Yesterday, August 31st of the year 2016, I finally finished Fourth Year! There are 25 chapters total, and starting today I'll be posting one chapter every Thursday until the 22nd of September, when the final chapter will be posted. Then, the first chapter of First Year, the third story in this wonderful Salinger Year series, will not be posted until the first of October, and I will post one chapter every Saturday until that fan fiction's completed too! Mark your calendars, people- these last four chapters and all 22 chapters of First Year are going to be a wild ride! (See my profile for more details!)

Also, since it's September first- happy return back to Hogwarts! Who will I see there? Shall we meet up on the Hogwarts Express?

It had been nearly a month since Brooklyn, Lanie, Millie, Shawnee, and Helen sent the letter to the Ministry (using the curiously untouched Peltie, of course). I had helped Lanie letter the plea for aid, and it had gone something like this:

To Whomever This May Concern:

Our names are Rossalene Chung, Shawnee Haven, Lanie Kelling, Helen MacDougal, Alyssa Salinger, Millie Thresher, Lynne Turnip, and Brooklyn Vawdrey. We are students at Hogwarts in our fourth year.

Damien Kayash has taken over the school as a dictator since the start of term. He has also created a large barrier that kills anyone who touches it to keep students in and everyone else out. He has also assembled an army of evil students to hurt, maim, harass and even (recently) kill the rest of the Hogwarts population, whom they call the 'rebels'. This army includes, but is not limited to, students such as Katy Beaurepaire, Maile Quentin, Finley Denton, Lachlan Hargreve, and Sami Wright. We have included a full list of these students in our letter.

Alyssa Salinger has also been drafted into this army- as the leader of his student population, in fact. However, Alyssa has been repulsed by the cruelty of the group since day one and has been working as a spy against Professor Kayash for the entirety of this past year. It is thanks to her that we are able to send his letter, as she, Lanie Kelling, and Shawnee Haven have been spying on Professor Kayash for weeks during his weekly trips to the border to collect supplies from a man named Julian in Hogsmeade. Lanie and Shawnee have recently been trapped inside the school, unable to exit, but Alyssa went on her own this past Sunday and figured out the counter-curse, which we have used to sneak this owl out to you.

Currently, Professor Kayash has a death count of twelve students- in order of death, they are Arthur Wood, Margaret Lacy, Lindsey Frowseloure, Carter Ryall, Sophie Jordan, Vincent Winters, Lisa Ryall, Ash Fleetwood, Liana Joulon, Camellia Keene, Alexei Alby, and Zachary Henson. Because we do not want any more deaths, Lynne Turnip- who is a citizen of France and attended Beauxbatons for her first year of Wizarding schooling- has offered to use her connections to France and Beauxbatons to evacuate everyone fourteen or younger. We believe that fourth-years and up should be allowed to stay in case of a battle since we are beginning more advanced coursework in preparation for our O.W.L.s and we have led parts if not most of the revolution against Professor Kayash. (And yes, we were indeed learning actual coursework until the fourth of March.)

The counter-curse that makes a small part of the barrier disappear is Terbolescus Sanencio. We are urgently awaiting your assistance, as we are possibly going to soon run out of food.

Other than the twelve listed dead, everyone who does not follow Damien is safe. We are hiding in a secret room on the seventh floor of Hogwarts. Please help us. We are in urgent need of a rescue, and Damien Kayash deserves to be put on trial and sent to Azkaban.

Sincerely,

Rossalene Chung, fourth-year Hufflepuff

Shawnee Haven, fourth-year Ravenclaw

Lanie Kelling, fourth-year Ravenclaw

Helen MacDougal, fourth-year Ravenclaw

Alyssa Salinger, fourth-year Ravenclaw

Millie Thresher, fourth-year Ravenclaw

Lynne Turnip, fourth-year Ravenclaw

Brooklyn Vawdrey, fourth-year Slytherin

I had been adamant that we add our Houses on at the end of the letter. The Ministry needed to know that not only Ravenclaws were helping, and Rowena forbid they assumed that all Slytherins were evil.

