Harry had cautioned all of the D.A. members to be extra-careful, and they established a routine on the nights of each meeting of escorting everyone back safely, no exceptions. They came up with contingency plans should someone stumble upon the Room of Requirement while it was in use by them. They enlisted the help of Dobby, who promised to act as a lookout for them.
Tonight Harry was to meet Dobby in the kitchens before dinner to tell him when exactly to be at his post. Also, he was to go and meet up with Angelina so they could walk to the Great Hall together. She would be getting out of Quidditch practice with Ron and Ginny. Hermione didn't go with him—she was still uneasy about seeing Ron before she wrote to Viktor. "I want to get that bit over with," she explained. "Then Ron and I can talk."
He parted ways with his bushy-haired friend and went along to catch Dobby. The jittery little elf promised to be in the corridor on the seventh floor promptly at seven-thirty to make sure the coast was clear for the meeting.
Harry was on his way to meet up with Angelina and the others when he spotted Cho and some of her friends in the courtyard. He walked along the open corridor, watching her, thinking of her silence towards him ever since she sent him flying into that wall with her Impediment Jinx. Cho often avoided his gaze and barely spoke two words to him these days. When they had their meetings, she and her friend Marietta would always be the last to arrive and the first to leave, sticking by Ron or Hermione to escort them and never Harry. He had let these things go, thinking at first that she just needed time, but soon he began to really hate her stony silence and he longed to have back those times that she would smile sweetly at him or tell her friends to shush if they were laughing at some stupid thing he'd done out of nervousness.
She caught him looking at her and narrowed her eyes at him before turning and telling her friends she had to go. She gathered her things and walked quickly away, taking the wide way around past him to get to the other end of the courtyard so she could enter the open corridor without having to pass him directly. He sighed with frustration and jogged after her.
"Hey, Cho. Cho!" She kept walking. Harry sped up and caught her just as she was reaching the end that would lead into the main halls. "Hey, wait up a minute."
"What do you want, Harry?" Cho's voice was anything but sweet as she glared at him impatiently. Good grief, he mused to himself, is she really still upset? "I've got to get to the library before dinner…"
He knew she was lying and it made him feel bad. "Hey, what's going on with you? Why are you so mad at me?"
"I beg your pardon?" she fumed. He had never seen her this angry. "You're the one who lied to me about having a girlfriend!"
"Whoa. Cho, I did not lie to you about-!"
"Well, you didn't tell me on purpose, and that's the same as lying!" she shouted. Harry fought the urge to look around and see who was hearing this, opting to let her have out with it so he could reassure her she had been operating under the wrong assumption. "I-I almost kissed you, Harry, and you let me!"
"Hey, I didn't know what you were going to do! You totally sprung it on me, what was I supposed to-?"
"Oh bollocks, yes you did!" He was getting just a little sick of her cutting him off. He clenched his jaw angrily. "I felt like such an idiot, walking around gushing over you like some lovesick airhead…I can't believe I was so foolish!"
"Well, I'm sorry you felt that way, but honestly I didn't mean to do that. You took me by surprise, a bit..." he offered lamely, "…I thought you were still hung up on…um…Cedric." Cho raised an eyebrow at how difficult it had been for him to say Cedric's name before he added: "Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean to say that I was a little slow on the uptake—I didn't know you wanted to kiss until it was happening, and I should have said something about Angelina before, but…well, I just didn't. Sorry." Cho still looked as if she wanted to yell at him, but instead she crossed her arms and glared at her shoes. Harry, thankful for the silence, used the pause to assess his feelings for this girl before he put his foot in his mouth again. He took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "Cho, I do like you-"
She scoffed. "If you like me so much, what's the deal with Angelina Johnson?"
"She's my girlfriend." Harry said simply. He didn't think she understood what he meant, because her mouth dropped open and she stamped her foot angrily.
"Harry, you just said you liked me! You're a jerk!" She was turning on her heel to stomp away from him but he rolled his eyes at her and caught her, spinning her around by the arms until she was facing him again. "Let me go, you bloody jerk!"
