Chapter 17 – Resistance is Stylish

Daphne had Tracey arrange a meeting between all of their friends 'in the know' about Voldemort the weekend after Harry's occlumency session with Dumbledore. Art Club had met, and Daphne apparently had everything she needed to teach everyone else the proper spells. So they crammed in to one of the far-flung study alcoves in the library on Saturday morning while most of the rest of the school was off watching Quidditch.

Harry was a little bit disappointed to miss the first match of the year, but he supposed that their plans were more important. And given that there were more matches planned that year than for any other, he could catch one of the others.

"Show me again how to hold the wand," Justin asked after Daphne had finished explaining one of the art spells. "It's not like how you normally do it..."

"No," said Daphne, "you've got to kind of hold it like this. Technically, you don't have to, but Mrs Macmillan said it's easier to control the chalk when it comes out."

"Hmm," said Justin. He tried again.

"There—see, much better," said Daphne, beaming.

And so the morning went on. Daphne – with occasional assistance from Ernie, who had learned many of the spells from his mother years before – taught Harry and the rest of their friends the spells they would need for their upcoming campaign of havoc against the Inquisition. Harry thought they probably could have got away with Daphne teaching the Slytherins and Ernie teaching the Hufflepuffs, but he supposed it would help if all his friends started learning to work together.

If for no other reason than it was more convenient for Harry.

"This is actually a good bit of fun," Tracey declared after a little while. "I thought it wouldn't be as fun as using real paints and stuff like that but it's not that different! And so much cleaner."

"Mum does always say it's better to use the real stuff," Ernie said, "but you're right—it is cleaner this way."

"Why's it better?" asked Harry.

"Oh, you know Mum," Ernie said. "It's not practically better, just, you know, part of the spirit of art and all that guff."

Harry nodded. That did sound right for Mairi.

"Oh, but I can see what she means," said Daphne. "It isn't quite the same, is it? I do think you lose something doing it from a wand instead of a paintbrush."

"Wands are better for what we need all this for, though," said Susan. "Can you imagine what it would be like to get caught with a pot of paint after those messages are found? They'd know it was you straight away."

"Mm," said Blaise. "At least we've got a reasonable excuse for always having our wands on us."

"Still doesn't help if we're caught out after hours, though," Millicent said. "Well, at least, it doesn't for all of us who aren't prefects."

"Oh, Millie, you know we said we'd find good times for everyone to get about," said Daphne. "Times like this morning, when everyone's out, or... well, you know."

Millicent shrugged.

"I'm not complaining," she said. "Just pointing it out."

"We'll all be fine," said Tracey. "And we're all really sensible—I don't think any of us has really been in trouble before even—so even if we do get caught doing something I bet it won't be that bad."

"Unless they punish us worse to make an example," said Blaise. "That seems like something Umbridge would do."

Tracey frowned.

"Oh, I suppose she would do that."

"If anything serious happens I'll take the blame," Harry said. "I don't really care about what Umbridge does—she can't hurt me. If I get kicked out of school I'll just hire tutors or something like that." Of course, he didn't want that to happen. Getting kicked out of Hogwarts seemed like an awful consequence for going against Umbridge and her nonsense but given that the Ministry had gone to such lengths to force everyone into Hogwarts in the first place, he doubted that would happen. "And it's just a bit of graffiti, isn't it? Remember when they caught Montague and his lot drawing knobs over all the desks—even then the punishment was just cleaning muggle-style."

"Isn't what we're doing a bit more—um—seditious than that, though?" said Susan. "Not that I'm saying we shouldn't do it or that I won't help, because I will," she continued, "but we do have to be careful, don't we? Because depending on what we say specifically, we could get into a lot of trouble." She paused. "It's just, you know, the Inquisition is a Ministry body and if we say the wrong kinds of things and annoy the wrong people then there could be real consequences..."

Harry nodded. He understood that. Even though he had little to fear in the way of consequences for his actions his friends had family working at the Ministry, or families with good standing in the community, that sort of thing. Except for Blaise, whose mother was often under suspicion of something, but she had more than enough money to ignore silly little things like Ministry censure.

If she wanted to she could bribe people to stop talking or, if it really came to it, could simply flee the country for pastures new.

