Hey people, chapter 39 is here to wish you a happy new year-woo hoo! hope you guys had an awesome start of the year, well I did-and I really wanted to put up this chapter by the 31st but i failed as my friends dragged me to their house party-but I had fun-i hope you did too!
Chapter 39
The weekend was over and a new Monday under Umbridge, brought out new rules—apparently Umbridge now had the autonomy to create educational decrees if and when she pleased, seeing that she was the world's best educationist her decrees would be made only for the best of the students. One of these decrees now included something horrifying which had set several teachers in an uproar along with Dumbledore who had to fall silent after the ministry's warning of how professor Umbridge was the best thing that had ever happen to Hogwarts. But in reality the decree was unnecessary and no one could really tell why it had been applied.
Education Decree 26
A group of dementors will be stationed outside the great hall at all times for better security measures.
Audrey hadn't been early to breakfast and had missed Dumbledore announce this decree in absolute disgust as Umbridge went on and on about how it was effective.
So that Monday morning when Audrey walked to the great hall in her black Hogwarts sweater and uniform, she was surprised to feel rather cold and depressed as she reached the doors of the hall. It was luck by chance that she looked towards the ceiling that she saw five dementors looming above her head like chandeliers, she stared at them till she could no more feel her legs and she then entered the hall looking rather pale and frozen. She shivered as she sat down next to Hermione.
"Oh Merlin—are you alright?" Hermione asked shocked as she pushed her arm around Audrey and pulled her into her as she rubbed her hand up and down Audrey's arm trying to warm her up.
"You're so cold!" said Hermione worriedly as Harry poured Audrey some warm tea and pulled a tin of chocolate biscuits from Seamus's end to him and began opening it for her as Ron forced a large portion of the chocolate bar from his bag into Audrey's mouth and looked at her worriedly.
"I'm fine," she muttered as her friends looked at her worriedly.
"Are you alright Ms. Snape?" asked Umbridge as she had noticed the shaken girl enter and decided to interrogate her before leaving.
Audrey's eyes snapped at Umbridge but it wasn't Audrey who spoke this time—it was Hermione instead.
"What do you think—does she look alright to you?" snarled Hermione angrily as Umbridge looked at her indignantly; she obviously had not accepted this kind of articulation from Ms. Granger.
"Ten points from Gryffindor for your tone Ms. Granger!" snapped Umbridge as she smirked at the Gryffindor table who glared at her.
"Naughty children like you deserve to be punished—you should remember that Ms. Granger!" smiled Umbridge the way she did and then made her exit.
"Bloody bitch!" swore Hermione angrily as the Gryffindors stared at her, this was it—the world was coming to an end—first Hermione snapped at a teacher and then swore under her breadth.
Hermione was having a rather hectic day and it wasn't good, they had care of magical creatures last and everyone could tell how every two seconds professor Black got paranoid and reached for his wand just to be careful in case a dementor was behind him. Hermione felt terrible for Sirius—after all he'd spent half his life in that filthy prison with those horrible soul sucking monsters and now he had to be constantly reminded of that place he had successfully escaped from.
Hermione fell on the couch feeling rather angry as she glared into the dying fire off the common room when Audrey came into the common room carrying a large amount of books on defence; she was speaking to Ron who to Hermione's surprise was carrying some books on defence as well. She turned around to look at them as they placed the books on the table as Ron told Audrey about some spell he had heard his father talk about that could be used to change the climate in a room.
Harry who was sitting next to Hermione turned to look at what his best friend was looking at and then frowned, truth to be told he was surprised to see Ron holding a book in his hand as well.
"What are you guys doing?" Harry asked as the four of them along with Neville were the only occupants awake anymore, Neville was grooming his Mimbeltus Mimbeltonia as he hummed tune recognizably of muggle origin.