"Hey, hey, calm down will you?" He laughed at her feeble attempts to hit him and this caused her to screech with fury, her round cheeks turning red as she tried to yank herself free. "Oi, Cho, knock that off-!" he said when she tried to stamp on his foot. He let her go and she stood breathing at him, her eyes like razors. Harry waited for her to try to hit him again, but when she didn't he thought maybe she was going to let him finish. After a beat or two of making sure, he blinked at her patiently. "Listen, you're not letting me finish. I was saying that I do like you, but not like…I used to."
"Like you used to?" Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her eyes sparkled and her smooth, fair skin glowed. He cleared his throat, warning himself to stop noticing these things, before nodding.
"Yeah, like we said in the Room of Requirement. I had a pretty big crush on you." He shrugged and sighed. "But you went off with Cedric and Angelina and me sort of…you know, got together after that."
"Oh." She looked away from him, down at her shoes again, before asking in that tiny, sweet voice of hers: "When you say 'got together'…you mean…?"
"Er…we kissed and stuff, yeah." Harry felt very embarrassed, but pressed on. "I would rather it had been with you, but it just didn't happen like that. So now Angelina and I are together—and we really like each other. I was just so surprised when you told me that you had liked me too that okay maybe I, um, sort of played dumb when I knew you were gonna kiss me, and I'm really sorry." He added this last when she jerked her hand up as if to strike. He really had to figure out why it was impossible to be anything but honest with her. "I guess my point is that I still like you, Cho, but as a friend. I want us to be really good friends."
Cho considered him. She looked slightly crestfallen that he used the term friend to define his feelings for her, but also she looked glad that he had admitted the truth. He could not tell which side was the strongest, though. To his relief, she offered him a tiny smile and lowered her hand.
Without really thinking about it, Harry poked her on her hip. "Cho come on. We can be friends, can't we?"
She frowned but it quickly turned into a smile when he poked her again. "Stop it, Harry."
"Not until you say we're friends." He poked her a third time and she giggled. "See? You're so cute. Come on we have to be friends."
"Don't say things like that, Harry," Cho told him, her eyes becoming serious again. He thought he knew which side of her was stronger, now. Perhaps it would take her longer to think of him as a friend. He stopped poking her and stood waiting. She sighed. "Okay, then. Friends."
"Excellent." Harry grinned. He decided against giving her a hug, even though he really wanted to. He supposed that behavior like that (along with saying things like he thought she was cute, even though honestly he did) would not be a good idea for a while yet. Truthfully there was still a very large part of him that remained rather curious about where they would've ended up if he had not realized he liked Angelina. But all that was past, now. He told her he would see her later and they were about to part ways when Cho said softly: "She's really pretty…"
"Huh?"
"Angelina." She smiled at him; rather sadly, he thought. "You two make a good couple, and…a-and I'm happy for you, Harry."
He returned her smile. "Cheers."
The air was icy and stung his cheeks as he walked quickly down the winding path that skirted the lake and twisted around near the edge of the forest, hurrying towards the pitch. The castle sank behind the slope of the grounds at his back and he hugged himself, his breath coming out in little misty puffs. The sight of the enormous Quidditch pitch filled Harry with longing as he approached it, and he sniffed a little; his nose was getting numb from the cold. The sky was gray, cloudless, and heavy. He reckoned that snow wasn't too far off. Another few days, at most, and they would be besieged by fat white flakes of the stuff falling upon the waiting earth that he tread now.
Harry saw Angelina, Ginny, Ron, and the rest of the team coming up out of the tunnel that led to the changing rooms towards him when he stepped out onto the pitch. They all looked beat.
"Hey," Angelina called, hoisting her bag back up on her shoulder and smiling wearily at him. Her nose was red from exposure to the icy atmosphere. "You didn't have to come all the way out here."
"No big deal. How was practice?" Harry took her bag from her, even though she didn't ask, and put it over his own shoulder as he fell into step with her and Ron, who was quiet as per usual these days.
