Evelyn's pov
"What took you so long?" Tom asked Bella.
She sighed. "We almost had a nasty run in with the caretaker and Umbridge. Apparently they are under the impression that the Gryffindors are forming some stupid defence group called Dumbledore's army. Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger seem to be the so called leaders of t according to speculation." My eyes widened; since when were they sneaky enough to even try and organise something like this?
"Since when were they intelligent to lead such a group?" I asked curiously.
"Good question…" Bella agreed.
"Oh it's simple really; Dumbledore is probably the master mind behind it." Draco figured. "Anyway apparently they are under the impression that Heather here and Voldermort are now on the same side. While they are wrong in thinking that, Tom and Heather are." Draco spoke logically. "Oh by the way she is also looking for both or you to join her new inquisitorial squad."
"Wait what is the inquisitorial squad?" I asked curiously.
"Oh they have powers basically to make lives hell." Draco grinned.
"Sounds cool." I laughed. "If Tom and I actually get into this, although we have to report to Umbridge, we can make the lives of the prejudice gits of the school to hell."
"You're beginning to get a sadistic streak." Bella smirked.
"My girlfriend isn't gaining a sadistic streak." Tom put his arm around me. "She's just beginning to unleash her sadistic streak." He laughed.
"No; it's just beginning to become more visible." Draco grinned. "She always used to be the most creative when paying us snakes back. To be honest the spells she used could often be considered dark, only the thing is she always invented them herself so was classified as nether."
"Oh the spells I used were always grey." I smirked with a glint in my eyes.
"You actually knew about it back then?" Draco asked slightly startled. "When you joined Hogwarts it became a fact that you were muggle raised so how on earth did you find out?" He gaped.
"At primary school I was bullied because I never fitted in, had the right sort of clothes or followed the right fashion trends or the right sports. I never had favourite celebrities or anything like that or followed the gossip. Because I didn't know that sort of thing I was bullied. Here I tried to find out all I could about magic." I smirked.
"You were bullied?" Bella gaped.
"Yes." I answered darkly.
"I can't imagine you being bullied." She admitted. "Even now you aren't being bullied and are still fairly popular."
"Oh it's true; I was bullied. Anyway that's not important. So what do you know about the DA?" I changed the topic swiftly; like I wanted to relieve that area of my life.
"DA?" Draco asked confused.
Tom rolled his eyes. "Basically Gryffindors are extremely lazy. What Eva here is referring to is Dumbledore's army. She's just referring to it the way they would. Plus she was sorted into that house so she knows how they think and used to use it as an act, sometimes she slips into that whole Gryffindor patterns." Tom explained shortly.
"Oh well apparently it isn't just Gryffindor who are in it but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. No Slytherins have joined because they don't really approve of the people leading it. You see Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger are running it and you know how prejudice they are." Draco laughed. "Plus we are loyal to Voldermort…" He winced looking towards me.
"Let me just ask you this; why are you loyal?" I smirked.
"Um… He understands us, knows how much of outsiders we are. He wants the old ways to be resurrected while the light wants to squash it in favour of weakening ourselves to be closer to the muggleworld. Most of our parents are also his followers." He murmured shifting as if unsure of whether or not he was insulting me.
"Relax." I laughed. "I'm just explaining the other side as well in relation. Basically people like Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley are taught by the families that the dark lord wants to kill and slaughter all muggles and muggleborns. They are told nothing more. Their parents were also on the other side of the war."
"What are you trying to say?" Draco asked.
"There are two sides to a war." I replied simply. "How did Umbridge find out?" I asked curiously watching him.
"Ginny and Neville argued with Hermione and Ron over it." My eyes widened in shock. Had they really? They support Dumbledore whether or not they believe me that Slytherin are not all as they are portrayed to be.
"Why?" I breathed eagerly wanting to know.
"They thought it shouldn't be exclusive. Neville said it should be run by people who actually knew and had experience about fighting against the death eaters and even order members. Ginny agreed and said it should be about protection. The children of the death eaters could easily be targeted by the order." Draco looked over to Bella.
"They're as much exiles in Gryffindor as you are right now." Bella bite her lip.
"Why?" I demanded. "They did nothing that bad in Ron and Hermione's books, admittedly they challenged there honour but surely they wouldn't have made such a huge deal about it!" I gaped, fury raged through me at the idea.
"That wasn't everything that happened." She winced. "It got a lot worse…" She trailed off.
"How?" Tom's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Well the older Weasley demanded that they tell him who they think should run it, he was seriously peeved. He went on in a rant about how he had fought valiantly in the fight against Voldermort but then Ginny interrupted saying he only fought by your side Evelyn." She glanced towards me. "Weasel and Granger droned on about how they could defend such a traitor. Ginny went in a rant saying they were traitors to you Eva. She said not even Voldermort would have done that to Heather." Bella trailed off.
"It got far worse until the teachers got involved." Draco finished.
"They supported me?" I breathed in complete shock. It almost hurt to know that they had been made outsiders all because of me, a stupid girl who probably wouldn't have done the same thing. How could they have done that?
