"You're kind of scary, Hermione," Fred said, sounding impressed. "Did you know that?"

"Caught on, have you?" Ron asked, though Hermione thought his grin looked weak. He'd been a little off since everything unfolded yesterday, and she thought he must be more tired, or more stressed by the night's events than he'd let on. Harry—seated beside Hermione—glanced at Ron too.

"Do we know if the charm's stuck?" George asked, and Hermione watched as Ron looked at Draco, but it was Cedric who spoke:

"Obviously the Inquisitorial Squad had a meeting during breakfast." Hermione nodded cautiously; they—the founders of Eihwaz—had originally intended to meet during breakfast themselves, but had pushed back to the lunch hour once Umbridge called her own meeting. "Adrian caught me up in Arithmancy this morning… The gist was that it's more important than ever for the Inquisitorial Squad to catch rule breakers, but not to attempt it on their own. There are some dangerous and unscrupulous individuals getting around the school, at the moment, apparently—"

"That's rich," Ginny scoffed, "coming from her." Beside Hermione, Harry made a sound of angry agreement.

"Isn't it," Cedric agreed wryly. "But my point is that there was no other intel shared. No names, no locations… nothing."

"That's good, then," Fred said, looking relieved. "Looks like your spellwork was top-notch as usual, Hermione."

"Except if Umbridge does remember, she'll know there are Eihwaz members in the Inquisitorial Squad," Ginny said. Hermione had just been thinking the same, and if the troubled looks on the others' faces were any indication, she wasn't alone in that. "She'd be careful what she shared, knowing there's a good chance it'd get back to us."

"Or she might know nothing," Ron said.

"I think we're focusing on the wrong things here," Draco said, and everyone turned to look at him. "Short of following her everywhere she goes and listening in on every conversation, or having a way to poke around in her head, it won't be possible to know what, exactly, Umbridge might—or might not—know."

"That's a good point," George said thoughtfully, and exchanged a look with Fred. "We could—"

"Still missing the point," Draco said, shaking his head. "And the point is what we do know. And that's that Umbridge hasn't done anything."

"That we know of," Harry said grimly.

"Exactly," Draco said, looking pleased rather than exasperated with Harry's comment. He held up his thumb. "No one's been pulled in for additional questioning about Eihwaz." Ron glanced unhappily at Hermione, who gave him a grim smile. Draco raised a finger. "We've not been expelled." Another finger. "There wasn't anything in this morning's Prophet about us, or the Order, or about anything else." He gave Harry a covert, but significant look, which Hermione assumed was a reference to the prophecy; they'd not shared that part with the twins or Cedric. "And, nothing was said to the Inquisitorial Squad. Have we actually got away with it?" He shrugged. "Hard to say. But have there been any consequences as a result of anything that happened last night? Not publicly. Isn't that enough?"

"I suppose," Hermione said, with a thoughtful frown. There was murmured agreement from the others. "And at the very least, it's given us time. And I think the first thing that we need to decide is whether we ought to keep Eihwaz going."

"You're suggesting we disband?" Cedric looked stunned.

"I— no," Hermione said, and her voice shook a little. She hadn't told any of the others that she was going to raise this, but clearly they'd all been thinking along the same lines because Cedric was the only one who looked surprised; most of the others looked sad, grim, angry—though not with her, she didn't think—and above all understanding. Hermione's throat felt tight with love for them all, and at the same time, with misery for not having been able to protect them better. "But after last night, we have to discuss it. If things had gone differently, none of us would be sitting here having this conversation, and a lot of others could well have been expelled with us." And it would have been all her fault. She swallowed. "Maybe we should think about keeping our heads down for a while."

No one spoke for a few long seconds.

"Ah, Hermione," Fred said, and reached across to pat her knee. "So young, and straight-laced—all this nonsense with Umbridge aside, of course." Despite herself, Hermione let out a little laugh.

"What Fred means to say," George said, with a gleam in his eye, "is that any good reprobate knows keeping your head down doesn't mean you need to stop causing trouble."