I had also been sure that the Ministry would instantly respond, would save us all within the week. But April arrived and the first week came and went, with Johnny, Eli and Matt moping around that they didn't have any materials for pranks on the first day of April, and there was no sign of the government.

Bekka was definitely rationing food by the last week of March, too. Less food appeared on the tables during meals, and everyone in the Room of Requirement grew thin and wan. People who had already been slender, like Lanie or Brooklyn or Jessie, became bony and weak. I tried to sneak them extra food, but I was only one person, and it was difficult, and there was only so much served at meals! Still, I felt terrible when I visited them on Monday, April 11th, bringing my paltry stash of muffins from breakfast and rolls from dinner, and was greeted enthusiastically at the door by Nick. I could see the Gryffindor boy's ribs through his loose white shirt. No one else was any better. Kevin Grimm, the final of the five Ravenclaw fourth-year boys, had his left arm swell up. Kira, who had always been so happy and sweet, became irritable and grumpy. Even Zola Greene, Will's young first-year Slytherin sister, began to shiver chronically. (Oscar informed me without my asking that extreme sensitivity to low temperatures, cantankerousness, and swelling from fluid under the skin were all symptoms of starvation.) Will was trying to tend to Zola, Eric to Kevin, and Rossalene to Kira, but nothing was working. As I fell asleep that night, the newly full moon shining bright through my arched window, I vowed that I would bring Zola if not the others some special treat upon the morrow, even if I had to go down to the kitchens and beg Bekka on my knees for it.

The next day was a Tuesday, but I woke up from horrific, bloody nightmares to the announcement that classes had been canceled. Liv and Jida were ecstatic- "Free day, free day!", they chanted- until Peggy reminded them that we would probably end up searching all day for the rebels instead.

But, shockingly, no! Damien announced at breakfast that we were being given the day off. Smiling widely, he declared, "You have all been working so hard lately. I think you need a break. Classes for today are being canceled, so please, enjoy yourselves. Oh, and one more thing." His eyes roamed over the Damien-follower table, which had been turned around so that we all ate facing the teachers now. "I have a special surprise planned for dinner tonight, so please arrive on time."

It was the first time I had heard him say please twice in the same minute for a long time.

I walked out with Katy, Maile, and Sami, the last of which elbowed me in the side. "And those rebels think Commander Damien's not a good leader! Did we ever get random days off during McGonagall?"

I forced myself to laugh along with the brutal Gryffindor girl. I still couldn't look Katy full in the eye after the Amadeus incident, and I knew Sami could be just as cruel if I gave her a reason to be. "Right? Honestly, they should have taken the chance when we offered it. Now, when we find them, they will have chosen to die for their foolish beliefs."

It sounded like I was reading from a script, but Maile didn't seem to think so. "Couldn't have said it better myself," she chirped, braiding three locks of her blond hair together and wrapping it into a small braided flower without even looking in a mirror. Really, had I not known that soon she would be headed off to Azkaban, I would've sincerely believed that Maile Quentin had a future career in fashion.

Katy grinned at me. I avoided her sharp green stare. "Glad to see you toughening up, Aly! I know you're nice and all, but a leader needs to be strong and show no mercy."

What terrified me most at that moment was not that she had said that, but that I knew she actually believed it. I tried to shrug it off and change the subject. "Thanks, Katy. I'm going to head over to the library. I heard there's a limited-edition copy of House-Elves and Self-Hatred there, and I've never seen it. I'd like to read it today if I could, since we have a free day."

Sami laughed. "You're so bookish, Aly." She said it like it was a bad thing.

"She's a Ravenclaw," Maile added with a graceful shrug of her plump shoulders and a wry smile.

Katy smirked. "I'll come with you, if you don't mind, Aly. I've been wanting to reread The Moons of Jupiter for a while, and I forgot my copy at home before I came to Hogwarts this year."

"Oh." I hadn't, of course, planned at all to go to the library. But according to Helen, there was a limited-edition copy of House-Elves and Self-Hatred with an epilogue explaining why the author believed house-elf psychology was due to the cruelty of their masters (according to legend, only 200 books were printed with the epilogue before it was removed in an effort to make the books more Dark) there, and I did want to read it… "Sounds good to me."

