically and starting a slow clap. Everyone joined in and I blushed and waved at them all, feeling embarrassed at the attention.
"Speech…speech…" James began to chant.
"No…no…Sirius, you do it," I said as he pulled me to my feet.
"Sorry mate, this is your party," he said with a wink as he sat back down and gave me his undivided attention.
I gulped and looked around at my Defence class. Every eye was on me and I was very nervous.
"Um…I just want to say thanks again for showing up to support us. And thanks to Sirius for organizing this little rally."
"Hear, hear!" James, Remus and Peter said, raising their glasses to their friend.
"And…I hope that something will be done about Aalgaard because if an entire class disagrees with his teaching methods, there's got to be something wrong!" I said and everyone murmured their agreement.
"And although it was really nice of you to bring snacks, James - I do think we ought to be doing something a little more productive while we sit here…" I said, wincing at James and hoping he wouldn't take offense. He just smiled and took a swig of his juice.
"Oh come on Bridget - the point is that we're rebelling - standing up for what we believe in," Sirius said.
"Actually, I agree with Bridget," Remus Lupin spoke up. "I brought my Defence textbook - maybe we ought to try and teach ourselves or something."
"That's a good idea, Remus!" Lily spoke up. "Bridget's right, we should look like we still want to learn and aren't just too lazy to go to class."
"Oh come on, let's just relax, they're going to come looking for us soon anyway. It's not as if they'll let us skip the whole lesson!" James argued.
Marlene nodded. "Yeah, I mean - it's a good idea to look like we're working - but what can we do other than read from the textbook? The point is, we don't have an adequate enough teacher to get us through NEWTs, not to mention the book he set us is wildly biased. Have you read the whole thing?"
Nicola nodded. "Yeah, actually you're right - the whole thing is just as backwards as he is - talking about Dark Curses as something to try to learn, rather than something to learn to fight. I don't think learning from the book will help us much at all."
"We could try practicing some spells ourselves," Ollie put in. "I mean Black and Potter know more hexes than some Slytherins, we should just learn how to attack them!"
Everyone chuckled but Sirius and James rolled their eyes.
"Like you could take us, Chamberlain," Sirius said, drawing another group laugh.
"Excuse me! But what on earth are all of you doing out here?" a stern but young voice said sharply. A fair few of us jumped and the group turned to see Emmeline Vance, the Head Girl, standing there with her hands on her hips looking appalled. Emmeline was a fair and nice Ravenclaw, but she did take her newly appointed Head Girl duties extremely seriously.
"And…I see four of my Prefects here?" she said, glaring at Lily, Remus, Nicola and Matt. They all averted their eyes and cringed.
"You can't all be skiving! What lesson are you supposed to be in?" she said. Her face looked very confused and nervous. I suppose in the first month of being Head Girl, you didn't expect to see an entire class skipping a lesson at the same time. She looked like she wasn't sure what to do.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Matt spoke up, tentatively.
"And…you're all Sixth Years?" Emmeline asked. We all nodded.
"Well this is the beginning of your NEWTs, you can't afford to miss even one lesson!"
"We can when it's a useless teacher," Sirius replied, defiantly.
"Well, who's responsible for this little charade?" Emmeline said looking around the group. Everyone's heads turned immediately to Sirius and I, but we looked at each other in the same instant.
"You and you," Emmeline said, pointing at each of us and beckoning us over. "Come here."
Sirius stuck his hands in his pockets and exhaled in annoyance. "Buzz kill," he whispered to me. I cringed and hurried over to Emmeline with Sirius a few paces behind me. She lowered her voice when we approached.
"Bridget and…it's Sirius, right?" she said. He nodded and I fought not to roll my eyes. As if anyone in this school didn't know who he was.
"What's going on? I can't punish you all! Why are you all skiving?" she said, looking at us with concern as she pushed a strand of her chestnut colored hair behind her ear.
"Basically, we both had a disagreement with Aalgaard last lesson because the way he was teaching was just preposterous - he was feeding us lies and it was pathetic, ignorant and offensive. So, we wanted to show the Staff how much we hate him and wish he were fired…and we decided we would all just, stop going to class," I said, nervously spilling the whole story to her rather lamely. I had known from the beginning that we'd get in trouble for this, but somehow as it was happening, I just couldn't stop myself from worrying about the consequences.
"What did he say exactly?" Emmeline said, biting her lip.
"That anyone who has felt the effects of an Unforgivable Curse, anyone who was killed, possessed or tortured wasn't clever enough to evade them. That they were just weak fools. And so that, made us fucking furious," Sirius said, his stormy, grey eyes looking livid.
Emmeline placed a hand over her mouth and stared at him in horror. When she finally moved her hand away, she looked equally furious. "What a bloody prick!" she said, angrily blowing some hair off her face.
