I'm back! I've left you in suspense for too long, and I am terribly sorry.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Be a man
We must be swift as the coursing river
Be a man
With all the force of a great typhoon
Be a man
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon
-"Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan
Percy did the first thing that came to mind.
He kicked. Hard.
"Oh, shi-"
The man's curse was cut off when Percy reached for his wand, only to find it missing; damn, the bastard must've taken it. Therefore, the redhead grabbed the closest thing that could qualify as a weapon: a lamp.
He promptly smashed it over the guy's head, and the guy crumpled to the carpet.
Leaping over the attacker, Percy raced to the door and flicked on the light switch, and the shadows vanished, replaced by a bright light that hurt Percy's eyes.
He didn't know the guy. Tall and lean, he looked to be about Percy's age with shaggy brown hair that desperately needed to be cut. In his Muggle attire- jeans and some kind of concert shirt- there really wasn't anything different about him. No Death Eater mask. No Dark Mark. No knife or gun or any weapon except for his and Percy's wands.
Percy swiped both of the wands from the guy's hands before using his own wand to tie him up.
"Renervate," Percy chanted, waving his wand.
The man's eyes fluttered open, and he stared at Percy.
"You're a lot better than I thought you were."
Percy squinted. "Excuse me? You broke into my flat. Now, start talking, or I will immediately call the Aurors."
"No need for that," the guy told him. "I'm Adam, Adam Taylor. I'm here with a proposal."
"And you attacked me in my sleep for what reason?"
"I had to make sure you were the right man for the job. The point is... my girlfriend was one of the Muggleborns you rescued. Before she was taken into custody, she and I started to gather forces that were willing to go against the Ministry and bring down their so called government.
"She contacted me, and don't worry, we used so many security spells on that one conversation, Dumbledore wouldn't have been able to break through them. We want to combine forces."
"What?" Percy demanded. "Combine forces?"
"Yes," said Adam. "We have about a dozen people, and we will combine forces with you and any others you have. Strength in numbers. All of us have agreed that we need people like you on this team."
Percy nodded. "Okay, I'm following you. How do you know these people are loyal to this cause?"
"Checked all their forearms, all their wands. We even used Vertiserum to ensure that they were loyal."
Percy stared at him. "Alright. Can you name all of them?"
"Of course. Myself, Hazel Garnet, Nicole Shamburge, Lucas Tilton, Jake Backas, Ethan Willis, Marie Towns, Lilian Brillis, Simon Gardener, William Clayton, Maggie Shade, and Ashley Barran."
Percy nodded. "Okay... now, I want a full explanation on why you attacked me. Not the vague sentence you gave me. An actual explanation."
"Alright. Some of them were skeptical on how powerful you were and if you were a good addition. To prove it, Hazel and I came up with a plan. I would sneak in-"
"How'd you get in?"
"I used the window."
"I'm on the sixth floor!"
"I levitated myself."
"Now, I have to put security charms on that," Percy muttered. "Anyway, continue."
"And I would pretend to be an enemy and attack you. Your reaction would be the deciding factor, and I say you passed. That hurt!"
Percy knelt in front of him and looked in the eye.
The red haired wizard was naturally gifted in Legillimency and Occlumenecy; Dumbeldore himself had complimented him when this gift was discovered in his first year after he accidentally read another person's mind. Whoops.
Memories flashed before his eyes, memories that were not his own.
Adam talking with a girl he recognized to be one of the Muggleborns he'd rescued...
A group of ten people standing before Adam and the girl in some kind of hidden room. Percy could tell no one was getting in here; one of the doors had more locks than Percy had fingers, and he was sure there were charms, too...
Adam and a girl he knew to be Maggie Shade (she was a Ravenclaw in his year) arguing...
"Fine," Adam said. "I'll go through with the crazy plan, but I'd better not get killed."
"Thank you," Maggie responded.
Percy backed out of Adam's mind and waved his wand, the ropes falling to the ground.