"I'll make sure we don't, er, do anything particularly treasonous," Harry said. "I promise. Look, I don't want to do anything stupid. It's not like we're trying to bring down the Ministry, is it? But what the Inquisition is doing here is all—I mean, it's just..." He shrugged. "You know. It's getting a bit much. And it's not fair. So we have to do something. And," he said, lowering his voice, "we know it's all got something to do with Voldemort. We just don't know what. So I still think it's a good idea even if there are consequences." He paused. "I mean, consequences short of being put on trial for conspiracy."

Susan went white at the mention of Voldemort. But she eventually nodded.

"I know. I trust Dumbledore knows what he's doing," Susan said, "but I do wish we could let my aunt know."

"Well, she'll find out eventually, won't she?" said Blaise darkly. "I don't imagine this is all going to go away, no matter what we do."

There was silence. Harry didn't look forward to that part of the future. Probably hated the idea more than anyone else, as he'd come closer to Voldemort than the others ever had.

Hopefully closer than they ever would.

"We can deal with that later," Harry said. "For now, we know what we've got to do. There's going to be time to worry about that later. So we should work out what we're going to write, where, and when. That's what we need to be doing for now. Agreed?"

Everyone agreed. After that, talk changed from Voldemort and to the specific activities they would each be doing over the coming days. By the time they were done the Quidditch match had clearly ended, as students came trickling back into the library, so they cleaned up and went their separate ways.

On Monday evening Harry and Tracey snuck out of the Slytherin Common Room to daub messages around the school. It was the first such outing any of Harry's friends had made, and fortunately, he and Tracey would be able to use Harry's Invisibility Cloak. That had been part of why they'd decided to do it in the evening after dinner – the other part being that Daphne and Pansy were assigned patrol duties in the section of the castle they planned to be in. Although Pansy was the furthest thing away from an ally in their endeavours, Harry knew Daphne would be able to goad her into doing as Daphne wanted.

So Harry and Tracey found themselves on the second floor, just past the tapestry concealing an entrance to the ground floor, waiting until Daphne and Pansy made their rounds.

"God, I hope they don't take too long," Harry whispered while under the Cloak. "I'm feeling a bit... twitchy."

"We'll be fine," Tracey said. "And we're invisible, so—"

She went silent and pointed.

Daphne and Pansy came around the corner from where Lockhart had his office.

"...when I do these patrols with Draco we leave this part until last," Pansy was saying. "I think it's better that way."

"The other corridor has funnier paintings," said Daphne. "I always go there last with Harry, because it's more fun that way."

Pansy didn't seem to like that answer.

"But when I do this with Draco," she continued, "doing it later means we get to see Professor Lockhart coming out of his office. I know you don't like boys, but the rest of us girls do, and sometimes he wears a low-cut robe so you can see his chest hair..."

"Ugh," said Daphne. "Brilliant. Thanks for ruining my evening, Pansy. Honestly, who wants to hear about that? Come on, let's just go. If you really need to see a middle-aged man's chest hair we can come back again later." Daphne walked away.

"He's not a middle-aged man," Pansy protested, but Daphne was already gone.

Pansy hesitated but followed her, and soon enough both girls were gone.

"Does he really wear a low-cut robe?" Tracey asked once she and Harry were alone again. "So you can see his chest hair?"

"He does," confirmed Harry. "It's not great, to be honest."

"I suppose that depends on your perspective," Tracey said. She shrugged. "I would have thought Lockhart used depilatory charms, though. He seems like he would."

"Okay. Right," Harry said.

Do girls really like chest hair? Harry wondered. He didn't have any. He supposed there was still time, but... Well, it wasn't as if he needed anything else to worry about.

"Oh, but we can talk about this later. Come on, let's get to it!" Tracey said. Taking a look up and down the corridor, she then left the safety of the Invisibility Cloak to look for a nice stretch of wall. There were no portraits in that section of the corridor, just the tapestry and a suit of armour, so there was a decent amount of space on the walls.

Harry shook his head to get rid of any and all thoughts of Lockhart, then followed Tracey. They'd all discussed a whole range of different things that they'd write around the school. Tracey would write some messages in Welsh, while Harry would tackle some more explicitly anti-Inquisition messages.