"Brutal." Ginny said from behind them. "I swear those Bludgers need to be replaced. The spell on them is so old, they've gone completely crazy. One of them almost took me out halfway through, and no one had touched it."
"Sort of reminded me of that time when you lost your bones, Harry." Angelina added, trying to get the bag back from him. He switched sides with Ron to keep her away from it. "But Ron here is getting much better at saving goals," she said encouragingly, patting Ron on the back. "Aren't you Ron?"
Ron grunted something that sounded like: "Yeah, sure."
Harry had tucked the book Hermione had given him under his arm, and now he let it slip into his hand as he hoisted Angelina's bag again. "Here…" he said, handing it to her. She frowned and took it, her eyes scanning the cover. He watched her do this, paying particular attention to the small noise she made upon finishing the title.
"Oh. Thanks."
They walked on, Ron falling behind a little and Angelina and Harry taking up the lead. The team members chatted amongst each other behind them. Angelina had opened the book and was skimming the pages carefully, her eyes moving back and forward over the text as she walked alongside Harry.
"Why are you reading about Memory Charms?" he asked her with genuine casualness.
She hesitated before answering him, which he noticed and thought was kind of odd. "No reason, really…just curious. Why?"
Harry looked at her sideways. She was not looking at him, but at the ground that they tread as they walked along, her eyes unfocused as he had seen them so many times before. He shrugged. "Hermione's very excited that you've taken up her nerdy habit of devouring books. Better be careful or she'll be dragging you to the library on your free periods all the time."
"Ah…well, she's been very helpful." Her tone was making him want to ask her more questions. He was feeling a bit like he had weeks ago, when she was always lost in thought. She hadn't been doing this as much lately, but then he understood that this was probably because she was being more careful about behaving like that around him. This did not sit well with him. Harry thought for a split second about Malfoy's scribbled words and he was on the point of asking her what had triggered her interest in that subject matter, but didn't receive a chance. Angelina had stopped walking suddenly, looking around them as if she were seeing this area of the path back up to the castle for the first time. That was a silly thing to think, though, because they had all walked this way a thousand times before.
"What is it?"
She was staring at a tree; staring at it hard. "Huh?" she asked, distracted. The others caught up to them and stopped, watching Angelina as Harry was with curiosity.
"Hey what's that you're looking at?" Ginny asked.
"Uh…just thought I forgot something down in the changing rooms for a second."
Angelina glanced at Harry before moving on up the path towards the castle, clutching the book tightly against her chest. Harry watched her go, trying to decide if he should be concerned. Everyone moved on as if there was nothing amiss and then Ron came up, his head held low. Harry set aside his curiosity concerning Angelina and watched his friend amble up the path toward him, looking every bit as brooding and miserable as ever. He sighed and fell into step with his friend. Ron barely noticed; he was staring at his feet, seemingly lost in thought. They made it all the way back up to the front steps of the castle in silence before Harry hoisted Angelina's bag up again and stopped walking.
"Hey, Ron, wait a sec."
"What?" Ron turned to face him, one foot on a stone step, his shoulders hunched and his red hair in his eyes. His expression was dark.
Harry gave a sigh. "You're still mad at me, aren't you?"
"Why would I be mad at you?"
"I promised to help you figure out this Hermione thing and I just left you hanging, I'm sorry."
Ron stared at him for a bit, but shrugged somberly and turned to finish the ascent to the front doors. "Doesn't matter…" he muttered over his shoulder. Harry caught up with him, somewhat encumbered by Angelina's heavy bag.
"Yes, it does."
"Harry, really, I don't wanna talk about it, okay?" Ron said flatly, not looking at him.
"Ron, you've been sulking-!"
"I do not sulk, Harry!"
Harry bit back his retort and nodded. "Okay, you don't sulk, but you've been acting all cranky for a long time and it's driving me crazy. You've got to get out of this rut and just tell her you like her."