"Nothing—Audrey said she needed some help to sanction some books and since you can't sign out more than 3 per person—I signed out some for her," said Ron as Harry jumped over the couch and walked up to them, Hermione too leaned against the couch so that she could see them clearly.
"Nice—never heard of these spells before—how did you get these out weren't they in the restricted section?" asked Harry flipping some pages as he read through some topics some he knew of some he did not.
"Was easy—fooled Prince by telling her McGonagall called for them—she believed us," sniggered Ron high fiving Audrey, as Neville raised his head too.
"Really she signed them off without a note?" asked Neville interestedly as Ron nodded smiling at him.
"What's the point?" asked Hermione angrily as Audrey raised an eyebrow at her, making her look a lot like her father.
"Excuse me?" asked Audrey unbelievably—what was wrong with Hermione?
"I mean—we aren't being taught defence in class so what's the point of this?" asked Hermione frowning as Audrey tilted her head slightly.
"The point is to learn, the point is not depending on others for your necessity—for your security—so what if we aren't taught all this in class—as long as you can work your brain and have a functioning wand you can do anything if you truly want to learn!" said Audrey answering Hermione simply as Harry raised his eyebrows and smiled while Hermione threw Audrey a blank look.
Suddenly Hermione shot up and jumped over the couch landing harshly next to her friends as she smiled at Audrey and clenched her shoulders with her hands.
"You're a genius mastermind you know, don't you?" asked Hermione as Audrey shook her head while Hermione grinned like she had never before, it was rather scary to see Hermione like that, she looked scarily dangerous and menacing.
"What are you talking about Hermione?" asked Harry a little worried about his friend.
"Audrey is right—so what if we aren't taught how to defend ourselves in class—we aren't incompetent—we can learn them for ourselves—all we need is knowledge—and wands—and we have both," smiled Hermione looking at Harry and Audrey.
"Ok, Hermione what the bloody hell is wrong with you?" asked Audrey, shaking Hermione this time.
"Nothing—I have finally woken up to what we are facing—it's time to stand up!" said Hermione.
"It's time to fight!" added Hermione.
"You and what the three of us?" scoffed Harry unimpressed as Audrey agreed with Harry.
"No the five of us," said Neville as Hermione smiled at him meaningfully.
"And how are we supposed to learn without teachers?" asked Audrey as Hermione laughed.
"Didn't you just say you could learn stuff on your own—you and Harry have faced Voldemort together—I think you've got some amount of experience in defending yourselves—after all Audrey six crucios to the chest—there must be something special about you!" said Hermione smiling at Audrey and Harry as they were still unsure of this as Harry raised a very important question.
"And how can you just conclude that people would want to learn from us Hermione—half of the school thinks we're a bunch of liars," said Harry angrily as Hermione looked at him.
"Harry! I am sure half of the school thinks Umbridge is a toad as well so I believe they would rather learn from you than from the toad!" said Hermione intelligently as Harry and Audrey were still very reluctant.
"And Hermione—we aren't teachers—we can't teach students—I mean what if they don't learn anything—what if they blow their heads off?" asked Audrey a little unsettlingly as Hermione shook her head vigorously.
"Nothing of that sort is going to happen Audrey—you know it—besides there are people in our year who don't know basic defence spells—so I think we should start with the basics," said Hermione as Ron nodded while Neville agreed with Hermione.
"I don't know!" said Audrey whining about this—she didn't want to do this—what if her parents found out—her mother 'might' just be proud but what of her father?
"And what about Sirius and Snape—have you ever released they might just kill us?" asked Harry, he could tell from Audrey's reaction she had been thinking the same.
"What they don't know won't hurt them!" said Hermione as she stood up taller possibly braver and maybe just a bit prouder as she made her final statement and left the room.
"I'm going to go tell Ginny and some trusted others to collect a few people who are ready to join private defence classes," said Hermione.
"But Hermione!" chorused Audrey and Harry as Hermione glared at them.
