Chapter 32 – A Helping Hand

Over the next few nights it was impossible for any of Harry's friends to get out and spread anti-Inquisition messages as the hallways were filled to the brim with prefects, Inquisitors, and Inquisitorial Squad. Several times Harry had felt like risking it while out on prefect patrol, but Daphne had refused given the number of people wandering around the corridors.

Apparently, that was a risk too far for her.

But after a week or so of that, things settled down somewhat. There weren't quite enough Inquisitorial Squad to have dozens upon dozens of them out in force every night, at least not without them growing so tired and frustrated by endless patrols that they started failing at their lessons. And since that would have made the Inquisition look bad, Umbridge – or Arlecchino, perhaps – relented.

That meant that Harry and the rest of the Basilisk's Fang felt a bit safer, and that relative safety meant that they could return to their nocturnal activities. Tentatively, anyway, as the corridors were still well patrolled. But with Blaise on the Inquisitorial Squad, along with four prefects, it was possible to work around that and get some little bits and pieces done.

Ernie and Justin reported back to Harry about their patrol assignments, and Harry and Daphne attended the meetings for Slytherin themselves, and after that it was only really a small bit of work to figure out what the likely patrol routes for the other prefects would be. And after that was done… well, it presented a small window of opportunity for their subversive mischief making.

And so Harry and Tracey snuck out under cover of Harry's Invisibility Cloak to leave a string of messages for the school to find. They avoided the more heavily-patrolled sections of the school: the main routes leading to and from Central Hall; the Hospital Wing; the Entrance Hall itself. But there were a few other places frequented by students which were ripe for their sort of shenanigans, specifically a vast stretch of wall near the Music Alcove.

Usually host to a ginormous portrait, the portrait had been removed and taken away for restoration. It hadn't been put back and so the wall was bare. And as the Music Alcove was a common haunt for students of every year and every House, Harry and Tracey had planned to daub a number of messages upon it.

The Alcove was empty when they arrived without even a ghost there to appreciate the soft music being played by self-playing instruments. Just a short distance away was the wall.

"Are they playing a new song?" whispered Tracey as they tiptoed past the enchanted instruments. "I don't recognise it."

"Mairi—Mrs Macmillan—taught them a bunch of new ones apparently," Harry said as they stepped out from under the Invisibility Cloak. "Ernie said she thought their 'old repertoire was pedestrian and quite frankly, gauche'." He shrugged. "He said she's trying to one-up one of other new teachers from Wandwright's."

"Well, she wasn't wrong," Tracey said. "The old songs got boring after a while. I like this one."

"Mm," Harry said. He didn't disagree, although it wasn't his sort of music. "Right," he said once they'd reached the bare bit of wall, "what exactly are we going to write tonight?"

"I think we should definitely go with the big 'FREE DUMBLEDORE' that Susan said about the other night," Tracey said. "You know, with how Umbridge and the Inquisition have been digging in it might be a good idea to show that the students prefer Dumbledore."

Harry nodded.

"Yeah, that's good," he said. It might even serve to contrast how pleasant, generally speaking, school life had been under Dumbledore versus how it was shaping up to be under Umbridge. For all that she went about with her saccharine smiles and faux cheer, her actions had caused the castle to become a dingy place with all its soul sucked out. "But we should put some other stuff as well since this bit of wall is so big."

"Well, that's true," said Tracey. She leaned backwards and looked up at the wall holding her chin in her hand. "Ooh, I wish we were both better at drawing! I just had a brilliant idea—Umbridge as a big pink dementor! But we're both pants at drawing. No offence. Daph or Ernie would have been better for this."

"I know," Harry said. "But Daphne wanted to spend time with Millie tonight since she's been so busy and Ernie's on patrol…"

"We'll figure something out," Tracey said. "Let's just get started with 'FREE DUMBLEDORE' and we'll see how it goes. Ready to levitate me?"

Harry nodded.

"Perfect!" Tracey said.

Harry levitated her to a spot about halfway up the wall and she got started writing their message in giant purple letters. They'd picked purple because it matched Dumbledore's usual robes, which Blaise had thought would send a better message. Just after Tracey finished the final E in Dumbledore Harry lowered her gently to the exquisitely patterned tiled floor.

"Oi oi!" came a loud voice from behind Harry. "What's all this, then? And you a prefect!"

Oh, fuck! Harry thought. They'd been caught. Can I pretend I found it on patrol? No, not with Tracey. Shit shit shit… A secret trip to the Prefects' Bathroom, maybe? Harry turned.