Harry picked a non-descript section of wall to write his message.

He stood back and cast the spell that made his wand into a paintbrush and wrote the first of his messages. He cast the charm that made the paint especially hard to remove and then stood back to admire his handiwork.

THE INQUISITION IS NOT WELCOME HERE

RESIST

DENY

DO NOT COOPERATE

Between them all, Harry and his friends had chosen many different kinds of messages. Some were anti-Voldemort, others anti-Umbridge, and others still were meant more as empowering statements. Harry glanced over at where Tracey was still writing.

YMA O HYD

Huge words covered the whole section of wall, near enough from floor to ceiling, each letter a different colour.

"What's that mean?" Harry asked.

"It's something like, 'we're still here'," Tracey said. "I thought it was a nice thing to say especially since the Inquisition has been telling people off for not speaking English. D'you remember Llinos complaining about—oh, well, it doesn't matter." She shrugged. "Just being written in a language that isn't English will piss off the Inquisition, I think. It's just a shame I don't speak Irish. Come on, we should go do some more. I think Daph and Pansy will be coming back 'round soon anyway."

"Yeah, alright," Harry said. "Get back under the Cloak just in case," he said, and once they were both safely under the Cloak once again, they went off in search of a new space for their messages.

They spent another hour or so at it until they eventually slipped back inside the Common Room just as Daphne and Pansy were returning from their prefect patrol duties.

The next morning it was clear to Harry that their activities had been noticed by Umbridge, as she spent the entirety of breakfast scowling at the gathered mass of students, as well as staring. When breakfast was almost over Umbridge stood to make an announcement.

"Hem, hem," she said. "Last night a subversive incident occurred after hours, one which must be addressed. Vandals have descended upon the hallowed halls of this school, writing anti-Ministry messages and defiling centuries old panelling. Such behaviour will not be tolerated at Hogwarts and is of course against the school rules."

Umbridge paused.

"The High Inquisition and the office of the Headmaster are in complete agreement that the perpetrators of this crime must be punished to the fullest extent of the Hogwarts School Charter. What has been written on the second floor is unacceptable. Anyone with any information on this vicious and nasty act should speak to an Inquisitor at once."

Umbridge sat back down.

Slowly noise crept throughout the Great Hall as the gathered students wondered what, exactly, had happened.

Exactly what we wanted to happen! Harry thought. It was a small victory, but it was a victory. He glanced at Tracey, who was smiling. All around the Slytherin table – and the rest of the Hall – Harry could hear people talking about Umbridge's announcement.

"What sort of subversive messages do you reckon she was on about?" Oliver Wash was saying to Charlie Miller.

"Stupid bitch never should have said anything about anything," Harry heard one of the fifth years saying to his companions. "Now everyone's going to want a look." He paused. "Fancy a go at it before Charms?"

"I think we've got we wanted," Blaise said to Harry in a whisper. "I wonder how angry she's going to get before we're done."

Harry shrugged.

"Dunno. Remember how she was back in first year, when her expedition got messed up in the Forest? If we can get her halfway to that I reckon we can call it a win."

Blaise grinned.

"God, yeah. Well. We'll see."

Of course, someone had died during that and the whole expedition had been captured by centaurs and threatened by acromantulas, so it seemed like there wasn't really any risk of Harry and his friends proving a reaction like that one. But it was nice knowing that their little bit of rebellion was having the right effect.

And so it went. Any combination of Harry and his friends would sneak out at various different times to diverse parts of the castle to scrawl messages and doodle bits of political artwork aimed against the Inquisition. On the first Friday evening after they'd started their little campaign, Harry and Daphne were assigned patrol duty on the fifth floor.

The perfect opportunity to daub some messages, and to sow a little bit of misinformation about the identity of the vandals.

If they were careful.

Daphne had chosen to draw a little cartoon depicting Umbridge as a vampire, sucking the fun out of school life. Harry had no problem with that – it was an accurate depiction of events and would no doubt send Umbridge up the wall. But he wasn't as good at art as Daphne, so his role was limited mostly to look-out and, where appropriate, colouring in. He'd suggested that he could write the message – a very simple THE INQUISITION SUCKS – but Daphne had refused. Harry's handwriting was too bad, apparently, even from a wand rather than a quill.

