Hello everyone! I am back from vacation and ready to get things back on track! Hopefully you had a nice couple weeks off! Nothing new from me on this end, other than I was able to outline the story a bit more on my days off, so the direction is becoming more and more clear!
As always, love hearing from you, so make sure to leave a review on your way out! Just a quick reminder: if you have come across this story, please check out my page and read In the Name of Being Honest, as this is the sequel!
Check back in a few days for the next chapter!
Read, review, and enjoy!
There was a pregnant pause as anger reeled inside of Lavender, threatening to spill out of her mouth with every colorful phrase she could think of. She had been working in the past few months to try and control her anger, as she wasn't exactly sure where it came from. Neither of her parents had a particularly bad temper like she had. She was ready to throw her progress out of the nearest window.
"You didn't answer my question," she retorted coldly, glaring at Ginny with her arms crossed over her chest. "Did you follow me down here?"
Ginny rolled her eyes, not skipping a beat. "I've been wanting to talk to you about your relationship with my brother-" It was Lavender's turn to roll her eyes- "but then I heard you talking about Haley Brams in the common room, so I'm changing my tune. How do you know about her?"
Lavender tossed the article she had tucked into her pocket at Ginny, who caught in clumsily between the palms of her hands. "This fell out of the book I was looking at for a Transfiguration essay I have due. I didn't realize that Sirius Black had a fiancée." Lavender shrugged her shoulders. "I was just curious, is all, no big deal."
"She was a big deal to Sirius and so was their daughter."
Lavender furrowed her brow, pointing her finger roughly into the newspaper. "That didn't say anything about a daughter."
Ginny paused, her mouth opened slightly in surprise. "Well, what about the other article you were reading? Surely-"
Lavender grabbed the last article she had read, shoving it quickly into the Weasley girl's hands once again. "Nothing. No mention of a daughter at all. Are you sure he-"
"Yes, I'm sure," Ginny snapped, tossing the articles onto the closest table. It was her turn to cross her arms over her chest. "Sirius Black was a friend of mine, he told me…he told us…" She trailed off, hardening her gaze. "I could help you. You know, research."
"Research?" Lavender replied, tucking the book she had taken from the shelf under her arm. "Research what?"
Ginny toed at the floor with her sneaker, her face turning a mild shade of red. "You know...research the Black family. I've only heard the stories, hadn't really given it any thought since then. It could be fun. Learning about Sirius and all that."
Lavender couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was almost laughable it was so ridiculous. Ginny Weasley- her ex-boyfriend's sister- was offering help with a research project about Sirius Black. A laugh did manage to bubble up, escaping before Lavender could swallow it down. "I think I can figure it out for myself, thank you," she retorted, turning to leave the aisle Ginny had cornered her in.
Ginny's arms crossed tighter around her chest, her glare deepening despite the blush in her cheeks. "If you must know, I'm the only one at this school who has the information on Sirius Black that you need to even think about getting started. If you want to find out more, you're going to have to go through me." She stomped off, leaving Lavender behind to sneer at her back.
It took her some time to make her way back to the common room, her thoughts muddled with the conversation she just had. Why would Ginny offer to help? She knew the redhead didn't have fond thoughts of her. What could possibly have been in it for her?
She continued to weave her way through the hallways, mindlessly wandering the castle with the book clasped lightly in her hand, dangling carelessly at her side. Her thoughts were clogged with Sirius Black and this Haley Brams girl. Why did Lavender care about them anyways? Why was she having such a hard time letting it go?
"OY! WHAT ARE YOU DOIN?!"
Lavender jumped, spinning around to face where the voice had come from. Getting ready to blurt out an excuse for walking the halls so late, she realized she had wandered into the courtyard. And the voice hadn't been speaking to her.
"Just laying out the entertainment for the evening," a familiar voice with an Irish tongue chuckled back, clearing taunting. "Don't you want us to have a little fun?"
She creeped forward, hiding behind a pillar at the edge of the courtyard. She peeked around the stone cylinder, silently praying Seamus didn't continue to egg the death eater professors on. It didn't work. In a flash, Seamus waved his wand, hitting one of the Weasley Wizard Wheeze's fireworks collections that he had bound together and placed near middle of the courtyard.
It exploded with a deafening boom, rocketing upward into the night sky before blasting open so brightly that Lavender needed to squint as she watched it. The Carrow siblings gaped at the fireworks, clearly taken aback that Seamus had detonated it right in front of them. The split second they had taken their eyes off of her best friend was the very moment Seamus was looking for.
He scuttled across the courtyard, whooping loudly as he disappeared into the hallways parallel to where she was standing. He hadn't even noticed Lavender, who was still very much hidden in the shadows of the pillars. More interested in the reaction to the Carrows, she took a few more steps back so the fireworks from up above (one which now was spelling out incredibly inappropriate words mid-air) wouldn't illuminate her figure and give her away.
