Posted on: 15/06/2014 at 22:00 GMT/UTC/Zulu.
AN: Thank you to my reviewers angel897, Crapes, Mu-Nition, KEZZ 1, Just The Me, OCD ADD Goldfish and Lamia of the Dark and all those who have favourited or followed this story. I apologise that the chapter is late again. Life has been very busy this week and looks to be very busy next week as well.
Next chapter should be up on or by 22/06/2014.
The Marriage Curse
Discoveries
"Good afternoon. Can we help you?" Harry asked.
He didn't bother to go for his wand. The Slytherins would hex him into oblivion before he could reach it. Hermione and Ron had frozen on either side of him.
"Yes you can Potter. You can give us the traitor Malfoy." One of the older Slytherins said.
"I don't know where he is." Harry said.
"Don't play games Potter. He's a Gryffindor now so he's in all your classes." This Slytherin was fingering his wand as though he wanted nothing more than to hex him.
"I really don't know where he is. Our last class was cancelled and he went off to do his own thing." Harry said.
"Look, can't you just hang him by his underpants from one of the quidditch goals and call it quits?" Ron asked.
Some of the Slytherins snorted with laughter in spite of themselves. Harry grinned.
"Sounds fair to me. Now if you'll excuse us we're late for charms." He said.
He moved to step round them.
"Not so fast Potter. He's betrayed more than just Slytherin house he's betrayed the Dar-" The Slytherin started and was cut off by Hermione.
"Stupefy!" She cried.
The Slytherin hit the floor. The others looked at her warily. Harry had had no idea she could draw and cast that quickly. It made her even more scary than he'd thought she was.
"You really don't want to follow Lord Voldemort." Harry said. "I've seen him torture his own followers when he gets into a rage. He's not sane."
"Some of us don't have a choice Potter. Our families will kill us if we don't take the mark." The only female Slytherin spoke.
The others were nodding.
"Professor Dumbledore can protect you. In a few months time I can protect you." Harry said.
"What are you talking about?" The female Slytherin asked warily.
"I turn sixteen in a few months. As the last of my line I then become Lord Potter. I have a secure property and I can offer you my protection." Harry said.
"Why would you do this?" Another Slytherin asked.
"Because what your families are trying to force you into is wrong." Harry said simply.
"Will your offer still stand in a week? We need time to consider it." The girl said.
"Yes. What's your name? You know mine." Harry said.
"Aurelia Nott." The girl said.
Harry held out his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Theodore's older sister?" Ron asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes. He's a prat though. He's eager to join the Dark Lord. I'd rather stay out of it."
"Owl me when you've decided." Harry said.
Aurelia nodded and the Slytherins stood aside and let them go. They hurried off to Charms and arrived ten minutes late.
Professor Flitwick wasn't pleased and they lost ten points each and narrowly avoided detention. Hermione thought that they only avoided it because it was the last week before the Easter holidays. When Professor Flitwick had explained the lesson and they were attempting to silence bullfrogs Hermione leaned over to talk to Harry. Professor Flitwick was across the room correcting Neville's wand movement.
"Why did you offer to help those Slytherins?" She asked curiously.
Harry shrugged.
"Well since those Ravenclaws were expelled I realised that houses can't be entirely good or entirely evil, I mean look at Pettigrew, he was a Gryffindor. Anyway I reckon that most of the Slytherins really want to stay out of it and not get caught in the fighting. It's only the evil ones who want to back Voldemort. So if we can get to the ones that are being forced into it and get them to stay out of it so much the better for everyone." Harry explained.
"That's really mature Harry." Hermione beamed at him.
"Blimey mate that was deep." Ron said.
Harry blushed and scratched the back of his head.
"What's the wand movement again Hermione?" He asked.
Hermione showed him and then silenced her bullfrog. It croaked soundlessly for a moment and gave up.
"Well done Miss Granger. Five points to Gryffindor." Professor Flitwick had come over unnoticed.
"You can try a raven next. They're a bit more difficult to silence. Boys you try." He added.
Ron thought he'd succeeded for a moment until his bullfrog gave a loud croak. Harry didn't do any better.
"Well you've got the wand movement and pronunciation right so keep practicing boys." Professor Flitwick said as he moved on.
Hermione left their table to swap her frog for a raven. When he was sure she was out of earshot Ron leaned over to Harry.
"Mate I know you're trying to help but do you really think those Slytherins can be trusted?" Ron asked.
"I'm not sure so I'm going to ask them give a magically binding oath to make sure they can't give away any of my secrets. If they won't give it I can't help them." Harry said.
"Good idea. How long have you been thinking about this?" Ron asked.
"A while. I just wasn't sure how to approach them with it." Harry said.