Only a few steps behind Harry were the Weasley twins, grinning from ear to ear but fortunately without any teachers or other authority figures.

"Oh, fuck off," Harry said, letting out his breath. "It's just the two of you. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

George bowed.

"We live to thrill," said George.

"It's something of our speciality," added Fred.

"You don't know how happy I am to see you both," Tracey said. "I thought we'd got caught this time."

"So you do this often, then?" asked George, nodding to the vandalised bit of wall. "Wouldn't have thought either of you the type. No offence."

"Ah, but everyone has hidden depths," Fred said, "even our boring brother Ron. And some of the messages have been rather, shall we say, politically motivated. Who better than our little Harry here?"

"We, er, we were the first ones to do anything like this," Harry admitted. "After Umbridge started the interviews and everything started going downhill we just…" He shrugged. "You know. Did something."

"And what an inspiration thing it was!" said Fred.

"How'd you find us, anyway?" asked Tracey. "Were you looking, or was it just an accident?"

"Ah, we've got our ways, little Slytherin!" George said.

"And to be honest," added Fred, "we wanted to get this wall too. We did the Bumbridge one. What'd you think of it?"

"That was you?" Harry said. "I knew it! It had you two written all over it." He glanced at Tracey. "I said, didn't I?"

"You did, to be fair," Tracey said.

"That fart charm was inspired, even if we do say so ourselves," George said. "Really tricky to pull off. So… if you're both into causing a little mischief… mind if we join? We had something planned for this stretch of wall and I think we can fit it around your little message."

"And we'd be up for a bit of co-ordination in future, too," said Fred. "Just so we can… er, maximise the potential for fun. What do you think?"

Harry glanced at Tracey. He wasn't opposed to working with the Weasley twins a bit more, as they were both agreeable sorts and clearly had a lot of talent at mischief making. The question was whether the rest of their friends would be up for it, and how far they would be willing to go.

It was one thing to agree to a spot of troublemaking with your closest friends and confidants – but it was another thing entirely to add a pair like the Weasley twins into the mix.

Tracey nodded.

"I think we could work something out," Harry said. "What did you have in mind?"

"More of the same really," Fred said. "Paintings, funny scribbles, you know what's what."

"Although we have been working on something big for outside Umbridge's office," added George, "only it's not quite ready yet. We've got a couple of…"

"There's a few bits we can't quite work out," Fred said when George floundered. "We'll let you know when we've fixed it."

"What were you going to put here tonight?" Tracey asked. "Something like that Stinkuisition painting?"

"We were going to draw a picture of Arlecchino but with a willy where his nose should be," Fred said. "Since he's, er, a bit of a dick and he keeps sticking his nose where it shouldn't be…"

"Ugh, but now that you've said it I'm having second thoughts," George said. "What do you two reckon?"

"Er…" said Harry. What they had planned was funny, in a crass sort of way, and Harry didn't think Arlecchino would like it at all. "I think that's fine? I mean, as long as the drawing looks enough like Arlecchino that people can tell it's him…"

"Oh, it does," said Fred. "I've been practising."

"Then that sounds really good!" Tracey said.

"Hmm, but then there's still space on the bottom…" said George. He stared at the wall for a few moments. "Ah! I know. Fred, what about that one we workshopped with Lee? You know, the one where we did Fudge as a shit?"

"Oh, yeah, that's a good one," Fred said. "Let's do willy-face-Arlecchino on top, leave 'FREE DUMBLEDORE' in the middle, and Fudge as a shit on the bottom!"

"Brilliant!" said George. "We've outdone ourselves with this one. We'll just have to figure out how to make the fart charm stronger for Fudge…"

Fred waved a hand.

"That'll be easy." He turned to Harry and Tracey. "You two sticking around to help?"

Harry glanced at Tracey again. She shook her head, tapped her watch.

"Nah. It's a bit late," Harry said, "and since you've got this wall covered we thought we might go and do another bit. Looks like more people are at it that way, doesn't it?"

"Good idea," George said. "Well, don't forget to come and see our handiwork tomorrow—Fudge as a shit is inspired, I tell you. Some of our best work, that."

"Er…" said Harry. "We'll make sure. And—um—we'll have to meet up to co-ordinate some more stuff. Don't worry—we won't forget. I think we can really, er…"

"I think we'll work well together," Tracey finished, "since you're both so creative! But we'd best be off—no sense wasting time!"

By then Fred and George had started to tackle the wall, so Harry and Tracey left. Once they were safely away, Harry covered them both with the Invisibility Cloak. As nice allies as the Weasley twins made, Harry didn't want them to know about his Cloak.