So Harry wandered up and down the corridor just in case anyone came along. Prefects often patrolled in two pairs – one up, the other down – so it was possible that they'd be caught in the act by their fellows on patrol. Fortunately, that was something they had explicitly planned for.

"Granger and Weasley will be back around soon," Harry said to Daphne as she was doing the finishing touches on Umbridge's fangs. "We'll want to look like we're chasing someone off."

Daphne didn't answer at first. She finished what she was doing and then glanced back at Harry.

"Do you think I should have used a different colour for the word 'fun'? I'm thinking that red might have been too..."

"No, it looks great," Harry said. And it did – Daphne had drawn Umbridge, more or less as she actually was, complete with her garish pink accessories as a comically oversized vampire stood next to little drawing of Hogwarts castle. Daphne had drawn the word 'fun' in vivid red, using an almost liquid, flowing script, being drawn from the castle and into Umbridge's waiting fangs.

Harry thought it a really good cartoon. Certainly better than anything he would have been able to draw himself. Between Daphne and Ernie, Harry reckoned they would be able to churn out a few more cartoons like that one.

Assuming they managed not to get caught.

"But I really do think we should start, er, pretending to be looking for someone."

"We've got a few minutes yet," Daphne said. "Let me just write the message in—you look that way, just in case."

"Aright. Just be quick," Harry said. He wasn't quite sure that he trusted Daphne to know when to stop – she had a tendency to want to do 'just a little bit' more. But he couldn't stop her if she didn't want to be stopped.

Harry turned and walked to the end of the corridor, the direction Hermione and Ron would be coming from, and waited just out of sight while Daphne finished up their little act of political vandalism. When Granger and Weasley – and why McGonagall had picked Weasley of all people to be one of her prefects was beyond Harry's imagination – came back, Harry was to start running after a mysterious vandal.

Easy enough. It just meant a little bit more waiting.

Harry just wished Daphne would hurry up.

"...honestly, Ronald, don't you care that you've been saying it wrong for years," Harry heard Hermione say to Ron. For one brief, unwise moment Harry wanted to linger and hear just what it was Weasley had been getting wrong, but he thought the better of it. Knowing Weasley there would be an uncountable number of opportunities to hear such things in the future.

Before the Gryffindor prefects rounded the corner, Harry leapt into action.

"Oi you!" Harry shouted, breaking into a run. "Stop! You've been caught red handed!"

Daphne immediately stopped what she was doing and did much the same thing as Harry – although she jogged rather than ran.

"If we catch you that's a detention!" she said as she made her way down the fifth-floor corridor. "But if the teachers catch you later it'll be even worse! So just stop!"

Harry and Daphne kept running. Part of the plan was that they couldn't look back to see if Hermione and Ron were following. Hermione and Ron had to think Harry and Daphne were completely unaware of their presence – Hermione was such a stickler for the rules that she would be unable to even entertain the thought that her fellow prefects would be involved in something so heinous as vandalism of school property. That alone would serve Harry and Daphne well when it came to debriefing with Diggory later that evening.

When Harry and Daphne reached their goal – the corridor near to where the Room of Requirement was hidden – they stopped and conversed loudly with each other.

"Oh, no!" Daphne said. "They got away!"

"Did you see who it was?" Harry asked.

"They had their faces covered!" Daphne complained. "But there were three of them. Did you see that they weren't even wearing their school robes?"

Almost as if they were waiting for their cue Ron and Hermione came skidding along the corridor and caught up to Harry and Daphne.

"...hurry up, Ronald! If you hadn't spent so long looking at the cartoon maybe we'd have already..." Hermione trailed off, the comment dead in her throat when she saw Daphne and Harry stood about looking towards the far end of the corridor.

Daphne sighed, a loud, almost theatrical sound. She turned to face Hermione, fists balled in precisely the way she did when she actually was annoyed.

"They're gone!" Daphne said. "They must have... but... there's nowhere to go from here," she complained. "But they're gone."