"I did!" Ron snapped, causing several people to stare at them. They stopped just outside the doors to the Great Hall.
"No, you sprung a big kiss on her in front of Luna of all people right before a match."
Ron gritted his teeth. "Well it didn't do any good, all right, she ran away from me so I—don't—wanna—talk about it."
He turned and stomped into the Great Hall without another word, leaving Harry to drag Angelina's heavy bag in by himself. Ron sat with Seamus and Dean down on Fred and George's end of the table for dinner. Hermione tried to act as if she didn't notice, but her conversation was a bit wooden and she struggled through the entire meal trying to seem oblivious to Ron's brooding form down the table.
"How're you finding your reading on Memory Charms, Angelina?" she asked the seventh year when they were starting dessert, trying and failing to sound casual and not at all concerned with Ron's behavior. She took a bite of strawberry shortcake, her eyes flickering down towards his end before returning to Angelina. Harry watched Angelina gulp down a huge swig of pumpkin juice before shrugging quickly.
"Oh, fine. Thanks for the book," she said dismissively, not looking at Harry.
"Okay, that's it." Both Hermione and Angelina raised their eyebrows at his sharp tone. "What's going on with you?"
Before Angelina could answer him, Fred tossed a sugar biscuit down the table that landed in Harry's custard pie.
"Oi, Harry!" the Weasley twin hissed.
Harry looked up and saw both Fred and George giving him quite meaningful looks. Angelina frowned at him, but he only shrugged. Fred gestured behind him, where the Slytherin table was. Malfoy was sitting with his usual flank of cronies, chewing lazily. Fred picked up the biscuit platter and gave Harry a thumbs up. Harry watched Fred stand with the biscuit platter and saunter over to the Slytherin table.
"What's he doing?" Angelina asked skeptically, watching her friend walk across the Great Hall towards Malfoy.
"I think he wants a trade," Harry said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
Indeed, Fred stopped just beside Malfoy with the platter. By now several people at the Gryffindor table had their heads turned in his direction, also wondering what on earth was going on. Malfoy looked up at Fred and his eyes shrank with loathing. "Lose your way, Weasel?" he sneered silkily. "The pathetic losers' table is in the opposite direction."
"Pipe down Malfoy," Fred said dismissively, leaning over the boy's head to squint at the dessert platters on their table. "I just wanted to...ah...here it is. I hate sugar biscuits and I know these two knobs'll eat anything, so I fancied a trade." He indicated Crabbe and Goyle as he sat his platter on the table and picked up a platter piled with brownies. Before Malfoy could open his mouth to insult him again, he waved casually and sang "Tata, enjoy the biscuits, boys." The lot of them stared at him as he walked cheerfully back over to the Gryffindor table. He picked up a brownie, bit into it, and wiggled his eyebrows at Harry. "Yummy…" he mumbled through a full mouth.
Harry thought this had been the most obvious display ever. If Malfoy took one of those biscuits, which he probably would not, then whatever happened to him would be a direct result of something Fred and George had done to them and Umbridge or whoever else would see right through that. Harry turned back to the Slytherin table. Malfoy had pushed the platter away with disgust and Crabbe and Goyle were looking at it as if they really, really wanted to eat a biscuit but wouldn't dare.
"That was weird…" Angelina said, turning her skeptical gaze again to him. Harry could only nod in agreement. He waited until Angelina and the others had returned to their dessert before looking over at the twins again. They were eating their brownies, seemingly very pleased with themselves.
"What was that?" he mouthed when he caught George's gaze.
"Just wait…" George mouthed back.
Harry ate, his mind buzzing with anticipation. What would happen? Would Malfoy suddenly turn into a jackass in the middle of all these other students? Would he crumble into a fit of giggles until his face turned blue? As Harry finished his pie, he chanced another glance at the Slytherin table and saw, to his extreme intrigue, that Malfoy was reaching over to the biscuit platter. He stopped chewing, his mouth falling open slightly as he watched, unable to help himself. Angelina saw him staring and turned around too.
