Chapter 12 -
BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS
All student organisations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henceforth disbanded.
An organisation, society, team, group or club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.
Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).
No student organisation, society, team, group or club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.
Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an organisation, society, team, group or club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.
The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four.
Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor
The official notice hung in every common room, on every classroom door, and on the massive walls that framed the doors of the Great Hall. When the demigods woke up the morning after that eventful day in Hogsmeade, there was even one attached to the door of their little common room. Besides the fact that it was pinned to the inside of the door - which suggested that someone had penetrated their sanctuary, unless one of the elves had brought it in - the demigods were more concerned with what it actually said.
Annabeth stood in her pyjamas and re-read the cursive text with a grimly satisfied expression. Well, nobody could say Umbridge wasn't proactive when it came to securing her grip on Hogwarts.
Still, there were a couple of things in the phrasing and presentation of the notice that made her frown in puzzlement.
Why hadn't Umbridge extended punishment to those who were specifically involved in the meeting? Piper had been gone a good half-hour, she was bound to have been pressed for names.
Annabeth rubbed her mussed hair, trying to think. It was seven in the morning, and her brain was still a little cloudy with sleep.
Oh, well. Maybe Umbridge was planning to dish out punishment at breakfast or during classes. Annabeth couldn't really bring herself to care. They hadn't, technically, been breaking the rules. Not a single one, Hermione had assured them. And if the witch still found an excuse to shove two and-a-half dozen specific students into detention for the same offence, there wasn't much she could do that would even convince the rest of the staff that she was right, let alone faze Annabeth and her friends.
Still, she ought to ask Piper exactly how the conversation had gone last night. Her friend had been too demoralised to spend more time with the others at her return, insisting instead that she had a headache and needed some sleep. It was so obvious that she was upset that no-one bothered to call her out on her lie, but that didn't stop Annabeth from worrying for the rest of the evening. Her concern increased when she herself went to bed a couple of hours later and softly called Piper's name to ask if she was okay. She had curled up in the foetal position, visibly tense under the sheets even in the shadows of their dormitory, her breathing irregular and a little shallow - clearly still awake - but she did not respond to her friend's concern.
Annabeth crept back into her silent, sleepy dormitory and padded across to Piper's bed. She waved and smiled tiredly at Hazel, who had just sat up and stretched only to immediately shiver and plunge back into the warmth of her blankets, her large golden eyes peeking over the top and crinkling at the corners as she smiled in return. She watched as Annabeth softly pulled back the draped curtains of Piper's bed and sat down on her friend's mattress. It seemed the daughter of Aphrodite had at last found comfort in the depths of oblivion sometime in the night, though clearly it had been far from restful: the blankets were twisted around Piper's slender form, with one pillow at her feet and another clutched in her arms as she still slept, her long brown hair hanging in strands down her back and in her face.
"Maybe we should let her sleep?" Hazel murmured from the bed next to her. "She looked exhausted yesterday."
Annabeth shook her head in regret.
"Umbridge left the school a little surprise this morning," she answered at the same volume, her sympathetic tone contrasting oddly with her stony expression. "Believe me, Piper can't afford to be late today."
Hazel groaned a little at the news and rolled out of bed, shivering again as her feet touched the floorboards. She started to gather her things for the bathroom while Annabeth watched their sleeping friend, wishing she could let her stay oblivious to real life for an hour or two more. The dormitory was unusually quiet, Thalia having gone out at a ridiculous hour, presumably to pursue the free-running routine she'd taken up to replace the intense cross-country habits of the Huntresses. She'd tried to get Annabeth to join her, but the daughter of Athena couldn't imagine anything worse than getting up in the dark to go running and somersaulting on grounds that were either muddy or stony, in weather that was very likely wet and windy.
After another minute or so, Piper stirred very slightly and clutched her pillow tighter, mumbling something unintelligible as she did so. Annabeth took the opportunity to reluctantly reach out and touch her shoulder, gently shaking it and calling Piper's name.
"Hey," she said, trying to sound bright and cheerful. "Wake up. It's breakfast time soon!"
