Remember what I said about finishing this story on May 9?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

That's not happening. I've got too much work, and with exams coming up...

But I'm trying to get this story done! I really am~ I have it all planned out. Don't worry!

In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy this chapter...

"Zis is your homework!" announced Professor Descoteaux with a flourish of his fir wand. His scratchy script began to write itself on the board. I squinted- sometimes sitting in the back of the room had its perks, but barely being able to read the board at times was not one of them. Each word appeared as he said it. "Read ze pages two hundred and zirteen to two hundred and zirty-four, which covers Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. Write six inches detailing ze five exceptions, to be turned in on Friday. You are dismissed!"

I stayed a little longer to copy down the homework on a piece of scrap parchment. Lately I had been forgetting a lot, but in my defense, I was preoccupied. It was the first of February, meaning that nearly a month had passed since the day of the indoor Quidditch game after which Headmaster Damien had called me into his office and burdened me with yet another task. His birthday was on March fourth, he'd said, so he would like me to organize a "Damien Day" to occur on that date. All classes would be cancelled, and the whole day would be one gigantic party.

"I could ask one of the captains," he'd explained, "but you know me so well, Alyssa. I don't want to know anything other than the fact that you're throwing a party for me! Just write down what you need on scrap parchment and give it to me, and I'll see that you have it."

I could have said no… but the look on Headmaster Damien's face was too much to refuse. He looked like a soon-to-be-first-year about to receive their first pet from the Magical Menagerie. Plus, I knew how much the Headmaster loved a good party- the celebrations that he had thrown in my three previous years only proved that fact- and if the fact that he wanted one meant that he was returning to the normal Damien Kayash that we all knew and adored again… what else could I do but agree?

Lanie had been the first person to know, of course, and Brooklyn the second. Between the three of us, we'd tried to dream up something that we could get Headmaster Damien to give us without him getting suspicious. Sadly, we could think of nothing, so they gave up and left me to plan a party on my own. Instead, I enlisted the help of my dream team- Katy, Sami, Maile, Eve-Charlotte, and Peggy. Together we thought up a huge celebration, complete with streamers, banners, cake and confetti. Eve-Charlotte was desperate to bring in performers, but instead I put Katy in charge of finding the most talented entertainers we had in Hogwarts already and collecting them to create amusement. Maile planned the color scheme, and she wasn't thrilled to find out that I wanted all of the decorations to be orange. "It's such an ugly color," she had whined, but eventually she had given in. For the upcoming Saturday, she and I had planned a huge banner-making festival in the Great Hall. I even had plans to keep Commander Damien busy. Peggy had been wanting to create a school newspaper for a while now, and so since I needed the Headmaster distracted for a few hours, I'd ordered her to go interview him and just generally keep him preoccupied. Peggy could be very good at waffling when she needed to be.

I tore myself out of my thoughts of the party, which was only a month and three days away, and finished copying down my homework. Mondays were the worst day of the week.

It seemed that my dormmates agreed with me, because that afternoon there was a chorus of groans as we began to take out our homework. Lanie sat beside me on my bed and flipped to page 216 in Intermediate Transfiguration.

"Gamp's Law is sixth-year stuff," she complained. "I mean, it's easy, but we aren't supposed to learn this for another two years! Maybe even three!"

I read the law, emblazoned in bold black script on the page, and then the five exceptions listed below it.

All objects can be created by magic.

Exceptions:

Food

Money

Clothing

Body Parts

Temperature

"First exception- food," I began, already dipping my silver quill (the one Polly had gifted me for Christmas) in its pot of ink. Ideas began to run through my head as to how we could elaborate on the exception. "Maybe whoever invented magic didn't want people who grew and made food to be out of a job?"

"Silly Aly," Lynne chided from across the room where she sat on her bed, "no one invented magic."

"Anyway, even if they did, what about the people who made other things that you can create through magic?" Millie pointed out. "Did they just not care about them?"

"Maybe they were a chef, or a farmer," I suggested.

Helen groaned and covered her ears. "Ugh, this is getting way too philosophical for me! Can we just do this idiotic homework and get it over with?"