Despite not being my original plan for the day, I enjoyed visiting the library. High shelves crammed with dusty, disused, and detailed books filled the space; light peppered with dust particles streaming in through giant arched windows. It was cold outside for an April day, but still as sunny as if it was the middle of summer. The ceiling of the library rose high into the sky, approached only by catwalks on various levels used to access higher books. On the floor, a reddish-brown carpet was mostly hidden by tables, chairs, and miscellaneous books (the Damien-followers never seemed to clean up after themselves). I had heard a rumor once that the floor in the library used to be red, but so much had been spilled on it that it had turned the ugly burgundy color, and Madam Pince had subsequently banned all food and drink from the library. No matter the disgusting color of its floor, the library was wholeheartedly my favorite place in the entirety of Hogwarts. I could run through it pursued by screaming enemies, a whole clan of acromantulas, and maybe even a troll or two, and I would still appreciate the room's grandeur and class. Plus, as I quickly discovered, the nearly-unread epilogue in House-Elves and Self-Hatred was worth the trip, reflecting my liberal views on the many freedoms house-elves deserved exactly. I even checked it out of the library, with a zombielike Madam Pince's permission, and stuck it in my bag to show Lanie later.

After lunch, Katy and Maile- without first-years to terrorize- decided to raid the Slytherin rebels' dormitories and take what nice things they had. They invited Sami, Eve-Charlotte, Peggy, and a few other girls along. I was included within these invitees, but I declined the offer in order to secretly visit the people in the Room of Requirement. I wasn't much of a thief, but I'd managed to slip an entire cake- an entire cake!- into my schoolbag after lagging behind in the Great Hall after lunch. The first-years mobbed the cake, and it was big enough to get each of them a (very small) piece. Zola, as it turned out, was a hater of frosting; but a tall black first year named Lilianna Bennett, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Shawnee, apparently had an affinity for it. Lilianna ate the sickly sweet vanilla buttercream off of Zola's cake, and Zola ate Lilianna's actual cake, leaving the frosting for the Ravenclaw. The two first-year girls beamed at each other as I watched, and I smiled fondly. I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up a friendship that lasted a lifetime.

Then Zola shook violently and the cake came back up in a corner, and the mood was ruined.

When I left fifteen minutes later and arrived at Ravenclaw Tower, I was shocked to find the door with the eagle knocker that led to the common room ajar. Upon further inspection, the door to the girls' dormitories was open too, but the stairs were still stairs, not a slide.

"So no boys came up the stairs," I noted in a murmur as I clambered up them.

"Oh, no, dear," the portrait of Queen Guenloie clucked in a motherly tone. "No boys, just a posse of completely unruly girls! I believe they've ransacked the first-years', second-years' and third-years' dormitories already, and they're in yours now. Best stop them before they cause any more damage!"

I thanked the portrait of the queen and continued climbing the steps. Guenloie had been a Muggle-born Ravenclaw witch in one of the first graduating classes of Hogwarts. After graduating, she had used magic to invent some wonderful Muggle technologies that hadn't been recognized as existing until centuries later. Subsequently, the queen's portrait had been hung in the girls' staircase of Ravenclaw Tower as the first portrait of a high-achieving female Ravenclaw, and three and a half years ago she had been the first one to greet me and my fellow first-years during our first night at Hogwarts.

The 'posse of completely unruly girls' was indeed raiding my room. Sami, Katy, Maile, Peggy, and Eve-Charlotte had gathered up some other girls during their thieving escapades, and all ten of them were completely trashing the Ravenclaw fourth-year girls' dormitory.

In horror, I watched Millie's silver telescope crash to the ground from the hand of a fifth-year Slytherin girl and shatter.

Katy plucked Shawnee's Muggle chess set off of her shelf. "What? It doesn't move? This is useless!" She dropped it to the floor and crushed the white king beneath her foot.

I winced.