"They?" echoed Hermione. "So there was more than one?" She turned towards Ron. "Do you think it might have been your brothers?"

He just shrugged.

"I mean, yeah, obviously it could have been them," he said. "That's exactly the sort of thing they'd do."

Harry glanced at Daphne. They hadn't wanted to stitch up anyone specific. There was no telling what sort of punishments Umbridge might want to set for such things, and Harry liked the Weasley twins well enough to specifically want to avoid getting them in trouble.

"There were three of them," Harry said. There. That should move some suspicion away from Ron's brothers. Despite their reputations Harry actually liked the Weasley twins ... in small doses, anyway.

"Your brothers and Lee Jordan, then," Hermione said. "It was probably them—this is the sort of thing they would do. Ronald said it himself."

Ron rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, I did say that—and it is. But it can't have been them. They've got detention with Snape."

"Should we keep looking, do you think?" Daphne asked.

"Nah," said Ron. "No point. I reckon whoever it is is long gone by now—you probably don't know, since you live down in the dungeons, but there's a secret passage near here that takes you well away. So whoever it was that did that drawing is gone by now." He paused. "Wish I'd met him. That's a bloody good picture."

"Is it really?" Daphne asked. "We didn't get a chance to look at it, not properly anyway—we just saw people doing something and chased after them. It's a picture, is it? And it's really good?"

Harry fought the urge to sigh. Instead, he addressed what Ron had said about the secret passage. He knew it existed, of course – had used it himself many times – but it was better to look ignorant of it.

"There's a secret passage here?" Harry asked. "Where?"

"Oh, just over there," Ron said, gesturing vaguely. "Did you really not see the picture? You should go back and have a look—it was brilliant. Really captured the way Umbridge—"

"Ronald!" said Hermione, clearly scandalised. "You can't go saying that! People will think you're happy about—"

"Oh, come off it," Ron said. "It's funny."

"Hmm," said Hermione. "Well, that aside, we still have to report the incident to Cedric. He needs to know. Harry, I think the two of us should go and report to Cedric while Greengrass and Ronald finish up the patrol."

The thought made Harry uneasy. Hermione was alright, but they were far from friends even if they had spent some time together that summer at the European Circuit's summer tournament. And leaving Daphne alone with Ron – while she would no doubt try to wring some more compliments about her art from the unsuspecting boy – seemed like a poor idea. Still, it was sensible suggestion from Hermione, and to reject it out of hand would look strange.

Needs must.

"Alright, then. We'll go now, shall we? Patrol's nearly over anyway, so he'll be expecting us."

"That was what I thought, too. Ronald, can I trust you to finish the patrol?"

Weasley rolled his eyes.

"Look, McGonagall picked me to be a prefect, didn't she? So she must have thought I could do it. Or are you suggesting your standards are higher than McGonagall's?"

"Ugh," said Hermione. She turned and walked away. "Well, are you coming?" she said, glancing back at Harry.

"Right. Yeah," said Harry. "See you in a bit, Daph," Harry said, and then caught up to Hermione.

They walked in silence.

Diggory was on patrol up by the Astronomy Tower that night, and his various prefect teams were all supposed to report to him if they'd seen anything or dealt with any incidents over the course of their patrol. Harry had never actually had to report to Diggory before, since although he'd taken patrols, they'd been uneventful.

Well, once he'd caught Montague snogging someone after curfew in a restricted classroom, but he hadn't reported that because that meant Montague owed him a favour.

But it had the same effect.

"Are you sure you didn't see who they were?" Hermione asked Harry as they made their way up to the Astronomy Tower. "Anything you remember could be vital to catching them."

"Er, no—like Daphne said, they weren't wearing their school robes and they got away, anyway." Harry wondered why she cared – it was hardly as if Umbridge had ushered in a new age of learning and good vibes with her stupid High Inquisition.

Although, on consideration, Hermione probably was outraged that someone would vandalise school property. Just on principle.

"That's disappointing," Hermione said. "I'm sure Cedric would have been pleased to have some sort of clue."

"Er, yeah, I bet he would have been," Harry said. He was never sure where conversations with Granger would go – not that he had all that many. But they'd spent some time together over the summer, so Harry thought he was getting a better grip on how the girl worked. He just wished he had Tracey there to soak up some of the attention.