Piper opened one bleary eye, spotted Annabeth and groaned, burying her face deeper in her bedding. Annabeth had to chuckle. For an Aphrodite kid, Piper really wasn't a morning person. Usually the goddess of love's cabin was abuzz at this hour, full of girls frantically exfoliating their faces and guys cursing as they searched for their hair gel.
"Wrong line, 'nabeth." Piper said in a voice that was husky with sleep. "M'not Percy."
"Fine. What about 'Jason tripped down the stairs and knocked his head'?"
Piper jerked awake, sitting up and sweeping the hair from her eyes.
"What!? Is he okay?"
Annabeth smirked, standing up and crossing her arms.
"He's fine, snoring like a babe."
Piper huffed, rubbing her eyes and shooting her friend a dirty look.
"Babies don't snore." she pointed out crossly.
Annabeth snorted. "You've clearly never had toddler twin brothers."
Piper considered that for a moment, then conceded the point with a nod and a yawn.
"Piper," Annabeth said, a little hesitantly after a moment, "we need to talk."
Piper looked up from undoing the previous day's braids, her expression still a little unfocused.
"Oh, yeah..." she said, her tone vague. "Umbridge, and stuff..."
Annabeth nodded regretfully, sitting down on Hazel's unmade bed and folding her legs under her - the floorboards really were quite chilly.
"How did it go? What exactly did you tell her?"
Piper shrugged, still concentrating on untangling the little braids and ducking her head as she tried to make out the knots in the darkness of the room. The rest of her hair swung down and hid her face as she did so, though Annabeth was sure it was at least partly deliberate. Piper was ashamed of something, she sensed.
"Told her what we agreed on." she said, after a few beats. "I said I was concerned that my friends were about to do something she would disapprove of. I said I was worried for their safety, and also that they were probably disobeying the Ministry."
"That's all?" Annabeth asked, searching what little she could see of her friend's face for any signs that she was keeping something back.
Piper nodded. She flipped the undone braids behind her and and looked up, meeting Annabeth's eyes. Her face was almost emotionless, and her gaze oddly closed off.
"Yes. I didn't need to say much - not even names. She got excited as soon as I said they were planning some sort of group. Apparently she'd been told about the exact same thing earlier that evening."
Annabeth startled. She hadn't expected that.
"Really? By whom?"
Piper made another shrug. "Someone called Willy Widdershins. I didn't get much else about him."
Annabeth's mind raced. Widdershins... Willy Widdershins... The name didn't sound like anyone she knew, though there was a certain familiarity to it she couldn't place. She'd heard it recently, she just couldn't think where. Annabeth didn't think it was one of their students - no one of that name had been on the list. Maybe one of their fellow conspirators confided in a friend who hadn't come and they sold them out? But the name didn't seem to fit in the context of Hogwarts that way... Perhaps a member of staff who worked part-time at Hogwarts and didn't come into contact with the demigods as much? But then how would they have heard about the meeting?
Hazel had emerged from the bathroom and was combing out her wet ringlets, wincing as the product she'd used failed to loosen all the knots her comb kept encountering.
"Widdershins?" she said, pulling the comb through her wet mane one last time and pulling a face at the little hairs she'd pulled out. "That sounds kinda familiar..." She tapped the comb to her chin, deep in thought. "Hang on, wasn't he in the news recently? Something about being caught for selling... stuff?"
Annabeth's head snapped up. That was it!
"Regurgitating toilets!" she cried in triumph.
Hazel and Piper looked at her like she'd lost her mind.
"What?" they said together.
Annabeth grinned.
"Willy Widdershins, a wizard who sold exploding toilets to unsuspecting Muggles. He was caught last week, but only because one of his creations backfired on him with really damaging chemicals. There was a little article in the Prophet about him because he had to be checked in to the wizarding hospital - Mangoes, or something. It said he couldn't be charged yet because his ability to speak was permanently threatened by the corroded skin around his throat."
"Then how could we have not noticed a guy with a face like marbled ice cream?" Hazel asked, frowning in confusion.
Annabeth thought back, trying to recall the surroundings of the meeting. The pub had been pretty grotty by their modern standards, though she supposed if was probably still adequate for people who lived as though they were still partly in the nineteenth century. The customers had been few, but creepy. A witch in a veil, two tall black guys with weird accents, the grumpy barkeeper, and a really disturbing kind of mummy.