"Don't worry—I'll figure out everything—just keep yourselves free on next Saturday's Hogsmeade trip" finished Hermione determinately as no one argued further a definitely slump could be seen in Harry and Audrey's moods.
Friday night had covered the green grassy grounds into white sheets off snow and the fact that there were dementors stationed in the classes did not help lift anybodies mood, so even the generally warm great hall was as cold as the frosty dungeon. Saturday morning everyone was bundled up in sweaters and sweatshirts along with thick cloaks as they made their way down to Hogsmeade hoping to enjoy their one day of freedom outside the school or like most Gryffindors called a prison now, seeing that Umbridge was acting like the warden while Dumbledore sat their quite helplessly.
Hermione kept her hawk like vision saved for Harry and Audrey all through breakfast, just in case they decided to make a run for it. When they did make their way out of the school gates, Hermione could not talk to them about anything because Sirius and Sinistra who had been strolling in the grounds shoving snow down each others shirts had spotted them and knowing Sirius, they decided to tag along. Hermione was not pleased with the fact that Sirius and his girlfriend were tailing them—she had to get work down and at this rate nothing was going to be possible, she noticed how Harry and Audrey stuck to Sirius like glue hoping Hermione would cancel her little plan and not pull them off Sirius, seeing that he was their current life support.
Harry and Audrey were afraid, they were afraid of the humiliation they might have to face if the people they were supposed to be teaching turned out to be utter and bloody pricks, seeing that most of them obviously were, they tried their best to resist Hermione and her plan but even deep down they knew she and Harry were right.
When they entered the village and Hermione thanked her luck that Sirius decided to go into Zonkos. She instantly made her way through the crowd, Audrey's hand in hers as she pulled the reluctant girl with her while Ron pushed Harry forward ever so often. They reached the end of the market place as the rows of houses started, Hermione took a sharp left jumped over a dirty gutter and walked into an alley as Audrey did the same with a little trouble. Hermione walked swiftly as the deserted alley was now filled with a voice singing merrily to itself as a drunkard gave her a lopsided smile and continued singing as he then vomited over himself and crashed into a stupor in the dirty gutter.
Audrey was a still taken aback by all this as she saw Hermione open a door stuck to one of the walls, Hermione entered the shady looking joint as Audrey stood at the entrance a little unsure, she looked up as she noticed the store board was hanging off its hinges as the boar's head on it looked like it was smiling a smile similar to the one on the drunkards face, under the head was a chipped out sign that read "Hogshead"—more like "Hogsdead" thought Audrey as she entered the shady dark looking pub, the door closed behind her after Harry and Ron entered the place, Harry kept flattening his hair over his scar but he didn't really need to seeing that there was only one cloaked bloke sitting at the bar while the bartender was cleaning the glasses his filthy half apron as he looked at the new occupants of his bar and grunted in disapproval at them.
Audrey turned to look at the man better, he looked oddly familiar but she was certain she had never seen him prior to this meeting, something made her hope she hadn't looking at the state of him.
They settled down on an empty table as Ron looked around the place and noticed how dingy it actually was.
"Better than Snape's office I suppose," he said commenting as Harry chuckled a little, even Audrey smiled, it was true her father's office was rather dingy and suffocating at times with those hideous things floating around in jars, if a muggle saw it they might as well think he was experimenting different pickling techniques.
"Now what?" asked Audrey after something like a few minutes had passed, Hermione was not enjoying Audrey's attitude but she decided to neglect that bit and answered her better, she knew forcing Audrey was going to bring out the Snape in her and so Hermione was going to take whatever Audrey did with a pinch of salt as long as she began to enjoy or at least accept that she was involved in something for the betterment of her fellow students.
"Wait for Ginny—she said she'd be here by noon," replied Hermione lying, Ginny had promised to be there with half of the school half an hour ago.
"Do you guys think this bloke would give me some firewhiskey?" asked Ron as Hermione glared at him.