"I know Umbridge is... I know the Inquisition can be... frustrating," Hermione continued, "but that's still no reason to go and damage school property. Hopefully whoever did it wasn't smart enough to have charmed it permanent."

Unfortunately for Hermione – and the house-elves, Harry supposed – Daphne had used every charm she knew to get the image to stay. That was the point. Their messages had to be visible, not just something that could be quietly cleaned away. The house elves would get it eventually, but hopefully after enough people had seen it to get the whole school talking about it.

"I'm sure the house elves will be able to get it clean eventually," Harry decided to say. That, however, had apparently been entirely the wrong thing to say to Hermione.

She stopped walking. Turned to look at Harry with a great, big frown.

"House elves? There are house elves at Hogwarts?" she said.

"Er, yeah," Harry said. "I thought you'd have known that," he said, and left out the rest of his sentence – since you seem to know everything else.

"It's not written down anywhere!" Hermione said. "And no one has ever told me."

Harry shrugged.

"Well, the wizards probably consider it the sort of thing that doesn't need saying, you know how it goes," Harry said. "But Hogwarts has loads of house elves, yeah."

Although how Hermione had got to her third year without anyone ever mentioning house elves to her was a mystery to Harry. They were far from a common topic of conversation, but surely someone would have mentioned it to her...

Although given Hermione's lack of close friends, Harry supposed she really could have gone two whole years without anyone ever saying it.

"And you're okay with this?" Hermione said. She paused. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised about that. But do you know—have you even thought about—how house elves are basically slaves?" She hadn't started walking again. Didn't seem inclined to. She looked, although Harry didn't know her well enough to be sure, ready to go on a full rant.

"No, I'm not okay with it, not really," Harry said. "House elves make me kind of uncomfortable. It just doesn't seem fair that they should... and even if they like it, which most of them do, it's still... the principle of it, you know? There's just not really anything I can do about it. It's been happening here for so long…" Harry shrugged. "At least the Hogwarts elves are all treated really well."

"Oh, so slavery is perfectly fine as long as it's traditional and the slaves are treated well," Hermione said. "Of course."

"That's obviously not what I meant at all, Hermione," Harry said. "I don't know why you're getting angry with me—I don't have a house elf. I think the whole system is unethical and it makes me really uncomfortable. But there isn't anything I can do about it."

And there were other, more personally important, things Harry had to worry about. The plight of house elves was an abstract thing, something that while being unfortunate, could wait until after Harry no longer had an immortal madman out for his blood.

"The problem is with society and the Ministry," Harry continued, "so that's where the solutions have to come from, isn't it? But with a Ministry like the one we've got, well..." He shrugged. "They can't even just let people choose their own schools, and you want them to overhaul a centuries old system of house elf servitude? Just because it's the right thing to do? As if they'd go for that."

Harry paused.

"And we can't just come in and do whatever we want. We've got to have the house elves on board, don't we? And I bet if we asked them what they wanted they'd say something we wouldn't expect. But… whatever. Come on. We still have to go find Diggory, and arguing about house elves isn't getting us there."

Harry walked away. After a few moments Hermione followed him.

They didn't speak much after that. Harry wasn't too disappointed. If Hermione didn't like what he'd said, that was her problem. When they found Diggory, the fifth year was just at the foot of the staircase to the very top of the Astronomy Tower where the lessons were held. Not that there was a lesson on-going – it was too early for that.

"Oh?" said Diggory as Harry and Hermione approached. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "Er, when we were on patrol, someone did—well, me and Daphne saw people vandalising a corridor on the fifth floor. We chased them but they got away."

"And that's when I caught up to them—with Ronald, of course," Hermione said. "It was another of those messages," she explained, "only this time, there was a drawing, too."

"Er, right," Harry said. "There were three of them there, but they had their faces covered and they got away before we could catch them," Harry said. "That was when Hermione and Ron caught up with us—Ron said there's a secret passage they might have used, but I don't know about that."

"So you and Granger came here to tell me, and left Greengrass with Weasley to finish the patrol," concluded Diggory. "Alright. Fair enough. What House were they in? Could you see?"