Sirius and I exchanged looks of surprise and then suddenly I remembered a rumor that had floated around last year when Rabastan Lestrange was expelled from Hogwarts. Expelled because apparently he'd used the Imperious Curse to possess Emmeline Vance into cursing her best friend to a bloody pulp.
"Ok listen, I was never here," Emmeline said, looking at us fiercely and briskly smoothing down her skirt. I nodded and Sirius raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Well…cheers, Head Girl," he said with a soft smile.
She returned it, before turning on her heel and going back in to the castle.
"Wow…I wouldn't have expected that from her," Sirius said, looking at her retreating figure as we returned to the group and explained that she was letting us off the hook.
"Why do you think she did let us go, though?" Sirius asked me as the others started to talk again.
I didn't want to gossip, but it was a rumor that had already gone around last year and I didn't see any harm in repeating it now.
"You remember when Lestrange was expelled last year?" I said quietly and I heard his breath catch in his throat.
"That was her…she's been possessed before," he said mostly to himself. "And didn't she manage to shake it off?"
I nodded.
"Wow…" he looked like he was suddenly in awe. He looked at the Castle doors where we'd last seen her and smiled. "Wow, she's brilliant."
I nodded again and turned to join Nicola's conversation as Sirius strolled over to his friends and began chatting to them with a thoroughly impressed expression on his face. If I wasn't mistaken…it seemed that a girl had finally caught Sirius' interest.
"You know what might actually be a good idea?" Lily said loudly, making everyone turn to look her way. "We could make some signs and chants to demand that Aalgaard be sacked."
There were murmurs of interest and Arron grinned.
"That's a great idea. Where d'you come up with that?"
Evans shrugged. "Its what muggles do during protests. They call it a picket line"
"Well come on then, lets summon some parchment," Nicola said, waving her wand.
Soon, our group had various signs with phrases written on them like: "Down with Aalgaard"; "Help us pass our exams – sack Aalgaard" and "We deserve better!" Sirius, James, Remus and Peter were leading an "Aalgaard is Unforgivable" chant. We were all having quite a good time until we heard a throat being cleared and stopped to see Aalgaard, McGonagall and Flitwick standing in front of us, looking appalled. Aalgaard's face was purple and his long, straggly, grey hair was practically standing on end.
"What is going on?! Why aren't you in my lesson?!" he yelled to which Sirius and James yelled - "Down with Aalgaard!" and the rest of us whooped in response.
"ENOUGH!" McGonagall said, loudly, her stern eyes, glaring at us. "Who is responsible here?"
This time no one had to look at us, Sirius and I stepped forward with grim expressions and I felt Sirius grab hold of my wrist in a show of solidarity.
"We are," Sirius said.
"But we're behind them one hundred percent!" James said loudly. He shut his mouth in a hurry when McGonagall glared pointedly at him.
"And what did you wish to achieve with this outburst?" Flitwick said, glaring at me in disappointment. I felt very guilty all of a sudden – an effect that Flitwick always seemed to impose on me.
"We want a Professor who will teach us properly," I said, trying to keep the nerves at bay.
"We want him out!" Sirius clarified, raising his fist and making our class shout in agreement.
McGonagall and Flitwick exchanged a quick look and Aalgaard looked furious.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Who are you to question the way I teach? You're children!" he yelled, stepping towards us.
"Artemis," McGonagall said sharply, stepping in front of him. "Everyone go to your common rooms, now! That's enough excitement for one day. Black, Willoughby, wait here."
The others shuffled around, picking up their stuff and walked by patting Sirius and I reassuringly on the backs as McGonagall, Flitwick and Aalgaard exchanged words in lowered voices. When the courtyard was cleared out, they turned to us with grim expressions. Aalgaard was clearly biting his tongue but his face was red with fury. Finally, Flitwick stepped forward and said in a serious voice, "Come on Bridget, Sirius – we are going to see the Headmaster."
Sirius and I exchanged expressions of satisfaction. We were going to be heard!
"Don't look so bloody pleased with yourselves – if I have anything to do with it – you'll both be suspended indefinitely!" Aalgaard grunted.
"That is for the Headmaster to decide, Artemis," Flitwick said in a low voice and Aalgaard scowled.
"Come," McGonagall said, leading the way to Dumbledore's office.
"How much trouble do you think we'll be in?" I whispered to Sirius as we walked behind the solemn Professors.
Sirius shrugged. "None. Like we said before, if they punish us, they'll have to punish half of the year and that's not going to happen."
"So we won't be expelled?" I said nervously. He gave me a small smile and nudged my side.
"Don't get cold feet now. We'll stand our ground and it'll be all right."
I looked at him feeling uneasy and he elbowed me again.
"I promise. Trust me, I've been in trouble loads of times – this is different."
I sighed. "I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it."
He smiled again and reached for my hand, squeezing it. I couldn't help but notice that my stomach flipped over at his touch.
A/N: Thank you everyone so much for reading and special thanks to those of you who have reviewed! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and review if you want more! (Although, I'll probably give you more anyway!)