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After dropping Lisa's vial off in the Room of Requirement- an old frenemy- I took the stairs down to the fourth floor. On the last staircase, I tripped and my leg sunk up to the ankle into the trick step, but luckily I was able to grab the banister and pull myself up. I arrived at Classroom 4A with minutes to spare, hoping that I knew none of the people who had decided that they were loyal to a tyrant.

All five captains were already there, but they were facing away from me. From what I could tell, three were girls and the other two were boys. One girl was blonde, another redheaded and a third had dark skin and poofy dark hair. As for the boys, one shared the dark skin and dark hair, but the other had cleanly cut light brown hair and tanned skin.

I cleared my throat and all five whirled around at once. To my shock, I knew three of them. The boy with dark skin and hair was Ivan Liripine, the older, Slytherin brother of Sunny Liripine of the second-year quartet. (He was in my year.) The girl with the same skin and hair was named Peggy Dalingridge, and she was a sixth-year Ravenclaw. Finally, the blonde girl was Katy Beaurepaire.

I gaped.

"Aly!" Katy said brightly, crossing the room and hugging me tightly. "You're the protégé that Commander Damien was talking about?"

"Um… y-yeah," I stammered, hugging her back. "Yeah, I- hi."

"I can't wait to tell Maile and Sami! They're both in my unit, you know."

"Both in your-" I realized that Maile was Maile Quentin, her best friend, and Sami was Sami Wright. Them, too? This job was already going to be hard enough without worrying about people who knew me better than others! "That's… cool!"

"I know." Katy grinned. "Oh, you do know Ivan, Peggy, Finley, and Eve-Charlotte, right?"

And that's how I came to know the brown-haired boy as Finley Denton, Slytherin seventh-year, and the redheaded girl as Eve-Charlotte Carew, Slytherin fifth-year. Everyone there was a red-blooded pureblood. I did my best to smile at them. "I'm Aly Salinger. It's nice to meet you."

"We've been placing dibs on what we want to teach when it's our turn to take over with ruling the school," Katy chattered excitedly. "Obviously you'll be Headmistress, and Finley wants Potions."

"Do you think I would be better as Charms teacher or Transfiguration professor?" Peggy chimed in.

"Hey, I wanted Transfiguration," Eve-Charlotte interrupted.

"I'm older," Peggy informed her. "I get the privileges."

"Well, you could go for Charms," Eve-Charlotte suggested, "and then I'd have Transfiguration. We'd be all set."

I couldn't believe my eyes and ears, couldn't look at any of the people I'd known before the same way again. A dictatorial man had taken over the school and was ruling it like his own little kingdom, never planning to let any of us leave, and these people had sworn loyalty to him and were fighting like little kids over what subject they'd get to teach? I shuddered and then shouted, "Guys!"

Immediately everyone stopped arguing and turned to look at me. I shivered again. It was creepy, how willing they were to follow Headmaster Damien- and, in turn, me. I struggled to think of something to say that would sound normal to them. "Er, we've still got a long way to go! Why don't we… focus on… um… keeping troublemakers out of trouble? And we can… er… finish our education while we're at it! Then you can decide what you want to- teach." My voice trailed off as they stared.

"That's a wonderful idea!" Katy chirped, turning to Finley. "See, Fin, this is why a fourth-year was chosen to be Commander Damien's protégé and you weren't."

They were calling him Commander now? And on top of it all, they were being cheerful about it. The whole idea made me sick.

"Er, I'm going back to the common room," I said slowly, turning to leave. "It… it was nice meeting you."

"Oh, I'll come with you," Peggy offered, looping her arm through mine. "Hey, did you know that we can also give House points and take them away now? Isn't it great?"

"Fabulous," I murmured, turning left. "So we're essentially Dolores Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad from Harry Potter's time?"

Peggy made a face. "Well, I wouldn't say that. We're so much more sophisticated. Dolores Umbridge had the right idea- you know, taking over the school to get rid of all the corruption in it-"

Corruption? I wanted to blurt out. That's what you think you're getting rid of? Here's a secret: you're aiding and abetting the corruption, and his name is Headmaster Damien Kayash!

"-but she went about it in totally the wrong way," Peggy finished with a laugh. "You isolate the school and strengthen the borders and then you take it over! Absolutely ridiculous, the way she bided her time for almost half a year. Commander Damien didn't even wait a whole day! He's so smart, isn't he?"

"Er, yeah, sure," I replied, taking a hard right. A new idea occurred to me. "Hey, Peggy? Who's on your squad of five people?"

"Sara Tabard," she remembered. "And… curses, I forget the other four's names."

Sara Tabard. I added her to my mental list of hardcore Damien followers. "Thanks. And what House is she in?"

"Second-year Slytherin, I think. Why?"

I stopped short. They're corrupting as low as second-years? By the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, this has to be fixed. And soon.

When I got back to the Ravenclaw common room, Peggy walked over to a window seat and left me to talk to my friends, who of course rushed me. Lanie, Shawnee, Millie and Helen had apparently filled Lynne in on the events of the afternoon, and the five of them rushed up to me and ushered me up into our dormitory so we could speak in private. Polly wasn't there- she was probably in the library.

I whispered everything that had happened to my schoolmates. When my tale was over, Helen looked at me for a second like she'd never seen me and then asked, "And you're really not loyal to him… right?"