"It just means you need to stop getting caught," Fred said sagely. Hermione's eyes pricked with tears. "No," Fred said hastily, eyes wide, "I wasn't having a go, Hermione, I just meant we need to be more careful. Take precautions—"

"Take precautions?" George echoed, staring at his twin. "Do you even hear yourself, Fred?"

"I do," Fred said, looking ill. "And it was just as painful to say as—"

"Precautions sound like a good idea," Cedric said, over George and Ginny's sniggering. "My vote's for continuing with Eihwaz, obviously. All the reasons we had for starting the group still stand."

"But are they worth the risk?" Hermione asked.

"They are to me," Cedric said. "Obviously it's a bit different for you, because you're younger, but we're—" He gestured to himself, Fred, and George. "—all of age, and we have our O.W.L.s. I wouldn't want to be expelled, but if I am, I won't lose my wand, and I'd really only be out of Hogwarts a few months earlier than I would have been, given I graduate in June."

"But your N.E.W.T.s—"

"I'd sit them externally," Cedric said. "There's certainly enough talent at Order Headquarters to help me prepare."

"What Cedric said," George said, shrugging. "Fred and I don't care about N.E.W.T.s anyway. Gin?"

"Hmm, it's a tough one," Ginny said. "Do what Umbridge wants and let her win, or keep doing something she very obviously doesn't want…" She rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm still in."

"I agree with She-Weasley," Draco said. "The fact that it's making Umbridge and the Ministry uncomfortable is a good thing…. Though that's easy for me to say—even if we are caught, there's no way my father would let Umbridge expel me."

"I think we've all put too much into this to give up," Ron said quietly. "But you're the one it's actually cost, Hermione, so if you're having second thoughts—"

"It's not second thoughts, exactly," she said, chewing her lip. "I still think we need to be able to defend ourselves. And I think it's important that we're helping other people do the same, but… It's the responsibility. We're making decisions and creating risk for other people, not just for ourselves. We've made them targets." Cedric, Fred, and George frowned a little, or nodded, and Hermione could tell they appreciated her point, but not the way the others seemed to; Ginny's mouth turned down, Ron looked down, shoulders hunched, and Draco's face went blank, but his eyes were knowing and tired. Harry looked spooked. "Before she Imperiused me, and before she dosed me with Veritaserum, she told me anyone whose names I gave her willingly would be exempt from punishment over their involvement… I didn't tell her anything, obviously, but if my Obliviation hadn't worked, everyone in Eihwaz would have been punished because I didn't give Umbridge what she wanted."

Harry made a soft sound in the back of his throat and shook his head. Hermione knew he understood, more than any of the others could. Harry'd been carrying the weight of responsibility since he was eleven years old.

"Everyone who signed that contract understood the risk," Ginny said; she'd been watching Harry too, but turned away from him to look at Hermione. "They knew what they were getting into, and they thought it was worth it, same as we do."

"I'm not sure we did know what we were getting ourselves into," Hermione murmured. There'd been the quill Umbridge forced Harry to use, the steady flow of Educational Decrees, Umbridge's constant attention, the Inquisitorial Squad, and now this—Veritaserum and the use of an Unforgivable. "Not really." She looked at Harry. "What do you think? You've not said much so far."

He was quiet for a few more moments.

"I think," he said finally, in a very steady, very deliberate sort of voice, "that you did everything you could have, and I don't think you could have done anything differently, or better." Absurdly, Hermione felt tears pricking her eyes. She blinked them away impatiently and gave Harry a shaky smile.

"That isn't what I—"

"What happened wasn't your fault—" His eyes were bright with things that she couldn't read even after all her years of knowing him, but his voice was gentle and full of conviction. She swallowed. "—and I'm sorry we weren't there with you. I'm sorry we couldn't help you, or stop it."

Hermione didn't think it had been her fault, and didn't resent him—or any of the others—for not having been there, and so it surprised her how much hearing those words made her feel, how much she'd needed to hear them. Her throat felt tight and her eyes stung, and something in her chest—something hard and tangled and guilty—that she hadn't even known was there, suddenly wasn't. She felt lighter, warmer, and all of a sudden very fragile.