"Ron you're a prefect!" answered Hermione angrily as Audrey laughed along with Harry.
"So—doesn't mean I don't get to have any fun!" replied Ron annoyed as Hermione shook her head. What felt like another hour later, someone opened the door to the pub. All their heads turned to see who it was, Hermione smiled as Ginny entered the pub with Neville, Fred, George, Lee Jordan and Luna Lovegood.
"Is this it?" asked Ron indignantly as Hermione bit her lower lip rather worriedly, but her worry was soon gone and was replaced by an astonished look on her face just like the bartenders and even Harry's and Audrey's.
People started pouring into the pub like water into a glass, within fifteen minutes half the pub was filled with noisy students talking, students from every year from the third and above were present, students of all house except Slytherine, seeing no one really mentioned anything to them in the first place.
Hermione could tell she had gotten Audrey to agree when she saw the number of people who had come. When everyone was settled in Hermione got up and began the meeting.
"Umm—hi—so we're here today because we all agree to the premise that we aren't being taught how to really defend ourselves," said Hermione, several of the students were sitting in the first line Hermione easily recognized a few from Hufflepuff Ernie, Justin, Hannah and a few other had come, Ravenclaw too had a population with Luna, Cho, Astoria, Padma and a few other boys while Gryffindor dominated the most of the collection Fred, George, Lee, lavender, Parvati, Nigel, Dennis and Colin Creevey, Dean, Neville, Ginny and a several others.
"We need a teacher—a proper teacher—one whose had experience fighting against the dark arts" added Hermione as the lot listened to her carefully.
"Why?" asked someone in the back, Hermione noticed Audrey glare in that direction as she strained her neck to see who it was, turned out to be a Hufflepuff fifth year called Zachary Smith.
"Because you-know-who is back you toss pot!" said Ron annoyed by the boy's arrogance, why was he here if he didn't want to learn?
"So they say!" replied the Smith.
"So Dumbledore says!" hissed Ginny angrily.
"So Dumbledore says because they say—point is where is the proof?" asked Smith
"So what are you here for—no one serving out free food!" snarled Audrey as she got up from her seat angrily, Hermione looked at her worriedly.
"If you could tell us what happened to Diggory that night maybe-," began Smith as Harry got up, he could see Cho look away instantly, he knew Cho was eager to know about this but revealing it like this would be in some way disgraceful and Cedric who was killed for the heck of it would not be a very nice thing these people would want to hear about.
"Look, we aren't going to be talking about Cedric—so if that's why you're here you might as well just clear off!" snarled Harry as he turned to Audrey and took her arm into his hand, whispering into her ears.
"Come on, they think we're just a bunch of freaks!" said Harry disappointedly as Audrey glared at the crowd but turned to leave with Harry when someone spoke up loudly.
"Is it true you can conjure a corporeal patronus?" asked a red headed Hufflepuff in the front.
"Yes, I have seen it!" replied Hermione earnestly as Harry stopped in his path and pulled Audrey to a halt as well.
"How'd you know about that?" he asked the girl.
"Oh! My aunt was present at your hearing—Amelia Bones—I am Susan Bones by the way," replied the girl enthusiastically.
"And in his second year he killed the Basilisk with the sword in Dumbledore's office!" said Ginny eagerly bobbing up and down in her seat.
"And he saved the philosophers stone from Quirelle in his first year!" said Neville nodding as Hermione gave him a big smile.
"Look all this might sound really nice—but most of the time it was just luck!" began Harry modestly
"Harry—he's just being modest!" said Hermione cutting Harry as Harry sighed and turned away.
"No he's right, at school—if you make a mistake you can try again tomorrow but when you're out there staring death in the face or watching a friend being murdered—you don't know what it's like!" announced Audrey with a blank expression on her face, she still remembered the terrible feeling in her stomach when she saw Cedric's eyes go blank, cold, lifeless, soulless, DEAD.