Hang on...
"Remember that mummy guy at the bar who kept ordering drinks by slapping the bar?" Annabeth asked, still gazing at the floor as she concentrated on recalling the events.
Piper shrugged moodily, like I dunno, do I? But Hazel nodded eagerly.
"Yes! D'you think-"
"That it was Willy Widdershins all bandaged up, trying to hide from the Ministry? Yeah, I do!"
Annabeth's heart rate had picked up. Okay, so they hadn't been told on by a fellow student, which was reassuring. On the other hand, it proved that Leo was right: no matter how moronic, the Ministry likely always had ways of knowing what was going on.
"Still," Annabeth said out loud. "That's good for us. You earned yourself a whole lot of credibility, Piper."
The girl shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
There was something distinctly off about her since she'd left for Umbridge's office the night before. Annabeth had never seen her so sullen before, she could feel something else was bothering her friend.
Annabeth waited for Hazel to finish getting dressed and leave before pressing Piper for details, in case the latter didn't want to talk to more than one person about whatever it was that got her so down in the dumps. It wasn't really fair on Hazel, who was as good a friend as could be, but sometimes things needed to come out just between two people before spreading.
Annabeth got up and sat next to Piper, not quite knowing how to approach the matter. After a few more seconds of silence and the girl still hadn't looked at Annabeth or gotten up to get dressed, Annabeth decided she'd rather try and possibly mess up rather than let her friend wallow in misery.
"Pipes, what's wrong?" she asked quietly.
Piper glanced at her, her expression indifferent, maybe too much so. She tried to smile a little, as though to shrug the question off.
"Oh, it's just this whole Umbridge thing. I really hate that woman. She keeps living kittens trapped in ceramic plates, did you know that?"
Annabeth did. She'd had to visit Umbridge's office once, to apologise for walking out of her classroom.
"But that's not the whole of it, is it?" she pressed. "You were fine with this yesterday; what's changed?"
Piper avoided her gaze, instead looking straight at the window, where the curtains were still drawn and only a slither of light managed to shine faintly through the gap. In the darkened room, still heavy with the fragrances of shampoo, sleep and rumpled bedding, that little beam of light was the only bright thing around. It seemed Piper did not have any other bright things to focus on at that moment.
"Nothing, really. Nothing we haven't already anticipated." she answered, at last.
Annabeth's concern grew even more.
"What did she do?" she asked, not meaning to sound so sharp, but the daughter of Aphrodite's utter apathy was more worrying to her than hysterics.
Piper, once again, did not answer for a few moments. Then she looked down at her knees and took a deep breath.
"She said... I was clearly very responsible to come and talk to her like that, and that she trusted she could count on me for any future developments."
Annabeth frowned. She didn't understand what was so demoralising about that.
"But that's what we wanted, isn't it? It's what we planned."
Piper snorted bitterly.
"Yeah," she said, a little hoarsely. "Except we didn't count on the fact that she'd be using blackmail to do it."
"What are you talking about?"
"The reason I didn't have to say any names," Piper answered, gulping a little, "is because Widdershins already did. She knows precisely who led it, and was able to guess many of the rest through Widdershins' descriptions."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "All of us? Just from having observed us for half an hour?"
"Widdershins is a con-artist." Piper reminded her quietly. "Part of the reason why the Ministry's so bent on reigning him in is that he has really good skills for it: forgery, useful contacts - the lot. And," she said, her tone bitter, "and eidetic memory."
But Annabeth was still confused.
"But we knew something like this would happen, Pipes." Annabeth said again, squeezing her arm. "And Umbridge hasn't done anything against anyone specific yet." She told her friend about the Decree notice downstairs, and explained how it entailed the complete banishment of groups, teams and societies.
Piper didn't look surprised or relieved in the slightest. Annabeth was getting worried. What on earth was wrong? And what did she mean by blackmail?
"It doesn't matter that she hasn't punished you specifically." Piper explained. "Because no matter what's on paper, things are different in practice. She knows that Harry and his gang were involved, and that you guys were involved, and that - some way or another - I was involved."
Annabeth was stunned. She didn't have time gather her thoughts before Piper spoke again.