"You didn't know," she said, when she trusted herself to speak. "And there were other things happening last night, while I was with her—Sirius was hurt, Harry, and—"

"I know," Harry said. He sighed. "This group is whatever we want it to be—that's what we've told everyone from the start, and it's still true. If you want it to be less, if you want to stay involved but step back from this—" He gestured around at himself and the others. "—then do it." She knew he meant it, too, knew it wasn't an ultimatum, but a blessing.

It wasn't the first time Harry had offered her an out. There'd been before they went down the trapdoor in first year, and in third year just before he told them the prophecy, and several times last year during the Tournament. This one, though, felt different, though she couldn't pinpoint why.

"But I think Eihwaz needs to keep going," Harry continued. "And I'll keep it going, along with anyone else who still wants to help, for anyone who still wants to be involved. We're not safe right now, not even here at Hogwarts, and that's going to get worse before it gets better. Outside Hogwarts is worse. And we can't protect everyone—we can't always know what's going on, or get there in time to help—but we can teach people something, so that if they're the one Umbridge targets next, or they're the one the Death Eaters come for, they have a chance. This—" He looked at Hermione. "—should never happen again."

Hermione drew in a deep breath and nodded. She gave the coffee table an expectant look and the Room had Eihwaz's contract appear there, beside the—now empty—plate of sandwiches they'd had Dobby bring them for lunch.

"All right," she said. "But if we're all determined to continue, we're going to need to tighten up the contract." Hermione pulled parchment and a quill from her bag. "The worst part about last night isn't what she did," she continued, not quite able to look at them all, "it's that it worked. That I told her everything."

"And then took it right back," Ginny said.

"Still," Hermione said. "I want to bind myself to the contract the same way as everyone else is—the normal members, I mean. That way I won't be able to say anything about anyone else who's involved, even if she tries again. And I think everyone else should consider doing the same."

"Agreed. Bind me too." It surprised Hermione a little that Draco was the first to agree—she'd expected Cedric or Harry to be the first—but she appreciated it enormously. One by one, the others shrugged and nodded. "But I think Potter stays unbound," Draco said. "That way, if there ever is a need to tell anyone outside the group who's in it—teachers, or the Order—it's still possible."

"Agreed," Hermione said, and looked at Harry. "If you're all right with that, that is." He nodded, seeming unfazed, and Hermione thought he had every right to be; Hermione knew firsthand just how difficult it was to prise information out of Harry that he didn't want to share, and given he was able to smell Veritaserum, and was able to resist the Imperius curse, the responsibility of being able to share the identities of Eihwaz's members would be in good hands with him. Certainly better than it would be with her, or any of the rest of them.

"Makes sense," Ron said. "Umbridge thinks it's your group anyway."

Hermione started a list (bind everyone but Harry) and then looked expectantly around at the rest of them. "What else?" she asked.

"Did you mention Eihwaz—the name, specifically—to Umbridge?" Draco asked.

She thought back and then smiled rather weakly, and said, "No. I actually think that's one of the only things I didn't tell her." And even then, only because Umbridge hadn't asked.

"Good," Draco said. "Then we should add the word Eihwaz to the contract. You can't get in here—" He gestured around the Room. "—or at least, not into this configuration of it, without that specific word, so it seems prudent to protect it."

"So make it that people can't say Eihwaz except to other people who've signed the contract?" Ginny asked, tilting her head. Draco shrugged.

"I'd go a step further," Cedric said. "And make it so that they can't even say it aloud. Harry's exempt, of course, assuming we follow the same logic as with revealing names… But we will need some way to make sure that it's only in relation to the group. We don't want a whole heap of people failing Ancient Runes because they can't use Eihwaz…"

"I'm glad you thought of that now," Hermione said ruefully.

"I'm not," Fred said.

"That could have been brilliant," George agreed, looking crestfallen.