Even though Harry didn't think they'd tell anyone. Their dad was part of the Order, and the whole family was anti-Voldemort, but Harry still wanted some things kept secret. Even if he had agreed to work more closely with the twins on their mutual anti-Inquisition campaign.

But Harry was glad to be away. Standing out in the open for too long seemed like a very bad idea, and even if the Weasley twins were rather blasé about the risk of getting caught, Harry didn't particularly want to be. If not for him – since he didn't think it really mattered if he got expelled – for Tracey.

And Tracey's mum.

No, Harry had too much at stake for that, so he intended to err on the side of caution where possible.

"Where next?" asked Tracey as they hurried away from the Music Alcove and the Weasley twins. "There was that spot just by the Transfiguration Courtyard…"

"Might be a bit busy," Harry said, "but we can check." He didn't think the Transfiguration Courtyard would be especially well patrolled as it was off the beaten track so to speak, but in a way that was awkward for students out after curfew to actually get to. Diggory and Thakkar barely ever stationed prefects there, and Harry knew the Inquisitorial Squad was mostly put where the prefects went.

But the teachers were known to frequent it after hours, as well as some of the ghosts, which made it riskier.

Harry and Tracey headed there quietly under cover of the Cloak, passing only one prefect patrol and a couple of ghosts on the way. Once there they got started writing messages – all variations on their standard ones. 'Umbridge go home', 'Nobody wants the Inquisition', things of that nature.

Harry even stood watch as Tracey wrote out a few messages in Welsh, although he hadn't the foggiest what they assumed it was more of the same, anyway. When she was done he wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around her once more and they returned to the dungeons quite happy about the night's activities.

The next morning there was already a buzz around the castle as many students had already seen the newest bits of anti-Inquisition artwork to grace the school. Quite a few of the Wandwright's lot had taken to practising their music near the Music Alcove before breakfast, and over the weeks it had become a favourite haunt for many students in the mornings as they listened to the Wandwright's students play.

That had the rather pleasant side effect of making sure that Harry and Tracey's message, along with the Weasley twins' rude artwork, was well and truly on display.

And all without the Inquisition having to announce a thing. There would surely be an announcement as Umbridge didn't seem to understand that sometimes, bad publicity was good publicity. Harry thought that perhaps if she could stop swooning in front of Lockhart long enough to ask she might learn a thing or two about image management. But Umbridge's loss was Harry's gain in that, at least.

"…I heard there's a picture of Arlecchino with a willy for a nose," Harry heard one first year Slytherin girl say to another as she walked to breakfast.

"No!" came the scandalised reply. "Can you imagine?"

"And there's one of Fudge as a big poo," added a second year Harry only vaguely recognised. "You should go see it!"

"You two really were busy last night," Blaise murmured to Harry as they climbed the dungeon stairs. "Got a lot done, I see."

Harry glanced around to check no one was listening, but everyone else seemed more interested in gossiping than listening to Harry and Blaise talk. He hadn't had the chance to speak with Blaise, since by the time Harry and Tracey had got back, he was still out on Inquisitorial patrol.

"It wasn't us," Harry said. "We did the thing we all said about the other night, but we… er… the Weasley twins found us. They were going to use the same bit of wall for their own thing, so we let them."

Blaise nodded along.

"Dick-face-Arlecchino and Shitty Fudge does sound like them," he said quietly. "Well, fair enough."

"Mm," said Harry. "And get this—they want to co-ordinate. They're good blokes if a little bit—well, you know—nuts. But I was thinking they could be really helpful—they did the Stinkuisition one too. And that fart charm you liked?"

"I knew it was them!" Blaise said.

"Well, be a bit quieter about it or the whole school will know as well," Harry muttered, as Blaise's excited exclamation had drawn a few looks. "So, yeah. I reckon we can work with them. What do you think? Don't want to bring them in on everything, but this is good, isn't it?"

Blaise nodded.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. No need to make them Fangs or anything, but we can work with them. I bet they've got a load of interesting ideas for stuff to do."

"They did say they've got something big planned for outside Umbridge's office," Harry said, "but not what. I'll see if we can help them with it."

By then they'd made it to the Great Hall and filtered in through the grand doors along with everyone else. As he usually did Harry looked up at the High Table for a view of Umbridge and her mood.

She sat there dressed in her usual garish robes, but with a massive frown instead of her usual false smile.

A successful night, then, Harry thought, even if she was likely to be more upset by the anti-Ministry artwork than by his and Tracey's messaging. The important thing was that the protest they had inspired was working, since Harry didn't think he and his friends could bring down the Inquisition alone.