The two professors were cursing to each other, staring around the courtyard where the stone floor was both scattered and scorched. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. Lavender, knowing Seamus had his ability to make just about anything explode, would not have been surprised if it was an actual bomb. The Carrows, however, didn't even bother to try to repair the courtyard, but merely sped off in the direction Seamus had took off in.
Considering the gleeful whooping had faded off into the depths of the castle, Lavender figured Seamus was halfway to the common room by now. Knowing she needed to find an alternative route in order to keep away from the Carrows, she crept back into the darkness, fully intending on taking the shortcut behind the tapestry on the third floor, one that she knew the Carrows wouldn't even be able to fit into.
…..
"We'll have the first meeting in a week or so," Neville was hissing to Michael Corner as they exited the Great Hall the next morning, Lavender not far behind as she headed to Transfiguration. "Keep the coin from the DA on your person, I'll update it once I have the final count."
Michael nodded, a determined gaze planted on his face.
Neville had been quite successful recruiting past DA members, something that pleasantly surprised Lavender. Terry Boot and Luna Lovegood had recently agreed to take up orders, as had Padma Patil and Susan Bones. Besides the original DA members who had recently graduated, that meant the vast majority of members had agreed to reform.
Lavender tried to swallow back the sense of pride she had in her fellow students, as she knew the work was going to be increasingly more dangerous as time went on, she couldn't help but feel the adrenaline pump through her veins as she thought about it. Underage witches and wizards secretly combining forces to defeat You-Know-Who.
For some reason, she very much liked the sounds of it.
Neville split off from the group, heading toward the front door for Herbology while Lavender climbed the stairs in the direction of Transfiguration. She had left Seamus behind, who was stuck at the Gryffindor table retelling his tale of how he barely escaped the Carrows grasp in the dead of night, being chased through the castle as they ran right on his cloak-tails.
Lavender rolled her eyes, calling out Seamus on his bold stories, and laughing as his face fell once he realized she was, in fact, telling the truth that she was hiding amongst the pillars of the courtyard. That didn't stop him from throwing himself at the opportunity to re-tell the story the way he "remembered" it as he caught the attention of the first and second years.
She managed to make it all the way to the classroom before Seamus jogged in behind her, sending her a wink that sent her heart into her throat. She settled into her seat at the front of the classroom, taking out a roll of parchment and a quill to ready herself for the NEWT lesson ahead of them.
Professor McGonagall snapped her wand toward the door, effectively shutting it with a bang. Her face looked grimmer than usual, her lips set into a thin line that she usually only set aside when Neville had still been taking her classes.
"Please take out your books and turn to page one hundred-"
She hadn't even managed to finish her sentence when the door to her classroom swung open, hitting the stone wall behind it with another loud bang. Ernie MacMillian nearly fell out of his seat in fright, everyone else whipping around to see who had made the dramatic entrance.
Lavender's stomach dropped as she spotted Alecto Carrow standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips and her mouth set in a line tighter than Professor McGonagall's.
"STUPEFY!" she called out, whipping her wand toward Seamus. She luckily missed, imbedding the curse into the corner of his desk, where wood splinters flew like shrapnel across the room.
"PROFESSOR," McGonagall shouted, her hand flying up to her chest as she took out her own wand and pointed it toward the death eater, "what on earth-"
"We saw him last night! Sneakin' about, blowin' up the courtyard." She paused to send another curse at Seamus, which was easily blocked by the Transfiguration professor, giving Seamus time to pull out his wand and fly out of his seat, ready to defend himself.
"We NEVER use curses as a punishment in this castle," she cried out, taking a few steps toward Alecto, "we NEVER-"
"You NEVER DID when Dumbledore was 'ere," she retorted with a nasty grin on her face, "times change. Punishments change. Boy needs to learn his place in this school. Needs to learn how the Dark Lord wills us to handle things now."
Seamus readied himself, blocking the third curse Alecto had tossed his way. His own smirk grew with Alecto's frustration. "DETENTION," she finally shouted, her fourth and final curse being deflected once again. "TONIGHT. In my office, boy."
The door slammed shut behind her as she left, leaving the classroom on edge as everyone turned to Seamus, whose face fell sourly as he turned to face Professor McGonagall.
"I will escort you myself to detention, Mr. Finnigan," she finally said with a sigh as she dropped herself into the seat behind her desk. Lavender had never seen the professor appear so defeated. "But I implore each and every one of you to not even put a toe out of line. The Carrows will not hesitate to use forceful measures if necessary. They have the backing of the Ministry, the backing of You-Know-Who-"
Lavender allowed the professor's speech to fade out as she turned her eye over to Seamus, who had toughened his face into a determined grimace. It was clear, she feared more than anything, that the encounter with the female Carrow had only seeded the DA further into Seamus's thoughts. She knew, this time around, that Dumbledore's Army was going to be in real danger if they were caught.