I returned to writing my essay, wiping the extra ink off of my quill. "Okay, so maybe we don't try to explain why food is an exception… can we find examples in our history textbooks of when the first exception to Gamp's Law was important?"

"How about when people starved to death?" Shawnee proposed darkly, thick eyebrows wrinkled.

"Everyone, hush!" Lanie ordered suddenly.

A quick silence fell over the room, and everyone looked at Lanie. Polly even poked her head out of where she was organizing her things with her bedcurtains half-closed.

Our friend was sitting with her eyes tightly shut, and I could practically see the gears turning in her head. Finally, she whispered something that I couldn't make out. I leaned in closer. "What was that?"

"I said," she repeated, "how is Damien feeding us all if he can't conjure up food out of nowhere?"

For the second time in as many minutes, a hush blanketed the room. This time, however, it wasn't meek, but shocked. Stunned. Lanie… what had she figured out?

"It's not like he can Apparate away and come back with food- that spell's too powerful, no one could ever break it," Lanie continued.

The moment she said Apparate, my heart sank, crestfallen. "Wait. We never checked with the house-elves." Mentally, I berated myself for totally forgetting about my revelation at the Christmas ball. I added, "Maybe they get the food, not Damien, somehow?"

"Oh…" Shawnee breathed.

"House-elf magic is stronger!" Lanie gasped in realization. "Aly, when did you figure this out?"

"Er… yesterday," I lied.

She seized my hands and a smile broke across her features, lighting up her face. "Brilliant. We'll have to go tonight, of course. Who knows how to get into the kitchens?"

"Hufflepuff's common room is near it," Lynne chimed in, coming to stand by us. "That's sadly all I know." Her cheeks were a pale pink. "I don't know where their commons are, or how to get in to the kitchens."

"It might be that none of the Hufflepuffs know how to get in either, though," Millie pointed out. "Naturally, we should ask the Slytherins. They're always sneaking around, right?"

Polly flushed deep maroon and opened her mouth- no doubt to agree with Millie, since she came from a very anti-Slytherin family- but Helen beat her to it. "No, that would be the Gryffindors," she argued. "Have you heard the amount of times Nick, Nate, and the rest of those boys brag about having snuck out of their dorms at night and explored the castle?"

Lanie assumed the leadership position (it was a nice change). "All right, we'll partner up to ask the other Houses if they know where the kitchen is and how to get in. We can tell all of our friends why we need to know, but only if necessary- we don't want this getting back to Damien somehow. Shawnee, Polly-"

Those two looked at her. Polly was still blushing.

"Take Slytherin, please."

Millie and Helen breathed twin sighs of relief. Lanie turned to them. "You two get Gryffindor. Try not to flirt so much, okay? This is life or death stuff."

Millie nodded solemnly, but Helen looked properly outraged. "We don't flirt that much!"

I fixed my cousin with a steely glare. She shut up.

Finally, Lanie pointed to Lynne. "You and I will take the Hufflepuff table. I'll ask the boys, if you want to take the girls-"

"Sounds good!" our cheerful French friend chirped, far too excited for this possible suicide operation. For a second, I was glad I wouldn't be carrying it out with them, even though that would probably leave me to be the distraction so they could do their thing. If Damien saw them switching tables, singled out the lone spots of blue at the green or red or yellow tables…

"If he spots us doing this, we're dead." Polly spoke plainly, simply, her voice significantly deeper than normal. I briefly wondered if she was a Legilimens- if she could read my thoughts. According to Mum, those people could be highly dangerous.

The brief thought of my mother, of my family, of home brought hot, stinging tears to my eyes. I blinked them away, pushing those feelings to the back of my mind as I nodded to Polly.

"I know. I guess I'll just have to distract him."

I puzzled over this for the next hour and a half. By the time dinner arrived, I had a plan- however flimsy, it was still a plan.

I watched Lanie carefully from my vantage point at my regular seat. We had a signal ready, and she would be the one to initiate it. I went over the plan time and time again as I shoveled meatless shepherd's pie- Headmaster Damien had learned of my vegetarian preferences and now made sure I had plenty of options as to what to eat, which was more than I could say for our previous Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall- into my mouth. I was so focused on this that I nearly missed the signal.