Malfoy did not draw his hand back holding a sugar biscuit, but a small white piece of parchment folded in half. Harry watched as the other boy opened the note and read it, his lips moving faintly and his brow furrowing. When he had finished, he looked up sharply, his eyes landing right on Harry's.
Harry knew he should be looking serious and threatening just then, because it seemed quite clear that Fred had slipped the note for Malfoy to open and that it contained an invitation for a duel.
Malfoy's eyes were burning into him; so Harry closed his mouth, swallowed his pie, and glared right back. The Slytherin boy's expression was blank, but his eyes conveyed all the same feelings of loathing for Harry that Harry held for him. Then he moved his gaze, for a split second, from Harry to Angelina. She reacted by abruptly turning around to her plate again.
"What was that look?" Harry asked her, turning away too.
"What was that note?" Angelina whispered to him.
He couldn't answer. Hermione and Ginny were staring at them. "I don't know…" he lied.
"Well, it certainly was strange," Hermione said skeptically, eyeing Harry. "That is the first time I've ever seen Fred go over there. Are they up to something, Harry?"
Harry saw them all looking at him and reacted almost instinctively; his brain telling him to protect the knowledge of what was going on from them because they did not understand. "Not that I'm aware of."
Ginny scoffed but remained silent. After a few minutes, Harry had busied himself taking cherries from a bowl near him and popping them in his mouth. He could feel Ginny's stare on the side of his face, making the miniscule hairs stand up. Angelina was looking down the table at Fred and George, who were still eating brownies and acting as if nothing was nothing.
Just then Filch came in; his crooked saunter faster than usual. He passed them and they all turned to watch him make his way over to the staff table, where he stopped next to Umbridge and bent as low as his rheumatism would allow to whisper something in her ear. Harry heard someone clearing their throat faintly behind him and knew that it was either Fred or George. Sure enough, Umbridge was smiling now as if Filch had just told her she'd won a thousand Galleons and was getting up from the staff table to follow him.
Harry watched as the two of them advanced, momentarily apprehensive that they were coming for him. They bypassed the Gryffindor table, however, and Umbridge walked straight up to Draco. He was still clutching the note in his hand. He looked up at her skeptically and Harry imaged he was trying to decide if she was going to pin a medal on him right there in front of everybody and name him her Head Sneak or if he was in trouble.
"Malfoy, would you kindly step out with me, please?" she purred.
Draco's eyes narrowed and he asked boldly: "What for?"
"On yer feet, boy." Filch rasped. "You heard the Professor."
Harry watched Draco's eyes flicker toward the staff table for some reason. Then the cold blue gaze of his enemy landed on him again for a split second before he crushed the parchment Fred had given him in his palm and stood up. Harry kept his watch on the three of them until they were out of sight through the doors and then quickly turned to the staff table where Draco had looked. He scanned the seats, coming to one teacher's face after the other, until he found Snape. The Potions Master was staring down the path to the doors of the Great Hall quite intensely.
He turned to find Fred and George with expressions of roguish ecstasy on their freckled faces.
"Looks like we're about to see the arrival of another decree from hell," Ginny muttered bitterly.
Hermione sighed. "That's it, then. We've got to take more precautions with the D.A. now that Malfoy's getting what he wanted."
Harry said nothing. Neither did Angelina. She looked very grave.
The crowd moving through towards the exit at dinner's end seemed especially dense tonight. Harry had stolen a few looks over at the Slytherins to see if Malfoy had told any of them about the note. No one was doing anything out of the ordinary; Crabbe and Goyle were shuffling along several people behind him, not looking angry or riled up, but stuffed from eating too much as usual. Angelina squeezed his arm and he turned back to face her.
"Tell me the truth, Harry, what was that note about?"
"How should I know?" was his elusive response.
"Come off it. Fred clearly wanted you to see what he did. And Draco looked right at you when he read it. Tell me what it said."