"Yes…" Bella murmured.
"Eva calm down. You don't need to blame yourself for this." Tom whispered in my ear. Speaking to both Bella and Draco this time he spoke. "Maybe we should fight fire with fire."
"What do you mean?" Bella asked.
"We can't let this grow any further." Tom said seriously. "At this rate they are going to take over the beliefs of three quarters of the school. Do you know how badly they could mess up our lives? I'm not talking about the war between Voldermort and Dumbledore but the internal war inside Hogwarts. At this rate the war outside school will escalate."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking?" Draco gasped.
"I guess it depends what you are actually thinking." I laughed softly to Tom's amusement.
"Do you think that we should create our own equivalent to this DA?" Bella asked eagerly. I guess she at least thinks this is a good idea judging by her body language. Personally I think this idea is a good one.
"Yes I am…" Tom grinned.
"What's our aim?" I asked. "If we're going to this properly I guess we need an aim, a name and I supposed a symbol. We might as well make this fairly serious we need to make it appear that way seeing as if we going to do this Slytherin are probably the best place to start."
"Good point." Tom laughed. "So any suggestions? Maybe we should start with the name seeing as it would probably be the easiest to start with."
"I think we should start with the aim then the name ad symbol would be able to fit into it easier." I murmured. If we choose something which didn't suit the aims it probably would give people like the DA the wrong idea or impression.
"Ok then what should our aims be?" Tom laughed.
"Well I suppose I would want to fight for freedom of magic no matter what type…" Bella murmured.
"With me I guess its respect and truth." Draco murmured.
"I sure as hell hate being lied to." I muttered in agreement. "I guess I would want to fight against prejudice."
"I'd want to fight for beliefs…" Tom murmured.
"So we fight for freedom, honesty, beliefs and against prejudice?" Bella summarised quickly. "I wonder why no one has ever actually publically fought for these things all at once in the wizarding world… They certainly seem like reasonable goals. It also makes sense that we would fight against the so called DA." She laughed.
"Our symbol I guess should be something unusual and not typically able to represent our ideals but then again isn't so obscure that it doesn't fit it unless you are unbelievably clever." Draco suggested smirking a little bit.
"Well what do you think could represent truth?" I asked softly. "I suppose it needs to be something which represents it but has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with lions, badgers or ravens… I didn't say snake because they are to obscure to most people. We need something prejudice houses will begin to think that maybe they are wrong."
"Brilliant Eva!" Tom beamed. "We need something that can relate to the other houses too so we can begin to destroy the DA from within."
"This is irrelevant but I love panthers." Bella murmured.
"In a way that suits us." I smiled.
"How?" All three of them asked.
"We are secretive even if we don't approve of lies. Panthers blend into the background when they want to, they can hide. That is something we have to be to end up hiding this from Umbridge. We are also willing to fight for what we believe is right. While it doesn't represent truth it represents things are not always as they seem because it can easily hide in plain view in their habitats." I smirked.
"I never really thought of panthers like that." Tom blinked.
"It might not be the perfect symbol of truth but it shows we are willing to fight. It also is related to lions through the fact they are feline it shows do not judge by family." Draco grinned.
"To be honest I doubt there would be an animal or symbol that would perfectly suit us…" Bella admitted.
"Carlian…" I muttered. A picture of a fierce panther baring its sharp teeth floated out into the air. Its eyes were dark blue, almost ebony, which represents awakening and enchantment. The eyes reminded me of the colour of Tom's eyes.
"How did you?" Draco asked his eyes showing disbelief.
"Oh I looked into magic like this after I saw Barty Crouch Junior fire the dark mark into the sky. Magic like that fascinates me." I answered honestly shrugging my shoulders not really caring ether way. This sort of magic could be beautiful even if it was strictly bordering away from grey. Although complex it was rewarding.
"Can you add fire?" Draco asked.
I arched an eyebrow. "Any particular reason?"
"Gryffindor's colour is red." He shrugged.
I nodded, brilliant reasoning. If it involves all of the house colours it might make it more poignant to Gryffindors and the other houses. "Carmaya." I chanted with a flick of my want the image changed. Surrounded by fire was the ebony panther with the eyes being more pronounced. In the flames wasn't just red by yellow; the colour of Hufflepuff. The panther was surrounding a stunning black cross.
Tom arched an eyebrow at me this time. "Why a Christian cross?" He asked
"Simple; it appeals to muggleborns represents god's son. It shows we have morals." I smirked.
"It looks stunning." Bella breathed.
"What's the spell again?" Draco asked eagerly.
"Carmaya. Pronounce it carefully." I warned. "Kahn-may-an." I stressed the syllables. Draco attempted it and succeeded.
"Brilliant. It's a dark spell isn't it?" He asked curiously.
"Yes, borderline dark spell." I shrugged. "To me it doesn't really matter, it is as difficult as light magic to me."
"Your grey aren't you?" Bella asked shocked.
"Yes believe it or not. My magic, despite the fact I was the light side's poster girl, is strictly grey." I laughed beaming.