"The problem with trying to keep it a secret now is that there are already people not bound by the contract who know the name," Harry said. "Order members, but still."

"They're not likely to be chatting about it openly anywhere Umbridge could hear, though, are they?" Ron pointed out. "Sirius and the others aren't at Hogwarts, and McGonagall and Snape and Dumbledore don't want to know about it so they can't get in trouble themselves."

Hermione didn't miss the way Harry's expression fell when Ron said Dumbledore's name, but whatever worry he still felt for the Headmaster—who'd been tired and a bit weak when he left the Room, but otherwise seemed okay to Hermione—was only fleeting:

"That's true," Harry said. "All right, yeah, add it." Hermione did. "What else?"

They were all silent for about a minute. Hermione was trying to think of anything they might have missed, and assumed the others were doing the same.

"I think," she said at last, "that what we're going to put into place is enough to protect us from accidental exposure, or from being forced to share incriminating information, the way I was last night."

"I think so," Ginny said, and Cedric nodded too.

"Is that it, then?" Fred asked.

"No," Draco said. "Umbridge might not be able to get into the Room on her own, but someone could bring her with them—" The twins looked like they might scoff at that, but then Draco continued. "—willing or not." A heavy mood settled over the Room.

"Could we make a list of people who aren't allowed inside?" George asked, looking at Ron.

"I don't think so," Ron said, mouth turning down. "The Room can keep out anyone who isn't already inside if you ask it to, but I think a list of names might be a bit beyond it." He gave the arm of the couch a gentle pat, as if in apology, and Hermione smiled a little. He looked at her. "Is there anything we could do with the contract? Any way to cover ourselves that way?"

"I don't think so," Hermione said, echoing him. "If someone's determined to hand us over to Umbridge, there's probably not a lot we can do about it… At best, we might be able to set something up that lets us know who's responsible, but I'm not sure there's much point; if we're caught, I doubt Umbridge will be offering second chances…"

"Probably not," Harry said.

"I think we should learn how to resist the Imperius curse," Cedric said. Something passed over his face, something that made him look startlingly young and vulnerable. He looked around at them all. "Hermione had it used against her last night, but I've been there too; after the fourth task. I was lucky that Sirius worked out what had happened and removed it, because I couldn't fight it." Hermione had forgotten about that and felt… not better, but at least a little less ashamed; Cedric was a Triwizard Champion, and very capable, but he hadn't done any better against the Imperius curse than she had. "It's not a nice feeling when you're not in control of yourself. I worked on it with Sirius over the summer—" That, Hermione hadn't known… though in fairness, they'd been excluded from a lot of Order things, and there'd been a lot going on. "—but I still haven't managed it. He set up a long term instruction so I could keep working on it here—"

"What instructions did he give you?" Ron asked curiously. "Nose scratching? That's what he gave me last year."

Hermione looked at him in surprise, and now that she thought back, she did remember Ron scratching his nose a lot last year. She'd put it down to allergies, or some prank of Fred and George's.

"No," Cedric said. "It was that if someone addressed me by name, I had to count to three before I could say anything back to them. It came off when we started counterspells in our Eihwaz sessions, though." He smiled ruefully. "And obviously there's been limited opportunity to get Sirius to recast it—"

"We could try," Hermione suggested quietly.

"That's sort of what I was getting at," Cedric said.

Silence followed, and it did not hold condemnation, but she got the sense no one wanted to be the first one to speak; teaching themselves defensive magic was one thing, but practicing an Unforgivable on each other—even if it was only for the purpose of learning to throw it off—was another thing entirely.

"Dark magic's not really our forte," George said at last, gesturing between himself and Fred. His voice was light-hearted, but Hermione got the impression he wasn't joking.

"So you'll draw the line there, but not with making first years sick with those sweets of yours?" Hermione asked.

"I don't see you volunteering either," Fred said.

"I'd be willing to try," Hermione said, biting her lip. It was dark magic, but it was for a good cause. Sirius had used it on them all in Defence last year—and on Cedric and Ron since, apparently—and he wasn't dark. She didn't think anything less of him for it, and it certainly didn't seem like it had corrupted him, or hurt him in any way. "But I'd still need someone to cast it on me, too."