Hermione returned with a raven and they stopped talking and went back to trying to silence their frogs.
The rest of the week went quickly and before Hermione knew it it was Thursday. She was feeling nervous as she went down to breakfast.
"You alright Hermione?" Ron asked her when she sat down.
"Yeah I'm fine." She said not very convincingly.
"What's up?" Harry asked while giving her a look that said he didn't believe she was fine.
"We're getting married on Saturday. That's two days away! Aren't you nervous?" Hermione replied.
"A bit yeah but it's Saturday. We've still got two days." Harry replied.
Hermione shook her head and busied herself eating breakfast. She shouldn't have expected the boys to understand.
The post came with the usual clatter of wings and noise as people took their letters and packages. Hermione took her Daily Prophet and watched as Harry took a note from a strange owl. It was a small grey bird and it flew off as soon as Harry had taken the letter.
He opened it and read then grinned.
"Who's it from Harry?" Ron asked.
"The Slytherins. They accept." Harry said.
Hermione smiled. "Good."
Harry bolted the rest of his breakfast and scrawled a quick reply before running up to the Owlery. Ron asked Hermione to keep his food for him and hurried after Harry.
They returned ten minutes before the end of breakfast and Ron bolted the remainder of his breakfast. Luna came over from the Ravenclaw table just as they were going to leave.
"Good morning Harry." She smiled.
"Morning Luna." Harry replied.
"Did you invite the Slytherins to join the DA?" She asked him.
"No." Harry said.
"Oh. Well there will be some there tonight. See you later Harry." Luna said and she left.
"What?" Harry said after she'd left.
"I dunno mate." Ron said. "She might be wrong."
"She sounded pretty sure." Hermione said with a frown.
Ron shrugged. "Come on or we'll be late to potions."
They hurried down to the dungeons.
Time seemed to move very oddly that day to Hermione. It rushed past at times and crawled at others. Potions flew by and so did Transfiguration.
Defence against the Dark Arts crawled. Hermione had read the entire book and used the time to do some of her Transfiguration homework. Umbridge didn't notice. She'd finally got rid of all the itching powder but was in a very bad mood. She stalked up and down the rows of students muttering to herself. As long as they seemed to be reading or scrawling the essay she had set them to write on the chapter she left them alone.
Hermione had already written the essay and the next six. The lessons never varied and neither did the format of the essays. Umbridge was too distracted to notice that she had Intermediate Transfiguration open under the table and was only occasionally turning the pages of her Defence textbook.
Arithmancy after that flew by much to her disappointment. It was by far her most interesting and challenging class. Then it was time to join the others for dinner.
As she was on her way down to the great hall she saw one of the seventh year Slytherins they'd been accosted by the other day. He was cornered and exchanging insults with several seventh year Ravenclaws. Wands were drawn as she reached them.
"What's going on here?" Hermione asked in her most authoritative voice.
The Ravenclaws turned. Although they were in seventh year they saw her Prefect badge and decided not to cross her.
"Nothing. We're going to dinner." One of them said.
They put their wands away and left. The Slytherin was looking at her curiously. With a sinking feeling Hermione realised that she was alone with him and he would probably be offended that she'd interfered.
"Thank you." He said a moment later.
That surprised her. "No problem." Hermione said.
They walked down to dinner together and Hermione ended up inviting him and his friends to the DA meeting. She was surprised she'd done it but it felt right. She joined the Gryffindors after telling him to meet them on the seventh floor by the tapestry of Bartholomew the Barmy.
"Good lesson Hermione?" Ron asked when she sat down.
"Yes great. Listen Harry I kind of invited the Slytherins to join us." She said.
"You did what!?" Ron yelled.
She explained what had happened. Harry looked a little wary but shrugged.
"Well Luna was right then. We'll see how it goes. If it works out can you make them more coins?" Harry asked.
Hermione was a little surprised by his reaction and apparently Ron was too.
"You feeling alright Harry?" He asked.
"Fine." Harry replied.
Ron shrugged and went back to his food although he kept shooting Hermione strange looks. Hermione did her best to ignore him while she ate.
The other DA members were rather wary when seven Slytherins showed up and when Harry explained what they were doing. The Slytherins were split as evenly as possible between the two teams as Harry explained what they were doing. Then he closed his eyes and the room changed.
The cushioned covered floor and book lined walls vanished. The floor became grass. Trees, rocks, hills and valleys appeared as the room expanded to a size Hermione wouldn't have believed possible. It was at least the size of the quidditch pitch if not bigger. A bright yellow line appeared across the middle of the room and a table with an alarm clock appeared next to Harry.
Harry cleared his throat.