Harry considered her for a moment and then shook his head. "No, you tell me why you're acting weird again. What was so special about that tree you were staring at on our way back from the pitch? And how come you're reading up on memory alteration?"
She didn't answer him right away, which was an ominous sight in of itself. When she did speak her voice was diminished again as it had been the night they argued in the little corridor. "I'm…I think I've…I can't tell you."
Harry sighed deeply. The two of them were merely being shuffled along by the other moving students, and didn't seem to be aware of anyone but each other as their gazes stayed locked. Harry moved his feet but his mind remained on his girlfriend, who looked very distressed to him right then. "Angelina, tell me what's wrong."
Her distress melted and was replaced by frustration. "You tell me what you and the twins are up to!"
They had reached the open doorway and almost come to a stand-still when Harry saw Draco out of the corner of his eye. He was standing with Umbridge at the threshold of the great oak doors, looking very trapped. Suddenly the twins were on either side of Harry, nudging him in the ribs. "They're waiting for him to come up, I'll bet." Fred whispered.
"Perfect timing," George added. "Bloody perfect! We didn't expect him to arrive so soon. Oh, this is meant to be, Harry!"
"What are you talking about?" Angelina demanded.
She was joined by Ginny and Hermione, and hovering nearby was Ron looking very attentive despite his pining demeanor. Harry opened his mouth but it was Fred who answered. "Nothing for you to worry about, Angie."
"Oh really?" Angelina glared at the tree of them, crossing her arms. "Well you'd better tell me, now, or I'm marching straight over there to Umbridge and-!"
"You won't do any such thing, Johnson." George said seriously.
"Harry…" Hermione spoke, looking very concerned. "What's going on?"
"Leave them alone, Hermione." Again Harry was prevented from speaking; this time by Ron. His voice was very quiet, but forbidding, and he stared at the girls as if he would have no protest from them whatsoever. The severity of his gaze, coupled with the suddenness of hearing him actually speak more than two words clearly to them after so long, even made Angelina blanch. She uncrossed her arms slowly. "Come on, or we'll be late," he said, referring to the D.A. meeting they were to have tonight. He gave Harry a look that said fill me in later and turned to walk up the steps, his hands in his pockets and his red hair falling into his eyes again. Ginny and Hermione turned to follow him silently. Angelina glared at Harry and the twins some more, then her gaze shifted to Malfoy and Umbridge again.
"Fine," she relented after a beat of watching the teacher and her captive. Harry wanted very much to follow her up the stairs and demand that she do some explaining of her own, but just then the great oak doors opened and Lucius Malfoy stepped in from the cold, the sterling silver snake's head topping his long black cane glinting in the light of the chandelier.
The students still filing out of the Great Hall turned their heads to peer at the new arrival, some murmuring amongst themselves. Harry, Fred, and George found themselves being surveyed stonily by the tall, white-blond haired man draped in black. His lip curled up upon sight of Harry but then his gaze fell on Draco.
Harry had never seen the elder Malfoy look so threatening, except maybe that time he accidentally set Dobby free.
"Ah, Lucius Malfoy, so good of you to take time out of your busy schedule to join me for a conference this evening," Umbridge simpered, though Lucius did not take his shining eyes off of his son. "As you've already read in my letter, I've been subjected to quite inappropriate behavior from your son, and I thought it was high time that you and I-"
"Yes, well if you don't mind, Delores, I would prefer it if we could carry this conversation to a more private location." Lucius interrupted her, his silky voice cutting across her gravely and his cold blue eyes flashing.
Umbridge stammered on her words a bit, but recovered. "Yes. Of course…" she said evenly.
Draco was almost visibly shaking with what looked to Harry like anger—perhaps he was angry that he was so scared? Or angry that his father had come to humiliate him in front of Umbridge after he had so boldly tried to intimidate her with his childish threats? Or…was he angry about the note that Fred had given him? Harry could not peel his eyes away from the scene. He secretly hoped for the kind of whimpering, cringing display of fear Draco had shown on several other occasions over the years.