"Exactly—and that is why we need to learn how to protect ourselves—from the danger outside—from-V—Vo—Voldemort!" said Hermione boldly finishing her statement.
No one said anything as Hermione moved about making people sign their names on a jinxed parchment which she told the volunteers had been jinxed, so if they revealed anything to anyone something terrible would happen to them in return.
"How are we going to know when and where the meetings will be held?" asked Ernie confused.
"We don't know about the location yet but—these will help you with the dates," replied Hermione handing each of them a red galleon of sorts as they looked at it studying it.
"It's been jinxed too change the numbers as and when the date of the gathering will be—it will begin to heat up slightly so you'll know when the dates been announced," said Hermione as everyone looked rather impressed.
"Bloody brilliant—how'd you think of this?" asked Fred.
"I didn't, Audrey did—or I forced her into doing it for me!" smirked Hermione as Audrey shook her head a small smile on her face.
"Should have known—isn't this how death eaters are summoned?" asked George a little amused.
"Yes—except we didn't need to burn permanent marks into your skin," said Audrey dryly as George studied the coin again and again.
"So what are we going to name it?"asked Ginny excitedly.
"How's about the bottom kickers!" suggested Fred as George shook his head.
"Any other ideas?" asked Ginny scrunching her nose.
"How's about the fighters!" suggested Neville as Ginny shot him a small nod as she then beamed.
"How's about Dumbledore's Army!" replied Ginny excitedly as almost everyone approved to her suggestion but Ron had to ask.
"Why Dumbledore's army?" said Smith.
"Because the ministry thinks Dumbledore's building up an army—let's make their nightmare come true!" announced Ginny as Fred and George called for a round of butter beers for everyone.
"Interesting—how's about DA for short!" said Audrey as Ginny nodded vigorously.
Audrey, Neville, Ginny, Harry,Fred, George, Hermione and Ron were making their way back to the common room as they discussed the venue for their first meeting.
"Shrieking shack?"
"Too small"
"The forbidden forest?"
"Too risky"
"Great hall at night?"
"Are you mental?"
"What if she finds out" hissed Ginny a little worriedly as Hermione smiled at her oddly.
"Who cares—I mean exciting isn't it—breaking the rules!" said Hermione as the group made their way to the great hall as it got colder and colder.
"Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?" asked Ron shocked as Hermione giggled a little.
When they approached the great hall, they heard shrill screaming and so they picked up their feet and dashed to the entrance hall from where the scream had been heard, several students were on their feet as the dementors were pulling out a second years soul. Audrey noticed her friends pull out her wand as it went excessively cold—where were all the teachers?
"Patronus now!" ordered Harry as he pulled out his wand—there were about a 50 dementors there and Harry knew his Patronus couldn't take care of so many, even in his third year had he not seen so many dementors all feeding of one person.
"We don't know it!" replied Hermione unsteadily as Audrey and Harry looked at them stunned—aside from Neville hadn't they all learnt the Patronus that summer—hadn't the order tutors taught them.
"Of course you do!" said Audrey vapour forming around her mouth.
"They weren't patronus charms in the curriculum," said Fred with a depressed look on his face, Audrey could tell the dementors were doing this.
"Get the teachers!" said Harry as he nodded at Audrey and they went into the circle of dementors together.
"Expecto Patronum!" they chorused loudly as a stag and a stallion shot out their wands and raced around where their conjurers moved them—they first freed the girl who was being sucked soulless and then continued to ward of the other dementors—the dementors were shocked in the beginning but they soon began to fight back.
"There're too many Harry!" said Audrey as she sent her stallion galloping places.
"I know—but we've got to keep going!" replied Harry—he could feel his energy draining as well.
"I'm so tired!" replied Audrey whining as Harry pushed her stag further fighting a rather large dementor, while Audrey's stallion tired to warm up some of the surroundings.
There was another burst of light as a known patronus burst through the bunch of dementors who surrounded Harry's stag, it was a phoenix that flew over the area as Audrey and Harry turned around to see Dumbledore conjuring his patronus.