"We were wrong to underestimate her, Annabeth. The woman might horrible and ridiculous and blind to many things, but she's not stupid." Piper chuckled mirthlessly. "Should've known. She works for the Ministry, for gods' sake. She probably knows a mole when she sees one."
Annabeth took a deep breath.
"Piper," she said, with as much calm as she could, "What, exactly, did she say?"
Piper was chewing her lip, still refusing to look at the other girl.
"She said that she understood why I came to her - that it must be very scary to have all sorts of new rules around," her voice dripped with scorn, "and that I did the right thing to come to her. But she also said that no matter how many times I did the right thing - in other words that I wussed out -" she spat, "I would always be vulnerable to suspicion because I'm so close to you guys. So even if I did tell on my friends, I would be still be involved by virtue of guilt by association. At least, she implied it - with a smile and a pat on the hand - but it was clear that's what she would tell the Minister if things went wrong."
She paused.
"So, it was all that, unless..." Piper gulped, then her mouth stretched once more into the humourless smile that looked so wrong on her pretty face, "Unless I tell her exactly what Harry and you lot are doing all day, every day. She expects a twice-weekly report."
Annabeth stopped short. Her mind seemed to have gone blank. There was nothing on the tip of her tongue that was ready to say, like there always was.
But that wasn't because of Piper's revelation to her. It was because Annabeth simply could not understand what was so terrible about it.
"But... Piper." she said, squeezing her arm around Piper's hunched shoulders. "That's what we planned. Don't you see? The results are perfect; it's exactly what Leo-"
"Urgh! Don't you get it?" Piper snapped, her eyes finally meeting Annabeth's and flashing with pain and anger. "I don't care what we planned, Annabeth. Right now, all I'm feeling is that I told on my friends - some of whom are people I barely know, people who have no idea we planned all this - and went over to the dark side and practically offered my services! Now, I have to spy on the people I love for people I despise, all for the sake of a stupid mission. I have to constantly voyage between us and Umbridge, knowing that at any moment I could slip up and give the game away! Knowing that, if I do, she'll drag us all down together."
Piper heaved deep breaths.
"She's not turning me into a double-agent, Annabeth. She's turning me into a Slytherin. A slimy, immoral, sneaky and disloyal person with no thoughts of consequences other than to herself. The kind of Slytherin that everyone assumes all Slytherins are!"
Her eyes were now full of tears.
"She's turning me into the very thing I've been fighting against since I got landed in that stupid house!"
Her friend shuddered and gasped, trying to gulp back tears and wiping them away when she failed. All Annabeth could do was hold her and rub her back as days' and weeks' worth of pain and guilt choked itself out of Piper's system. It shouldn't be me doing this, she thought miserably. I'm no good at this sort of thing. Jason is the one she needs. He loves her more than anything - he'd have the right words, not me.
When a couple of minutes had passed, and Piper's crying had calmed somewhat, Annabeth found her cheek had come to rest on her friend's head. She stroked Piper's hair back gently, finding the gesture new and a little awkward, but the impulse was natural and not at all patronising as she once thought it would be. She'd never had a real sister - except perhaps for Thalia - but if she had, Annabeth had a feeling this was how she'd comfort her in moments of complete breakdown. She even remembered how Thalia herself had once stroked her hair when she was much younger after a particularly bad monster attack. The soothing rhythm had reminded her of her father, and though bittersweet in the moment, was probably the most comforting thing the huntress could have done short of being her father himself.
"You know what I think?" she said finally. "I think the very fact you're crying now shows that you're not turning into that person. I know you, Piper McLean, and you are about as far from being that as we are from the sun. Your intentions are always good."
Piper choked a bitter laugh through her tears.
"Last I checked, it wasn't the road to heaven that was paved with good intentions." She shuddered slightly, and continued. "Besides, it's what other people will see! They'll see me and think that I'm no different to all the stereotypes after all. I've been through stuff like that before, and I don't think I can stand it another time, Annabeth - not now, not again."
"Screw other people!" Annabeth whispered fiercely. "And besides, they won't. We'll keep it a secret from everyone, and if Umbridge is smart like you said, then so will she. She has no hold on you, Piper."