"Potter! Weasley's! Stop your gawking; get upstairs and to your dorms this instant! One second behind curfew and that's thirty points from Gryffindor!" Snape's harsh voice invaded Harry's thoughts and he turned sharply to see the Potions Master angrily striding towards them from the Great Hall. Fred and George sauntered away and up the stairs. Harry reluctantly turned to follow them. Snape scowled at him before sweeping past the stairs and heading towards Umbridge and the Malfoy's. Harry heard over his shoulder as he walked a little too slowly behind the twins: "Lucius, what brings you to Hogwarts so late?"
"I was delayed at the Ministry, Severus, but my business here does not concern you I'm afraid," came elder Malfoy's calculated reply. "I am here to have a conference with Professor Umbridge about my…son." The word 'son' was spoken with thinly-veiled repugnance.
"I see…" came Snape's quiet reply. "Well. Do, if you have time, stop by the dungeons when your conference is over?"
"If I have time, Severus."
"If you'll excuse us, Professor Snape?" Umbridge spoke impatiently.
"Very well."
Harry almost tripped over a step, he was listening so hard. Once he knew the conversation was over, he sprinted up the remaining steps to find the twins up ahead ambling down the corridor. "Hey!" he called after them.
"What'd we miss?" they chimed without hesitation as he fell into step with them. He filled them in on what he had heard; they all three broke into sprints up to their floor, talking excitedly. The twins beamed and gave each other high fives. "Yes! Right about now they're going up to Umbridge's office to rake that little sod over the coals but good!" Fred whispered evilly.
"But what about your note?" Harry asked nervously as they entered the common room. "I mean, what if he lets them see it or they notice he's got it? What if he denies ever writing that threat to Umbridge?" He was becoming anxious and a little frightened by the shrill excitement pumping through him.
"Be easy, lad. This plan is fool-proof," was Fred's calm answer. "I knew that when Daddy Malfoy walked in right on cue! Did ya see that? Bloody brilliant, that was."
"Yes, but we have to make sure!" Harry said impatiently, despite himself. He had been sucked into their plan, and he didn't want to see it fail now, he realized.
"So, go…" came a quiet voice from the stairs leading to the boys' dorms. They turned to see Ron coming down, wearing his regular robes and carrying his wand. "Get your Invisibility Cloak and head them off before they get to Umbridge's office."
Harry blinked at his friend, setting aside his surprise at the sudden appearance and the nonchalance of the suggestion. "Too late, probably. They've made it there by now."
"Then listen at the door, but if you hear them mention the note then you'll have to come up with some kind of diversion or something so you can get it back before they see it."
Harry shook his head, perplexed. "Ron, don't you even want to know what this is about?"
"You guys running a game on Malfoy?" Harry and the twins nodded. "Then I don't need to know the details right now. Hurry up, Harry."
Without hesitation, Harry sped up to his room, fetched his cloak and his Marauder's Map, and zoomed back down into the common room again. He was about to ask what in bloody hell he would use as a distraction when George said: "Think fast, Harry!" before throwing a small object at him. Harry caught it and discovered that it was a bluish-black chew labeled "#307."
"What about the D.A. meeting? I'm the teacher, I can't be late."
"Just say Filch stopped you and you had to stall him for a while, now get your arse in gear or you'll miss them." Ron said, shooing him out through the portrait hole when he had thrown on the Invisibility Cloak.
"I want everyone to start learning how to shield themselves, okay? You know, like I showed you and Hermione?" Harry hissed from under the cloak as they parted ways.
"Fine, fine…" Ron uttered, actually smiling for the first time in weeks. He waved his hand at what he thought was Harry. "Go!"
Harry heard Fred say to his little brother: "You'll never guess what we did…it's bloody brilliant, it is..." as he made his way towards the corridor leading down to Umbridge's office.
"The matter isn't simply that he chose to threaten me for his own gain, Mr. Malfoy. It is the blatant disrespect he has shown in doing so. I simply cannot have any student of mine, however respectable a family they come from, show such petty disregard for authority in my school."