She'd been replying to Fred, but it was Harry and Ron that she looked at.

Hermione couldn't see Ginny volunteering to insert herself into people's heads after her experience with the diary, and Draco usually made a point not to emulate his father. She thought the fact that Cedric hadn't volunteered, despite it being his idea, suggested he might not be ready to cross that line either.

That left Harry and Ron.

"I don't want to," Ron said. He looked rather apprehensive and unhappy. "But if you want to learn and no one else will do it, I will."

Fondness and a sense of wrongness surged in Hermione with equal force. There was very little Ron wouldn't do for them—his friends—but Hermione wasn't sure Ron had it in him to cast an Imperius curse and she hated the thought of him having to work to master it to be of any help. Ron was also an innocent. More so than Harry, who'd seen and heard and experienced far too much, more than Draco who'd grown up in a Dark household, more than Ginny who'd had Tom Riddle in her head for a year.

She looked at Harry, only to find him already watching her… or rather, looking between her and Ron, an odd expression on his face.

"I will," he said. He looked resigned, but it faded at the sight of the abject relief on Ron's face. His mouth quirked up and Ron looked immediately guilty.

"Harry—"

"It's okay," Harry said. "Let's just hope I'm better at this one." Ron looked stricken and Draco made a soft sound. The others didn't look as if they had much more idea than Hermione did, but Ginny was watching Harry intently, as if she thought she could figure it out if she stared hard enough at him. Harry laughed a little awkwardly. "It's okay," he said again. "I—"

A faint ringing signalled the end of lunch.

"We'll talk about it more later," Hermione said, and the others nodded, wasting no time in picking up their bags. Hermione tucked her quill away, but left the contract on the table; it would be safer here than in her school bag.

Cedric and the twins were the first to leave; Ron walked them to the door, Map in hand to make sure it was clear. Hermione headed over too and assumed the others would follow, but it was only when she and Draco reached Ron that Hermione realised Harry and Ginny had not come with them.

She glanced back.

Ginny had a hand on Harry's arm—his left arm, right above the stump of his wrist, and probably right over where the Mark was, though it was covered by his sleeve. It looked like she'd reached out to hold him back, and Hermione was a little surprised by Ginny's boldness; Harry was adjusting, but he still kept his left arm to himself most of the time. But Harry hadn't shaken Ginny off. As Hermione watched, a look passed between the two of them that she couldn't quite parse, and then Ginny spoke:

"You were much nicer to her than I was to you," Ginny said.

"It's different," Harry said, grimacing.

"Because it's not you?" Ginny asked, arching an eyebrow. Harry said nothing. "It's not that different," Ginny said. Harry looked like he wanted to disagree, but didn't. "Did you say that because you thought that was what she might need to hear?"

Harry shrugged, looking distinctly cagey now, and Ginny wrapped her arms around him. Harry looked bemused, at least until Ginny started to talk. Her voice was low, and muffled by Harry's robes, so this time, Hermione only caught snatches of what she was saying:

"...wasn't your fault."

At that, Harry baulked and made what might have been an attempt to squirm free, but Ginny held on.

"...weren't there with you. I'm sorry…"

She released him and Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. Hermione felt like she was intruding on something very private, then the moment broke; Harry curled his fingers over his left wrist and made straight for the door, disappearing through it with a quick glance at the Map on the way past. He didn't look upset, not exactly, but he did look unsettled or even a bit panicked. Ron glanced back at Ginny, who had an odd look on her face, and then shrugged at Hermione in a way that she took to mean he was going after Harry.

Hermione and Draco waited for Ginny to join them at the door.

"What was that?" Hermione asked carefully.

"That—" Ginny's voice was soft and thoughtful. "—was Harry being wrong."

Draco glanced at Hermione, who shook her head.

"Wrong about what?" Draco asked, for the both of them.

"About not getting better," Ginny replied, and a warm, fierce happiness spread over her face.