"Alright, Adam. I will discuss this with Oliver and Audrey, my partners, and I will get back to you tomorrow. Do you have a phone?"
Adam nodded, standing and cradling his head. He rattled off the phone number, and Percy knew he'd remember it; after studying and memorizing all those years in school, Percy had quite a good memory. Probably boarding on photographic.
"I'll let you out," Percy assured him. "You don't have to use the window again."
"Thank you," Adam sighed. "I'm terrified of heights, and I still let Hazel and Maggie convince me to go through with the plan."
Percy showed Adam the door, and even though he believed Adam, he added extra charms to the door.
He also spent the next hour putting charms on the window. If Adam could get in, others could too.
Percy would be lying if he said he wasn't weary of Adam. Can you blame him? I mean, the dude broke into his flat, attacked him, and then asked Percy to 'join forces' with him. Anyone would be a little freaked out!
"I say go for it," Oliver input with a shrug.
Audrey nodded. "I agree. But we need to stay on our toes. Until we know for sure we can trust these guys, we keep our wand and at least one extra weapon on us at all times. Really, we should be doing that anyway."
Percy nodded. "I already do."
He took out his extra wand (stowed in an extra pocket in his robes that was hidden) and his pocket knife.
"How do you carry that into the Ministry?" Oliver asked, curiously. "You think they wouldn't allow knives."
Percy smirked. "They don't. And a great magician never reveals their secrets."
Oliver laughed. "Good point. Anyway, I have two weapons: my wand and my fists."
Audrey rolled her eyes. "I meant keep an extra weapon that is not a body part."
He shrugged. "Hey. I can work with what I got. All of us can. I mean, Percy knocked out a guy with a lamp."
Audrey shrugged. "Very good point. Still. Extra precautions."
Percy nodded. "You're right. But, back on topic, should I get back to Adam to tell him you agree?"
Oliver and Audrey nodded, and Percy withdrew his cell phone from his pocket, dialling the number Adam had given him.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Adam. This is Percy Weasley. We agree to your proposal."
"Great. Meet me in front of Jorgan's."
"The one on Hazleton?"
"Yes."
"Thank you. We'll be there soon."
"Let's do this," Audrey muttered after Percy hung up.
Jorgan's was a less popular coffee shop; Percy often picked up a cup (or two, depending on how late he worked the night before) on the way to the Ministry since it was right down the street.
Adam and another girl (Percy believed it was Ashley; she'd been a seventh year when he was a first year) waited for them outside.
They didn't say anything, and as soon as Adam and Ashley noticed them coming, they turned on their heels and started walking down the side walk.
"What was that about?" Oliver asked, quietly.
"They want us to follow them," Percy whispered back. "We're right down the street from the Ministry. They don't want anyone to see us walking together; we've never hung out before, so it'd be suspicious."
"Oh."
"Okay. Go."
The trio followed their new allies down the street until they turned into an alleyway. With one last glance over his shoulder, Percy ducked into the shadows and the others followed.
Adam and Ashley awaited them, smiling as Ashley pointed her wand at them.
Audrey whipped her wand out just as fast, but the spell Ashley sent their way didn't hurt them at all. Colors whipped around them, almost like auras.
"What is that?" Oliver demanded.
"Your magical signature," she responded. "Just so we know you are who you say you are. Sorry about the random wand pointing. Procedure. "
Percy nodded. "Clever spell."
"Thanks. No magical signature is identical to another, and you can't fake one. It's impossible. Now, come on before somebody sees us."
Ashley tapped her wand on the wall in what appeared to be a complex pattern, but Percy recognized it.
"Morse code," he realized. "My dad taught us when he found out Muggles used it," he told Oliver and Audrey when they looked at him weirdly.
"Is there anything you don't know?" Oliver asked.
"Uh... my comedy is awful, as are my social skills."
"Oh, yeah," Oliver laughed. "Your social skills are pathetic."
"So are yours."
"Not as badly as yours though."
Audrey giggled. "Anyway, now that we're done discussing your pathetic social skills, what does the Morse code say?"