"Stop! Stop!" snarled Umbridge in the background as the dementors had by now retreated out of the school gates. Audrey and Harry pulled their wands down and their patronuses came to a stand next to them, nudging them a little and then vanishing into the air.
"You will follow me to my office—both of you now!" snarled Umbridge angrily as her toad face grew redder and larger, she looked horribly frightful.
Harry turned to Audrey who seemed to be tired from the whole ordeal, the first steps they took towards Umbridge were the last that would for that day. Because just as they placed their feet back on the ground, they crashed into a heap next to each other, Audrey going first off her knees followed by Harry.
She was in a dark room of what looked like a rundown mansion of sorts; the only source of light coming in was from a dying fire in the broken grate. Suddenly there were voices all around the room, voices— talking— whispering things and then everyone went silent as one cold and dry voice spoke. Audrey recognized the voice—it was his voice—she tried to run—to run out of the room but it seemed to lack any doors—the darkness engulfed everything.
"And what of the girl, Avery?"
"She's helping Potter—there's no pulling her away from the boy!"
"And Snape?"
"He refuses to recognize her as her daughter—like he told you master!"
"Very good—we don't need him obsessing over dirt like that"
"Of course master—Lucius thinks he is very loyal to you,"
"He is—Severus—but you can never tell—although I trust him"
Audrey opened her eyes quickly as she could see the dark ceiling of the hospital wing, she looked around to see Sirius sleeping on one chair next to Harry's bed where Harry too was asleep seeing that there was a bottle of draught of peace next to him bed.
She looked at her own side table, it had some strengthening potion and her father's head resting on it.
"Pappa?" she called softly as she sat up and used a hand to pat his arm.
Severus opened his eyes slowly as he looked at his daughter who seemed to be looking at him worriedly. He could see her sigh in relief of sorts when he sat up straight.
"Audrey—you were supposed to be asleep!" he said yawning, looking at the dreamless sleep potion that Madam Pomfrey had administered to her just an hour ago.
"I had a bad dream," she said as he looked at her, several messy strands of her black hair covered her face.
"About what? The Diggory boy again?" asked Severus a little worriedly as he cleared her face of her hair. She shook her head when he frowned.
"What then?" he asked her softly.
"Well—I saw Volde—you-know-who talking to some guy called Avery," said Audrey shrugging.
"And what did they talk about?" he asked her cautiously.
"Something about us," she replied biting her lip.
"What about us?" asked Severus squeezing down next to Audrey on the bed.
"Well—at first Avery told him of how you didn't want to recognize me as your daughter!"
"Then, you-know-who said that he was very pleased with you and that he trusted you a lot," said Audrey confused.
"It was just a dream—right?—just like the ones with Cedric right?—it's not true is it?" asked Audrey a little scared. Severus looked at her oddly, he knew there was something wrong with what Audrey had just spoken about—he remembered vaguely about Potter waking up with a start and narrating to Black something very similar about how Voldemort was talking about Black.
"Yes—just a bad nightmare—go to sleep," he told her softly pressing his lips to her cold forehead.
Audrey smiled and pushed her hands around his neck as he pulled her into a strong hug, he missed holding her and since they were acting distant he didn't get any time to spend with her—not much as he would liked anyways.
"Go to sleep child," he said placing her down on the bed slowly and tucking her into the sheets.
"You should get some sleep too—go back to your room—I'll be fine—besides Sirius is here," she said as he stifled another yawn.
"Don't worry about me—I am not going anywhere till you wake up tomorrow morning," said Severus as Audrey frowned.
"But—"she protested but he would hear none of it, only when she did close her eyes did he rest his head on the back of his chair.
hope you liked it! REVIEW AND MAKE MY NEW YEAR ACTUALLY AWESOMELY NEW! =p
just review! grumble ! grumble!