Harry shook his head.

"No. They weren't wearing their school robes. And they had their faces covered. The only thing we could see was that there were three of them. And... well... with so many new students this year I don't have a clue who it was. They didn't seem familiar."

"I suggested it could be Fred and George—Weasley," said Hermione, "but Ronald said they have detention with Professor Snape. So it couldn't have been them."

"Alright, that seems like a good enough alibi," said Diggory. "We'll count the Weasley twins out, then. But at least we know it's more than one person doing it, eh? Don't you two worry about this—I'll let the professors know and I'm sure they'll be on the lookout in the future. We can't have students going around doing things like that, even if they are justifiably miffed." Diggory took a pocket watch from his robe pocket and checked the time. "It's a little bit early but you can both come off patrol now if you want. Just be sure not to go around painting anything when you do, eh?"

Harry smiled.

"Thanks," Harry said. "I hope Umbridge doesn't give you too much trouble about this—you know what she's like. I'm just sorry we didn't have any better information for you."

"It's no bother, really," Diggory said. He grinned. "I'll report directly to Dumbledore, see, so it's him who'll be telling her about this. Mind you, I wouldn't say no to watching her reaction when she finds out about it. What was the painting, anyway?"

Hermione appeared scandalised at the very thought of Cedric Diggory, Hogwarts Champion and Head Boy, expressing an open interest in anti-Inquisition messaging. To the point that she stood there, in the slightly draughty corridor beneath the Astronomy Tower, mouth slightly agape.

"It was Umbridge as a vampire sucking the fun out of Hogwarts," Harry said after a few moments.

Diggory stifled a laugh.

"Sorry," he said. "That's unprofessional of me. But... that sounds pretty funny. Maybe I'll go have a look after I finish up here, just so I know exactly what I'm reporting on..." He smiled. "Well, go on then—it's OWL year for you, so you'll be wanting to get to sleep. I bet you've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

Goodnight, Cedric," Hermione said before leaving.

"See you," said Harry.

Harry walked with Hermione some of the way back, although they soon separated as they were bound for entirely different parts of the castle. Harry waited for Daphne on the main stair, as Diggory hadn't let them go that early and it felt unfair to make Daphne walk back to the dungeons on her own. A few minutes later Daphne joined Harry, and they went back on their way to the Slytherin Common Room.

"Everything go to plan?" Daphne asked.

"Exactly to plan," Harry said. "Diggory's going to tell Dumbledore about the graffiti tonight. Then Dumbledore will tell Umbridge." Harry lowered his voice. "And hopefully, we'll be above suspicion. At least for a little while."

"Brilliant," said Daphne. "I know it's only a little thing that we're doing but it is nice to be doing something, isn't it?"

"Definitely," Harry said. "And even Diggory found it funny. I reckon it's making people talk, which is good, isn't it? That's what we wanted."

Of course, Harry wanted something more along the lines of open rebellion, but talk was good enough for the moment. At least it was showing off to everyone else in the school that there were people who didn't like the Inquisition, who were actively opposed to it. That was something. And anything that made it harder for the Inquisition to operate within Hogwarts was good news in Harry's estimation.

When Harry and Daphne made it back to the Common Room they headed towards their separate dormitories. Harry slipped into his to find it empty – apart from Blaise, who'd evidently gone to sleep early, as the curtains of his bed were drawn tight and the lights were off. Harry went about his normal nightly routine and then settled into bed himself in anticipation of whatever Umbridge would do the next morning.

The next morning Harry got up especially early so that he could sit through the entirety of breakfast. Umbridge usually made a point of arriving at breakfast as soon as the doors opened, and Harry wanted to see how she'd taken their nocturnal endeavours. Umbridge sat in her throne at the High Table with her tight little smile, a pleasant expression betrayed by the steel in her eyes as she glowered at the gathered students in the Great Hall.

Harry took his time at breakfast. No doubt she would make an announcement at the end, just before everyone went off to lessons – and in so doing, inform everyone in the school just where to go and look. That had been what she'd done the first time, although since then, she hadn't made announcements. That had been part of why they'd decided to add a drawing. That, and the fact that Daphne wanted a chance to do some 'proper political artwork'.