"Freedom Fighters," Percy replied. "Is that what you call yourselves?"
Ashley nodded. "The code changes every week. Nobody's figured it out yet, but you can't be too careful."
Adam nodded before tapping his wand once more on the wall.
The wall slid apart, splitting in half like disguised double doors. There were no stairs, no ropes, no metal poles to slide down.
"There's a net at the bottom," Adam responded to their perplexed expressions. "I'll go first."
He leaped off the ground and plummeted; several seconds passed before his voice shouted from several meters below.
"I'm not dead!"
"I thought he was afraid of heights," Percy asked Ashley.
"He is. The first time we did this, his girlfriend had to push him."
"Oh."
"Who's next?" Ashley asked.
Oliver shrugged before stepping into the empty air without a second thought.
"Quidditch players," Audrey muttered. "Too confident for their own good."
Percy laughed. "They're confident with heights. They're not so confident on the ground."
"Is that a clever way to say Oliver's clumsy?"
"Yes."
"Okay. You're next, brainiac."
Percy took a deep breath before stepping through the doorway.
He fell down, down, down until he finally felt netting beneath his back.
"I think I left my stomach up there," he mumbled as Oliver helped him down.
Oliver laughed. "Still got that fear of heights?"
"I'm not scared of heights. I'm scared of falling and breaking all my bones."
"And that's why you never played Quidditch."
"Exactly."
Audrey hit the net next, and Percy helped her stand; no sooner had she stumbled to her feet did Ashley hit the net.
"Follow me, newcomers," Adam laughed before leading them through a brick hallway lit by torches that was probably straight out of the medieval times.
"The corridor's been here for centuries," Ashley responded to their amazed looks. "Adam's dad, who works at the store above here, discovered it when he accidentally bumped into a rune on the wall in the break room. Supposedly, the founders of Hogwarts built this place after some kind of Dark Wizard attacked the school. In times of crisis, they would flee the school through the floo network, appear in the building above, and come down here to hide until it was safe."
"Why didn't they pick a location closer to the school?" Percy asked.
"They wanted to get the kids far away from the school. They stopped using this place when the classes got too large to transport all of them."
"It's kind of creepy," Audrey muttered.
"Don't worry. We've upgraded the next area," Adam chuckled, and to prove his point, he opened the double doors before them to reveal a much more modern hallway.
There were windows lining either side of them that looked into training rooms. Some focused on physical strength, such as physical combat with one another and practicing on dummies. Others showed people dueling with wands, and some were simply sitting at a table, glaring at an object, or standing across the room from a dummy with no wand.
"Wand less magic," Adam told them after seeing their expressions.
"This is our training," Ashley explained. "Obviously. But it comes in handy. We have a room dedicated to researching old tactics and ancient magic and such. We have a higher security room to practice that; we don't want anyone getting too injured by using magic they've never used before. Anyway, the training comes in handy; one of our guys lost his wand in a battle and had to resort to physical tactics. Knocked the guy out and managed to find his wand and return to the battle."
"Wow," Oliver mumbled. "This is amazing."
Adam smiled. "Well, when you're going against the Ministry, you have to be swift as the coursing river-"
"With all the force of a great typhoon-" Ashley continued.
"And the strength of a raging fire-"
"Mysterious as the dark side of the moon, " Ashley finished.
A few moments of stunned silence.
"Is that from Mulan?" Oliver suddenly asked.
"Yes," Adam replied. "And we're going to make a man out of you."
"Oi!" Audrey and Ashley shouted.
"Sorry!" Adam squeaked. "We'll make a warrior out of you."
"Better."
"Thank you."
"Lesson learned," Percy whispered to Oliver. "Don't tick them off."
Oliver simply nodded.
Hello, everyone. Just so you know, in my mind, the freedom fighters got the idea of this training from the DA (I'm sure one of them participated in it before graduating)
Thanks for reading. Tell me what you think! Next chapter is the battle at the Ministry and saving those Muggleborns. See you then.