A pair of second-year Slytherin twins, one with red hair and one with blonde but otherwise looking exactly alike- grabbed up Lynne's golden replica of Earth. The yellow-haired sister tugged on one side, the auburn-haired on the other, and together they wailed, "Give it to me!" The blonde sister tacked "Caoimhe!" onto her complaint, leading me to the deduction that the redhead's name was Caoimhe. Caoimhe. Caoimhe stomped her foot and pulled harder, and her twin tripped. The globe slammed into Lynne's bedpost and made a horrid cracking sound.

I shuddered.

Then the worst of all happened. My favorite childhood toy, an ancient stuffed hippogriff that had been lovingly christened Beebee when I was two, had been journeying to Hogwarts with me every year since my very first. I didn't sleep with Beebee anymore, but he was a symbol of home, a spot of comfort in what had once been an unfamiliar place and was now turning that way again. I still loved Beebee to death, no matter how dirty and ratty he was getting. So when a Chinese fifth-year girl in Gryffindor robes picked Beebee up by one badly-kept wing and made a face at him, I lost my cool.

Barging in from the doorway, I snatched Beebee away from her. "Leave him alone!"

The girl's face morphed into an expression of surprise. I recognized her now as one of Peggy's group. "I didn't realize this was your room," she said in a flat, annoyed tone.

My eye twitched. "Don't touch my things."

Caoimhe held up Lanie's globe in complaint. "Eve-Charlotte, Keeva won't let me have the globe!"

I recognized the redhead now as the girl from Eve-Charlotte's group who was friends with Sara. Keeva must be the blonde sister. Stepping between the tall second-year Slytherins, I easily relieved them of the globe. "I'll take that. Peg-" I nodded to the oldest girl in the room- "would you all mind not looking through this room? I hear the fifth-years have some candy stashed away somewhere."

It was a hopeful lie, of course, but it worked. The three second-years- the twins and then a darker-skinned Indian girl in yellow robes- immediately forgot about material possessions and started clamoring for candy.

I could tell that Peggy couldn't resist the kids' cries, which actually endeared her to me for a moment. "Okay, okay," she allowed, melting. "Come on, guys. And after this, we'll do Gryffindor- I hear some of the third-years are super rich!"

Once everyone was gone, I set to repairing the room. The globe had cracked right across Scotland, so I repaired it quickly (luckily, I'd gotten a lot better at Mending Charms since my first year at Hogwarts). I wasn't quite sure what Shawnee's chess set was made of, but the white king had been crushed to powder beneath the sharp and heavy heel of Katy's boot, so I fixed that as well. Then I took a quick glance at the room as a whole. The posse had knocked bottles off of shelves, mussed beds, and strewn clothing everywhere in their search for nice things to steal.

The Aly from a year before would have shied away from the utterly cluttered room, and probably would've claimed it wasn't her mess to clean up too. However, now I'd been cleaning all year during the nights instead of sleeping. I searched out Polly's rainbow feather duster from her curiously untouched trunk and went to work.

I spent my last few semi-normal hours of the year (although of course I didn't know that they would be so at the time) cleaning up not only my own dormitory, but the other six Ravenclaw girls' rooms as well. Four-poster beds had been toppled and untucked, possessions deemed unworthy torn and broken, drawers emptied, clothes ripped. I found Sophie Jordan's old record player and bag of records in a makeshift shrine under one of the third-year Ravenclaw girls' beds (concealed from Liv and Jida, I was certain) and turned on some music. It was all oldies, but that was okay. The portraits in the hallway oohed and aahed and bopped to the beat as I slipped record after record onto the player and set them playing.

I dusted shelves and righted beds to Celestina Warbeck's You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me.

I mended items and organized shelves to part-vampire Lorcan d'Eath's Necks to You.

I made beds and repaired ripped robes to This Is the Night by the Weird Sisters.

Finally, just as the last strains of Myron Wagtail's golden voice crooning Magic Works faded- calling up memories of the first-day-back-at-school party, when Sophie and Carter and Zach had been happy and dancing and alive- I realized that dinnertime had already arrived. I was fifteen minutes late, exactly what I'd been asked not to be.