So Harry treated himself to a leisurely breakfast, made some extra room for Blaise and Tracey to sit next to him when they arrived, and waited until the end of breakfast.

Exactly as Harry had hoped she would, Umbridge stood up at the end and did her silly little cough to attract the attention of the students in the Great Hall.

"Hem, hem," coughed Umbridge. "It has been brought to the attention of the High Inquisition that subversive activities are on-going within the school. This is not appropriate. We will not tolerate seditious and frankly, treasonous, behaviour at this school. The High Inquisition is an instrument of the Ministry of Magic—the democratically elected government which is responsible for the well-being of everyone in these islands. To disrespect the Inquisition and its membership is to disrespect the Ministry itself and cannot be allowed under any circumstances. In addition, it is wholly inappropriate to depict Ministry officials as—as—beasts and halfbreeds." She paused. To Harry, it seemed as if the words caught in her throat, that she had trouble speaking.

Interesting, he thought. Umbridge really hates the idea of being a 'halfbreed'. We can use that.

But Umbridge continued.

"Anyone with any information on the identities of the individuals carrying out this campaign of treachery and sedition—in particular the vandalism which occurred last night on the fifth floor—should see an Inquisitor at once. Again, I must remind you all that the High Inquisition was instituted to help all the students of these islands. We want only to improve your educational experiences and outcomes, but we cannot do this within an environment of fear and distrust. The Ministry cares. The Inquisition cares. We are not the enemy—the enemy may be found among those who sow dissent and discord, who fight against the gentle, loving hand of the Ministry of Magic. With your help, by working together, we can enter a golden age of education. That is all."

Umbridge left the Great Hall in silence. When she was gone, it erupted into noise once again – noise that the remaining teachers and Inquisitors didn't even try to quieten the crowd.

"That woman really doesn't get it, does she?" said Blaise, shaking his head. "I bet everyone—literally everyone—in the school is going to head right to the fifth floor to look at that picture now she's gone off on one at breakfast. It's bonkers."

"Was a bit stupid to go and make an announcement about it," agreed Harry. "It's just drawing attention. Especially at the weekend."

"Everyone would have seen it by the end of the day anyway," Tracey said, "but now she's made it a thing." She shrugged. "But that's good—it's what we wanted."

They spoke quietly, far too low to be overheard given the general din, but even so Harry felt like he should be cautious in his response.

"Definitely," he said. "I don't think she can help herself, though. She bleeds Ministry. I think she sees it as defending her honour, or something. I think she's just really pissed off no one respects her authority."

"Rare bit of insight coming from you," said Blaise. "Not that I disagree—just you usually don't think like that."

"Maybe you lot are rubbing off on me," Harry muttered. He didn't think he was that oblivious, anyway. He just usually had other things going on. He raised his voice a bit, changed the subject just slightly. "Well, anyway, want to go have a look at the message on the fifth floor? I saw it last night on prefect patrol, but you two wouldn't have. It's pretty funny."

They'd decided to go all-in on the deception. If they really hadn't had anything to do with the messages and anti-Inquisition artwork, they would have wanted to go take a look at it just like everyone else. So that was what they were going to do.

And from the conversations happening all around, Harry knew they would be in good company. By the end of the day Harry thought that – just as Blaise had said – literally everyone in the castle would have seen Daphne's drawing.

Everyone living and probably a fair few of the ghosts, too.

"Oh, go on then!" Tracey said. "Might as well." She turned towards where Daphne and Millicent sat on her other side. "Daph? Millie? Want to come have a look at what Umbridge was on about with us?"

"I saw it last night," Daphne said. "Millie? Do you want to go see?"

"Er, yes! Obviously," said Millicent. "Let's go now, before the rush."

They all got up to leave. Millicent's idea to beat the rush, however, was a dead in the water, as seemingly half the student body had the exact same idea. Harry didn't mind – the point of going was to be seen, after all, and so they streamed out of the Great Hall along with everyone else.

The teachers did nothing to stop it. Harry noticed several of them tagging along at the back.

Everything according to plan! he thought as they walked in a mass of chattering students towards the fifth floor.