Lucius took a moment to slide his lips up into a curious smile, his eyebrows rising slightly along with them. "Your school, is it, Delores?" he uttered from his sitting position across from her at her desk. His gloved fingers played with the silver snake's head that topped his cane. "My, my, we are ambitious."
"Ahem," she cleared her throat and her eyes flickered pointedly to Draco, who was sitting next to his father, his fist tightly clenched at his side and his eyes staring straight ahead at nothing. "Ambition has nothing to do with it. This boy tried to blackmail me, Lucius," she said to him, dropping all pretence. "Now what are you going to do about it?"
"Draco knows that he crossed a line," Lucius responded coldly. "And he will be punished accordingly."
"By whom? You?" Umbridge said as if she found something funny.
"Oh yes…" sighed Lucius quite forebodingly. Draco stirred in his seat but said nothing. There was silence for a moment, in which the full weight of the elder Malfoy's statement could be felt. Many sinister things could be discerned from what he said, and judging by the boy's colorless face and vacant eyes, one could guess that Lucius had the means and the will to punish his son very severely.
"Well," chirped Delores, breaking the heavy silence. "All the same, I will of course be carrying out my own punishment."
Lucius inclined his head slightly. "If you wish." He turned to his son and pointed his cane in the direction of the door to the office. "Draco, leave us. I want to have a word with Professor Umbridge alone."
"Yes, father." Draco clenched his jaw and stood up to leave the room.
"Do not stray, Draco. I want to speak with you as well before I leave."
Trying not to let the cold fear wash over him completely, Draco opened the door and stepped out.
When he was gone Lucius leaned forward and surveyed Delores with unadorned disdain. "Would you mind explaining to me just how in hell you let a fifteen-year-old boy to get the better of you?" he spat, his blue eyes flashing again.
Delores smiled sweetly, her own eyes hard with coldness. "I did no such thing," she replied as though his tone did little to affect her. "You're the one, Lucius, who has been foolish. How on earth did that boy come to find out about our arrangement?"
"Well, Draco is resourceful." He smiled somewhat whimsically, "Seems we've both underestimated him on that count. He takes after me in that way, I suppose. I assure you anything he found out did not come from my lips."
"Well, that is beside the point, isn't it? He knows, and he threatened to go to the Minister!"
Lucius scoffed at her, leaning back in the chair again. "Do you really think that anyone at the Ministry would hold stock in anything a child has to say?"
"Oh wouldn't they? Have you forgotten why I came you in the first place? I have had quite a task in keeping that awful little Potter boy's lies from spreading without having to deal with your 'child's' threats to destroy everything I've worked to accomplish!"
Lucius sneered at her. "The Potter brat and my son should not be compared, ever. Understood?"
They regarded each other sourly for a beat.
"He must not repeat what he knows to anyone, Lucius." Umbridge dropped her simpering tone and her smile faded to a tight frown, such was the gravity of what she was saying. "If the Minister found out that I ordered Dementors after Potter, everything will be ruined and we will both have to answer for it."
"Since it was I that arranged their cooperation with you, I dare say I am well aware of the consequences..." Lucius said stiffly in response. "Do not assume for a second that I will let that happen."
"Then we understand each other."
"Quite clearly, it seems."
"Good." She rose from her desk and he followed suit, taking up his cane and obliging her with a curt bow before turning and sweeping his robes up. He strode across the office to the door, where he turned and surveyed his surroundings with a disapproving eye.
"You know, I do believe I understand now why you find it hard for these students to take you seriously, Delores. These…kittens and this…pink lace everywhere?"
"What about them?" she ventured stiffly.
"Come now, Delores…" the man scoffed at her callously. "You are an adult, aren't you?
"Good night to you, Lucius!"
His mouth slanted into a superior smile. "Good night."
He left her fuming at her desk, her frolicking kitten plates suddenly seeming vulgar to her beady eyes.