"Alright. Here are the rules. No curses or hexes that will do serious damage. If someone is stunned they stay stunned until the game is over. Both teams will start at opposite ends. There is a flag for each team there. The team that captures the enemies flag or has the most people left at the end of half an hour wins. Is everyone clear?" He asked.
There was a general murmur of assent.
"Okay then. Once we reach our ends of the room we'll have ten minutes to plan our strategies. The game begins when the whistle blows and ends when this alarm goes off." Harry said.
The two teams moved to either end of the room. Hermione saw that her team's flag was blue. They quickly devised a strategy. Half of them would stay there and guard the flag. The others would go in pairs and try and get the enemies flag.
Hermione found herself on the offensive side partnered with Neville. They smiled at each other. A few minutes later a loud whistle blast rang out. She and Neville hurried off. They hid behind rocks and trees and moved quickly from each to the next trying to stay hidden rather than attack directly.
They did well and were nearly at the other end when they ran into Harry and Draco behind a rock. Neville was quickly stunned although he did managed to get Draco with expelliarmus first. Hermione surrendered when Neville went down, knowing she couldn't take Harry and Draco on her own, and went to sit at the edge of the room.
She was soon joined by Ginny and Angelina. Luna and Dean were doing very well. They had climbed a tree and were hexing anything that moved on the other side of the line. Unfortunately they were on Harry's team and Hermione knew her team was losing.
When half an hour was up neither team had managed to capture the other's flag but Hermione's had lost more people that Harry's. As soon as the alarm rang she went to revive Neville.
"Did we win?" He asked.
"No." Hermione said glumly.
"Oh well. We'll win the next one." Neville said cheerily.
They didn't win the next one. The other team got their flag.
They were just swapping a few people over to different sides when a loud crack resounded around the room. Everyone turned to look at Dobby.
"Youse must all be leaving. The toad woman knows you is here!" Dobby squeaked out.
There was an instant uproar as people tried to work out who wasn't there and who it was who had betrayed them. Unfortunately there were quite a few people missing giving them a wide range of suspects. Harry shouted for quiet.
"We've got to leave. We'll go in twos and threes. Try not to get caught." He said.
The room changed back to it's normal appearance and Harry let people out in twos and threes. Every time someone left it was on a different floor in a different corridor. He, Ron and Hermione left last under the invisibility cloak. As they did they saw Nott and his Inquisitorial Squad approaching the corridor. They hid behind a statue and watched in silent horror as he opened the DA room and went in. Then they hurried back to Gryffindor tower.
Their fellow Gryffindors had all got back safely which was a relief. Five minutes after they got back Professor McGonagall came into the common room. Harry, Ron and Hermione were herded to Professor Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall didn't speak as they went and the journey through the dark and silent corridors was tense. None of the three dared to speak to each other. Hermione wondered if they were going to be expelled.
Dumbledore's office was crammed with people. Umbridge was there with a crying Marietta Edgecombe. She had hauled her robes up to cover her face. Hermione smiled vindictively. Her hex had worked then.
The Minister of Magic was there too with two aurors. She didn't recognise one but the other was Kingsley Shacklebolt. They didn't acknowledge each other. Fudge went on and on in a loud voice accusing Harry and demanding his expulsion until Professor Dumbledore produced the DA sign up list.
"That's enough Cornelius. Mr Potter had nothing to do with this." He said calmly.
"Of course he did." Fudge said.
"Look at the parchment Cornelius. It says Dumbledore's Army, not Potter's Army, Dumbledore's." He said softly.
Fudge red the parchment and went purple.
"What is he talking about girl? Is this true?" He barked at Marietta.
Professor Dumbledore must have confunded Marietta at some point, when no one was looking, because she told them all that the DA had been started by Professor Dumbledore and that it had been the first meeting.
Umbridge pulled her robes down so that they could hear her properly and Hermione saw the damage wrought by her spell and felt smug.
"Arrest him Dawlish!" Fudge screamed.
"I'm not going to come quietly Cornelius. I could of course escape from Azkaban but I think that would be rather a waste of time when I could be doing other more useful things." Professor Dumbledore said.
Auror Dawlish stepped forward and Professor Dumbledore cast some sort of powerful hex as Professor McGonagall pushed the students to the floor. In the dust and confusion Fawkes swooped down to him and they disappeared in a whoosh of flame.
The office was left in chaos. Fudge was left spluttering. Umbridge was unconscious on the floor. Fudge gave orders to begin a hunt for Dumbledore and swept out of the office. The unknown auror followed and Kingsley left with them. He winked at them on his way out.
Hermione was left aghast. What would happen to Hogwarts now? They needed Professor Dumbledore!
Please review. Constructive crit is welcomed. Flames will be used by Voldemort to roast rats for Nagini.