"Are you kidding?" I whispered back. "Of course I'm not! He's a tyrant. He just took over Hogwarts. Look, Peggy said that he strengthened the borders of the school- probably so no one can get in or out. I think we should test that theory and then if it turns out to be true, we should try to break the spell. Then he won't be keeping us in here and we can make a break for it. If someone can get word to the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, they can put Headmaster Damien in Azkaban."

"Well," Lanie said thoughtfully, "has he really hurt anyone yet? Maybe we should wait until we're positive he has bad intentions."

"Lanie…" Shawnee said in a low and dangerous voice.

"I'm just saying," she persisted. "M-maybe this doesn't have to be solved with breaking through a spell and calling in law enforcement. Maybe we can convince him peacefully."

I thought about it for a moment. "All right. I just don't think it will work."

"Aly," Lynne said softly, speaking up for the first time, "I think you should stay with the Damien kids."

The very same idea had been running through my own head, and as I opened my mouth to agree, Millie whispered, "Why?"

"If we fail to convince Headmaster Damien out of his crazy tyrant plan," Lynne explained, "we should have someone on the inside. And based on what Aly's told us… if she made her true allegiances known and we failed, what do you think he'd do to her?"

We all collectively gulped.

"Then it's settled," Millie said in a small voice.

That night at dinner was the first time that Headmaster Damien had shown his face at a meal all day. It was relatively quiet, until three-quarters of the way through, when Headmaster Damien started to talk about the day's events.

He had only just started, saying he hoped we'd enjoyed our day, when someone from the Gryffindor table yelled, "You can't cancel Quidditch!"

I looked over, and judging by the frightened looks on the faces around Tommy Wood, I knew it was him who had shouted it. But before Headmaster Damien could react, other people from around the room started to yell too.

"It's not fair!"

"It's all we have sometimes!"

"You can't stop us!"

That last one made the entire Hall fall silent. It too had come from the Gryffindor table, but everyone looked scared now, so I couldn't figure out who had shouted it. Headmaster Damien couldn't either, judging by the look on his face, but he just smiled a wide and freakily amused smile.

"No," he said simply. "I alone could not stop you. But I have teachers to help, and also today I have formed a group of students to help me control the rabble-rousers in this school." He pulled a scroll from an inside pocket of his robes. "When I call your name, please come up to the front."

All my friends shot me wide-eyed glances. No no no no no, he can't tell the whole school! I don't want to have to fool the whole school! Something else was nagging at me too, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

"We'll start with the youngest, shall we?" Headmaster Damien announced cheerfully, unrolling the scroll. "Sara Tabard, Slytherin."

A petite girl with eerily pale skin and hair as black as night stood from the green table and walked forward proudly, her shoulders thrown back and her chin held high.

"Lachlan Hargreve, Hufflepuff."

A boy just a tad taller than Sara stood from the Hufflepuff table, ran his fingers through his short and curly blond hair, and stepped up to stand by Sara.

The list grew on and on until twenty-five kids had assembled up in the space between the dais and the House tables.

"And now for our captains!" Headmaster Damien declared, beaming proudly, like a new father. "Katy Beaurepaire, Slytherin!"

Katy stood among quiet gasps and strode to the front.

"Ivan Liripine, Slytherin."

I caught a glimpse of Sunny Liripine's deathly pale face between two Hufflepuff boys. She looked like she was about to cry. Beside her, I saw Jessie pat her on the back sympathetically.

"Eve-Charlotte Carew, Slytherin. Peggy Dalingridge, Ravenclaw."

Eve-Charlotte, her brilliant orange hair styled back into an intricate French braid, stood and followed Peggy up the aisle between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables.

"And finally, Finley Denton, Slytherin."

Finley stood and traced the same path that Eve-Charlotte and Peggy had, flashing grins at people as he went. I breathed a sigh of relief. He said 'finally'. That means he won't announce me as his protégé. Good.

"But there's one more," Headmaster Damien stated. "A girl whom I have taken on as a sort of… apprentice. Alyssa Salinger."

Lanie gulped audibly as I slowly stood and treaded down the aisle, heading for Headmaster Damien and the people under my command. Other people who Headmaster Damien had called up made way as I walked through them, feeling all eyes on me.

"She will lead my students," Headmaster Damien announced. "Think of her as a sort of… class president."

Class tyrant, more like. I felt terrible.

Headmaster Damien descended from the dais and withdrew a small bag with a drawstring from the same inside pocket of his robes he'd pulled the scroll from, placing the scroll back where it had come from. "Now, children, I know that it may be difficult to remember thirty-one people to take orders from, so I have here badges for each of them." He pulled out a big orange jewel, sparkling in the candlelight, and handed it to me. "Affix them to your cloak, right where it joins together- yes, that's it," he added as I reluctantly clipped the jewel to my cloak knot.

He handed out the rest of the jewels and soon each of us had a sparkling orange gem on our cloaks. "You may sit back down."

I led the students back to their seats, feeling the pressure of everyone's eyes on my new pin. I wanted to rip it off, but that would have been stupid and possibly life-ending, so I kept it on and kept my eyes on the floor as I slid into my seat beside Polly and Shawnee.

Oh, what am I going to do?

I hoped you guys enjoyed it. I sure didn't plan for this whole spy/double agent thing to happen, but it did and I'm going to enjoy writing this. Leave me your comments and thoughts below! Thanks!

~atrfla