"We should use this in the hallways to freak the DA out. It would help us gain people and scare them. Knowing them they would think we were behind it but then argue within themselves because they think Tom had already started recruiting death eaters." Draco smirked. "It would be so funny. Seriously it would be even better than second year!"
"What happened in second year?" Bella asked curiously.
"Enemies of the heir beware!" I mocked although this was a touchy subject with me because of my dark past which still remains, and will stay, in the chamber and the past. It was the first time I met Tom and even then I was obsessed with this stupid death wish of mine.
"That is supposed to mean what exactly?" Bella asked completely bewildered.
"You'll be next mudbloods…" Draco cackled copying my quoting from that twisted night of horror.
"Tom please can you elaborate any further?" She begged Tom, extremely confused by our weird and crazy quoting.
Seeing her I pitied her. "The chamber of secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware." I said the full sentence that I quoted from. "In other words there was crazy people thinking I was the heir because of my parseltongue ability, Gryffindors in the Slytherin common room and floating cupcakes…"
"Wait I get the first one but what do you mean by the second two?" Draco's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Mione, Ron and I brewed polyjuice potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room to interrogate you Draco. As for floating cupcakes Crab and Goyal were stupid enough to eat them, they were drugged with a sleeping potion so Ron and Hermione could masquerade around as them. I on the other hand blackmailed Daphne Greengrass into letting me use one of her hair and for her to stay out of the way." I smirked at Draco's look of horror.
"What did you blackmail Greengrass about?" Tom asked interested.
"Well I happen to know she's related to muggles. Sadly for me I had to put up with her on occasion when she was forced to visit them and hang out with her second cousin Peirce who just happens to be best mates with my appalling cousin Dudley." I replied.
"Nice one." Bella smirked patting me on the back.
"Hey why aren't you two bothered that she and two other Gryffindors invaded our common room?" Draco protested.
"You know she is as much as a snake as you are right?" Bella asked.
"Good point…but that is no excuse for the other two!" He pointed out.
"Great!" Bella groaned. "Now two stupid Gryffindors with Dumble's help in getting hold of polyjuice can get into our common room…just fantastic."
"What should our name be?" I asked drawing the topic back to the new order against the DA.
"Good point…" Draco mused.
"It needs to be symbolic…" Tom pointed out.
"Order of secrets maybe- no that is too opposing to our ideals; it would be easy to mistake it for lies rather than truth." Bella murmured annoyed. I could tell she wanted our name to be really significant.
"I don't think it should start with order ether…" I bite my lip.
"Why?" Bella asked.
"Too similar to the the order of the phoenix…" I shuddered.
Annoyed she huffed. "What would you suggest then? Starting it will order makes it sound more professional don't you think?" She glared.
"Voldermort didn't need to start it with order now did he?" Draco hissed. "Surely there is something we can have which sounds absolutely perfect for our group without needing to put and order in front of it!" He rolled his eyes exasperated.
"Well we could use the whole army idea…. Think of it like combatting it." I shrugged half-heartedly. Internally I was sighing; I bet that the stupid D.A. didn't take this long in deciding a name for their group…then again they weren't trying to make it as important of spectacular as we were… That's the problem with having a Slytherin mind-set; you think too much.
"If you think like that then why not the order?" Bella arched an eyebrow.
"Dumble's has already used the order more than once; he used it under a different name during his little was with Grindlewald." Tom explained with a shrug.
"What do you think about using the Army idea Draco?" Bella asked directing it to him.
"Its fine but whatever goes before or after needs to be extremely significant don't you think?" He laughed. "We need something to begin to spark fear into their hearts at the sound of it but not as far as Tom will go. Something in between would work."
"We are being too specific I guess…" I murmured.
"What?" Bella asked confused.
"Simpler the better. It needs to be simple. Nothing like these needs to be as thought through as we are. Something like a name and an image doesn't need to be too complex. Karmari…" I whispered. A new image sparked out of my wand. No flames surrounded the beautiful beast; it still was around the intricate cross though with its teeth bared… "See?"
"It's similar yet it is more sticking…" Tom whispered softly.
"So our name needs to be simple to be dramatic doesn't it?" Bella smiled a wicked glint in her eye.
"Army of Echoes…" Draco murmured.
"What?" I asked jumping.
"Army of echoes could be our name…" He smiled softly. "It's powerful, very powerful but so very simple. Almost not there. An echo is so very subtle like we needed our name to be…"
"If it was a place we could name it Echoed veil." I smiled.
"It's beautiful." Tom smiled.
"Army of Echoes… Who is in favour?" Bella laughed. All of us raised our hands. "Perfect, I guess this is how it shall begin." She smiled, her smile haunted me. It sent a shiver down my spine… It was reminded me of the letter, the letter of which the words still burn through my heart even now. She was right…this was where it would begin; the year which would change the world…
A.N. Sorry it's taken so long for this chapter! Recently my computer broke down so it's taken me a while to get it fixed. Hopefully it was ok? Please review as always! :D What did you think of the name for it? There will be a lot more action in the next chapter I swear! Hopefully I'll be able to update it soon! :D