Covered in dust and exhausted from mending so much stuff, hair still pulled back into a sloppy ponytail, I stuck my skinny wand in the pocket of my black school robes and took off for the Great Hall.

I was halfway there when an arm reached out from an alcove and snagged my robes, pulling me into the crevice as I shrieked in surprise and horror.

Seven minutes later, I burst through the doors of the Great Hall, an apology and an excuse on my lips already. Hundreds of pairs of eyes turned to me, full of mixed delight, terror, and relief.

Yes, hundreds.

There was a scream. I instantly located the source- Brooklyn, being held by Headmaster Damien with his wand to her throat.

The scream was my name.

"Aly!" Brooklyn screeched. "Ruuuuuun!"

I turned to flee, seeing scared students clustered along the walls and suspecting that every rebel from the Room of Requirement was there being held captive by Damien's army, but suddenly three seventh-years appeared from behind me, blocking my path out of the Great Hall as the doors slowly closed. The middle seventh-year, shortest of the three but also the burliest, cracked his knuckles menacingly while the other two stared me down with looks that made me respectively think that I had murdered their pet and that I was about to die.

Oh, Rowena, no.

"Alyssa," Damien called from behind me. "Face me like the coward you are."

I turned on my heel, slowly. "Yes, Commander."

"All this time." His tone was disappointed, melancholy even, but although his ice-blue eyes glistened, the tears were not of sadness but of fury. "All this time I believed you were on my side. I treated you like my own child!" (I snorted in disbelief at that.) "I believed you were simply weak and could not tolerate pain in others- a trait I could have easily driven out of your soul, given time." He cleared his throat, and then completely out of the blue yelled at the top of his lungs: "But all this time you have been plotting against me! You have sided with the very rebels who planned to destroy me, helped them, led them even! Beneath my very nose you have worked against me. The Ryall vial disappearing so early into my collection after our meeting- only two dying at the barrier during your foolish first uprising against me- the list of students who loyally followed me, missing your name- the bodies of misbehaving students that I had planned to use as Inferi guards at the start of next term, gone- it was all you, a spy the entire time! You have committed the worst crime of all- betraying a superior!"

"You killed people!" I screamed at him.

The Hall was silent as he processed my words. I took the time to take a step forward and glance around. Sure enough, just as I'd suspected, Nick, Lanie, Zola, Aleyn, Art, Raj- every student who had been hiding in the Room of Requirement for the past five weeks was here, grouped against the walls or huddling in small knots. They were patrolled by Katy, Liv, Caoimhe, Finley, and the rest of the Damien-followers. I spotted a strangely hardened and stone-faced Aviva Lamothe jabbing her wand threateningly at a posse of especially tiny Ravenclaw first-years, her own peers. A taller one with white-blonde waves for hair- Ivory, Ivory Alberts from the Sorting, I realized with a start- tried to stand up for her friends, but Aviva Stunned her in a flash of vermilion light.

Instantly, I wanted to rush to help Ivory, doubly so since she was a Ravenclaw, one of my own House.

Stay calm, I reminded myself. Stay calm for a few more minutes and then all will be fine.

"I did indeed kill people," Damien allowed with a nod. He squeezed Brooklyn tighter, and my friend's face- framed by long dark hair that I feared would act as an impromptu shroud soon- blanched. "But I did that for a good reason. I killed those who betrayed me. Just as you now have." Slowly, surely, he dug the tip of his sharp blackthorn wand into my cousin's shadowed olive neck. "But I do not think that simply killing you alone could be nearly enough punishment for the crimes you have committed against me."

One fat, scarlet drop of blood welled up on Brooklyn's thin neck.

"I will instead kill all of your friends before I kill you."

A tear splashed down Brooklyn's tanned cheek, and my heart wrenched for my best friend. She was practically my sister- I loved her more than anything- I couldn't lose her!

Damien grinned a sharp, malevolent, and purely evil smile at me. Then he hissed out one final sentence to make me break, emphasizing each word.

"And I will make you watch."

As he raised his wand to strike down my beloved cousin, I leapt forward in tears.

"Damien, no!"

The dictator froze. He turned narrowed blue eyes on me.