Lanie pulled a scrap of fabric out of the pocket of her robes- one of Lyndsay's headbands that she'd borrowed a while back, a yellow thing with purple spots. It was positively hideous. She fastened it around her short, bobbed hair and smiled in my direction.

That was it. They were ready to move.

I pushed my chair back and stood, abandoning my shepherd's pie to turn and walk the few steps to the high table. I cleared my throat. "Er… Commander?"

Headmaster Damien swallowed whatever he was eating (it looked like roast chicken and potatoes, from what I could see). "Can it wait, Alyssa?"

"Well, it's about March fourth," I said, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I'd like to announce in now. In short, I need to speak to everyone."

He brightened. "Of course! You have my full permission to speak." Damien leaned back and selected a seasoned potato chunk from his plate.

I coughed. "Well… without you, sir."

It took a moment as he chewed the potato chunk for my true question to dawn on him; when it did, a clear understanding settled over his features. "Ah, yes!" he agreed, dumping a few more foods on his plate and picking it up. He stood. "I'll take this back to my office, then. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!" He winked one cheerful, ice-blue eye, then grabbed his silverware and strode out.

Instantly, I heard movement from behind me. All of my fellow Damien-followers had turned to face me, their confused faces asking why I'd sent our anger-prone commander out and how I'd done it so easily. I motioned for them to gather around me, effectively making sure they were all facing away from the normal students. My dorm-mates began to move. Lanie claimed an empty spot next to Steven at the Hufflepuff table; Lynne slid onto the bench only a few feet away, between the Strait twins, Ana and Kayla. Polly and Shawnee slipped into seats across from each other, the former between Brandon and a sixth-year boy, the latter between Grace and Cher. Helen knelt on the bench between Lea and Lorie, and finally- after what looked like a momentary panic due to unavailability of seats- Millie squeezed in next to Nick. With a quiet sigh of relief, I briefed my captains as quickly as I could as to why I'd sent Damien out, and they nodded in agreement and explained to their followers in hushed whispers as I took the stage.

"People of Hogwarts!" I bellowed. "May I have your attention, please!"

Although the Hall quieted, I tried to speak loudly so my friends could whisper to whomever they needed to talk to. Lynne, it seemed, had already finished speaking with Ana and had moved on to Kayla.

"You may not know this," I continued, "but March fourth will mark the thirty-ninth birthday of our illustrious leader, Damien Kayash."

There were a few surprised murmurs, but no big reaction.

"We, his followers, your superiors, his army," I went on, casting glances at my fellow Damien-followers to check that they could not see my face before rolling my eyes at my own stupidly grandiose speech, "have decided to throw him a celebration."

Still no response.

I sighed in exasperation, then threw my arms up and shouted, "There's going to be a big party!"

Finally they understood. A cheer rose, loud enough to startle me. I saw a few people exchange worried glances, but most people genuinely looked excited.

"Entertainment is needed," I announced. "If you think that you may be able to provide some- perhaps you would like to sing or dance for our leader, or you have a funny play to put on, or something similar- please come speak to these five captains after dinner." I gestured to Katy, Ivan, Finley, Peggy, and Eve-Charlotte (all five of whom waved as I pointed to them). Katy had found a few good musicians, but not many. I figured I could knock down two birds with one stone by asking entertainers to find her while distracting Damien so my friends could talk to our fellow fourth-years.

Some people began to chatter with their neighbors. I saw Millie, who appeared to be snapping at Nick and Nathan angrily. What had they done to provoke my normally calm roommate's temper?

Quieting the Hall with a wave of my hand, I carried on speaking. "Also, this Saturday we will be hosting a decoration-making get-together here, in the Great Hall, from one in the afternoon to four in the afternoon. It is voluntary, for the time being. If we do not make enough decorations, we will hold another one, and that one will be mandatory." I gave a pleading smile. "So please come to the first one! If you would like to, leave your name, year, and House with any one of the remainder of the Commander's army." I gestured to everyone except for the five captains I'd singled out earlier. "That is all! Thank you, and enjoy your supper."

I sat down, and the rest of the Damien-followers did the same. There! Now I can ensure none of the Damien-followers can follow us, because they'll all be busy taking down names for the party. And I'm party-planning at the same time.

Perfect.

R&R?