Annabeth turned Piper's face towards her own. Tears streaked her cheeks, and her eyes were so full of pain and self-loathing that Annabeth felt the very same emotions knock at the door of her own heart. But she pushed them down. Now was not the time to succumb to those. She had to be strong for her friend.
"But she does," Piper whispered. "She has you guys over me. If I do something wrong, she'll punish you along with me!"
Annabeth shook her head, smiling a little.
"And do what?" she asked, perfectly serious. "Put us in detention? Expel us? Arrest us? Haven't you seen the papers recently? The Ministry's acting like education is their sole purpose in life. D'you really think they'd expel or arrest a dozen students at once, including the Boy Who Lived? Harry may be a crackpot in the eyes of the wizarding world at the moment, but Dumbledore would cut open his veins to make sure that boy wasn't taken out of here. And as for us... Pipes, we're foreign exchange students, and that places us under the jurisdiction of our own Ministry back home. Here, they weren't even able to see that we're not real wizarding citizens; d'you think they'd be able to send us home on the grounds that we broke a few school rules?"
Piper just gulped silently. Annabeth hugged her again.
"We're students, Piper. That status will protect us until we leave Hogwarts, or at the very least until we turn seventeen. Umbridge might be pulling out all her weapon assortments now, but that's only because she knows her grip on the school is nowhere as she secure as she'd like to think it is. We're safe. You're safe." Her eyes glittered. "And if that woman thinks she can scare us with her decrees and her detentions and her threats, then we'll simply have to scare her back. I doubt she has swords or bows and arrows, or a fire-breathing metal dragon."
She pulled back, smiling faintly again.
"And really, I'm hurt. Are we such bad friends that you think we'll leave you to deal with this by yourself? We've all been forced to walk alone before," she said, knowing full well how that loneliness could crush the soul, "and now that we're all working together to get this mission done, there is nothing to keep us from bumping in and giving a hand, you hear me?"
Piper gave her a tentative, watery smile.
"I guess," she said thickly. "It's just scary, y'know? Usually when we're on a quest you're scared for yourself, of physical harm, and not being able to make it. But this... knowing your friends are in danger if you slip up - that's kinda new, and a hell of a lot scarier."
"Yeah, I know." Annabeth agreed, perfectly sincere. She squeezed her friend one last time and removed her arm. In doing so, the face of her watch caught the morning light, causing its wearer to suddenly yelp.
"You know what else is scary? Being late for McGonagall. We have fifteen minutes until start of class!"
They scrambled off off Piper's bed, frantically pulling clothes on and searching for relevant textbooks. There was no time to brush or style their hair, so they pinned it up using their wands, and two minutes later they were rushing out off their Common Room (fittingly slamming the door so hard that the Decree fluttered off with the force of it) only to see a relieved Percy walking up the corridor, hands in his pockets.
"I was just going to get you!" he called out, jogging up to meet them. "Overslept, huh? We've still got time to get to McGonagall's class, but..." he lowered his voice, "have you seen the new Decree?"
"Yep!" Annabeth said breezily, winking at him and grabbing his arm, turning him around so that he missed the sight of Piper hurriedly wiping the last of her tears away - there was no point in advertising the fact that she'd broken down to the world's least discreet male adolescent. "Shame. Terrible business, and all that."
Percy goggled at her.
"Shame? That's it? You do realise Umbridge is including the Quidditch teams and the school houses in that stupid decree?"
Piper snickered, and Annabeth laughed out loud.
"Guess that means we're all expelled."
Oh, she loved loopholes.
A/N:
Hello!
Urgh. Angst. One of the fair few genres I do not like writing. (So please excuse any cliché/inadequate writing quirks in this scene.)
Okay, new chapter done, guys.
Also, new strategy: I usually prefer longer chapters, but that kind of habit makes my writing schedule sporadic and unpredictable, it takes ages for me to edit it all, and it means you guys have to wait aeons for updates that aren't always worth it.
So. Shorter, more frequent chapters sound good to you?
Thanks for all the support you've given. Your reviews are like a warm wind streaming in my face and making my hair worthy of Pocahontas :-) This fic is - on some days - the only thing I can think about, so thank you all for bearing with me.
PS: I promise I'll update more often from now on.