"Damien?" Damien repeated.

I stood tall, hoping my insolence wouldn't get any of my friends killed. "Yes." I leveled my gaze at the tyrannical man who called himself a king but was just a human, a wizard like the rest of us, attempting to make my stare as steely as his. "Damien. Because you don't even deserve the title of Headmaster."

Before he could react, I raised my face to the ceiling- the signal hadn't come yet, but I couldn't wait for the damned government to 'get into position'- and screamed.

"Chaaaaaarge!"

There was an instant uproar. Brooklyn ducked, twisting out of Damien's grip as she did so and rotating his arm in a way it really shouldn't have rotated in the same instant. Damien howled in pain as Brooklyn sprinted away from him, into the turmoil, but another shriek was piercing the air too. As rebels rose up against Damien- followers tackling them, disarming them, and even duelling a few- Annie Henson charged the tyrant straight-on, wand outstretched, yelling.

"For Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-"

She was struck down as she ran by a flash of green. Damien's right arm hung limply at his side, the elbow bent backwards in a grotesque and bruising angle. His wand was in his left hand- not his wand hand- but he had still managed to murder Annie Henson.

Her body spilled limply onto the steps below his feet, her head cracking on the marble stairs and ensuring she was dead in case she had pulled a Harry Potter on us all and survived the Killing Curse. Four screams full of pain, and heartbreak, and of course Annie's name silenced the rest of the battle.

The first scream was Nellie's.

The second, Raj's.

Sunny's the third.

I didn't realize that the fourth was coming from me until I shut my mouth and the last shriek abruptly cut off.

Zach. I couldn't protect Zach.

And now I couldn't save his little sister either.

Headmaster Damien cackled a mad, insane laugh. "Alyssa," he managed to giggle. "You really thought you could beat me? With a group of untrained, stupid students? It matters not that you outnumber us. My team knows curses yours could only hope to know! We have Dark wizardry on our side!"

The window above him shattered. A tawny Northern Saw-Whet Owl- Peltie- fluttered through the broken glass and swooped down to perch happily on my shoulder. I scratched my owl under the chin and she hooted loudly, then affectionately nipped the lobe of my ear.

"Oh, yeah?" I folded my arms and, channeling Nick's arrogance, gave him a cocksure smile. "Well, we have the Ministry."

The doors burst open behind me, the seventh-years who had been guarding it running aside to avoid being crushed. Every other door in the Hall slammed open as well. There in the doorways stood Aurors big and small, along with Professors Longbottom, Gedding, Fourier, Descoteaux, Brocklehurst, Turner, Zeller, Ross-Campbell, O'Cain, Maduthy, Quirke, and Binns (well, he didn't stand so much as floated), and Sir Sutherland, and Madams Pomfrey and Pince, plus a legion of one hundred and fifty house-elves. Best of all, there was Polly in the door nearest Damien, healed and on her own two feet again (just a bit wobbly and weak). But, scanning the Aurors, I saw so many faces I recognized from the history books and my mother's work as a journalist for the Daily Prophet. There were even some super-famous ones like the sixty-something-year-old Harry Potter, who was technically the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (but who cared, really), his son Albus Potter, and even the great Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt himself! As I stared in awe- I had only spoken to a female Auror with orangey-red hair in the corridor on the way to the Great Hall, when I had discovered that the Ministry had finally broken through the barrier after a month of trying and infiltrated Hogwarts and created the plan- I noticed a growling wolf with suspiciously human eyes behind Minister Shacklebolt. I shuddered for the second time that day. The Auror I'd spoken to had never mentioned a werewolf, albeit one that was quite obviously under the influence of the Wolfsbane Potion (even though, I supposed, we had only spoken for enough time for me to understand the plan and the signals and what to yell if I needed help).

I turned back to Damien and smirked proudly up at him, still channeling Nick, who I knew would be so pleased with me later. "You were saying?"

Just a quick warning: these next two chapters are going to be a little gory. If you're averse to that sort of thing, PM me so I can give you a quick, bloodless summary! But for now, you know the drill: will you please leave a constructive review for me? Thanks!

~atrfla