Irritate Umbridge to within an inch of St Mungo's, maybe, but anything else would require some assistance.

Harry sat down to breakfast with Blaise and made sure there was a bit of space for the girls in case they wanted to sit with them, though they hadn't quite made it to breakfast yet anyway. A few minutes into breakfast Tracey joined the two boys, although Millicent and Daphne were nowhere to be seen.

"Daph's got a bad tummy," Tracey explained as she sat down, "so she's skipping breakfast and Millie stayed with her."

"Fair enough," Harry said. He continued eating his cereal.

"Why does Umbridge look so unhappy?" Tracey asked once she'd got herself sorted out. "Has she—oooh, I bet she has, hasn't she?"

"People have been talking about it all morning," Harry said. "Apparently, some new anti-Inquisition messages and artwork have appeared. Crazy, I know."

"We'll have to go take a look at them when we've got a chance!" Tracey said.

"Definitely," agreed Harry. Of course, they already knew what and where they were, but it was always a good idea to feign ignorance just in case anyone was listening in. And they really hadn't seen the pictures drawn by the Weasley twins, so there was actually something there to be surprised about. All in all a good bit of subterfuge in Harry's opinion.

"I wonder how they did Fudge as a shit," Blaise wondered aloud. "I mean, obviously I know what shit looks like, but I wonder how they made one look like Fudge."

"We've got that free later so we can go have a look," said Tracey. "Oh, well, we can—sorry you can't, Harry."

"It's fine," Harry said. "I'll go at lunch. Just before lunch, I suppose—don't want to skip it."

"We'll go with you then," Tracey said. "We can wait until then, can't we, Blaise?"

Blaise sighed dramatically.

"I suppose," he said, "if our dear celebrity leader can't spare the time from his schedule."

"Ugh," groaned Harry. "Don't start with that. I get enough of that bollocks from Lockhart."

"When do you start having homework with him again anyway?" Tracey asked. "You've not had any since we got back from Christmas, have you?"

"No, thank God," Harry said. Although Lockhart did occasionally have some useful advice regarding the press and fame in general, Harry would rather do actual homework. Although probably not the homework Lockhart set, given that it consisted mainly of reading his books and heaping praise upon them. So homework either way was a bit of a wash. "But I don't imagine he'll let me stay away too long—I think he sees himself as my mentor or something."

"Well, the next time you see him ask him for some haircare tips," Blaise said. "Since what you've got going on is a bit tragic for a celebrity."

"I'm not a bloody celebrity!" protested Harry, although his heart wasn't really in it. Even by the most conservative definition of the word Harry would probably have counted given his multiple Triwizard wins and his and Tracey's Summer Tournament success. And that was if he could get anyone to agree his history with Voldemort didn't count. "Oh, who cares. Whatever. I think we should have a meeting tonight. You know, discuss what the twins said last night?" Harry said quietly. "See what everyone else thinks. I don't imagine there'll be a problem but it's good to check, isn't it?"

"Oh, definitely," said Tracey. "In the usual place? Only, if we're all going down we should stop by the kitchens to grab some snacks for the—well, you know."

That was probably fair enough. Though the basilisk seemed reasonably capable of subsisting on rats, the occasional giant spider, and whatever else, it did often complain about being hungry. And given that Harry and his friends were invading its sanctum, Harry thought it was fair enough that they brought it something a bit more substantial.

"Er, yeah, that's fair," Harry said. "So we'll do that? Blaise, you don't have patrol later, do you?"

"Not until well after dinner," Blaise said, "so if we go down before dinner, or just after, I'll be fine."

"Brilliant," Harry said. "So that's sorted, then. If you can let Daph and Millie know," Harry said to Tracey, "I'll tell Ernie, and he can tell the others."

All that sorted, breakfast chat turned to rather more normal topics and at a more typical volume. Towards the end of breakfast Umbridge stood up to make an announcement.

"Hem, hem," she coughed. Unlike earlier in the year the Hall quietened immediately. "It has come to my attention that another piece of anti-Inquisition artwork has been placed upon these hallowed halls. That in itself is bad enough as I should not need to remind you all that the Hogwarts High Inquisition is an official arm of the Ministry of Magic and must be accorded the proper respect. But what has transpired is worse than even this!" Umbridge said.

Around the Hall Harry could hear whispers.

"Not content with simply spreading their misguided anti-Inquisition message, the ne'er-do-wells involved in this vicious and divisive campaign have begun to engage in treasonous sentiments." Umbridge paused for a few moments.

"This cannot be tolerated in a lawful, civil society," she continued. "Any students with information to give to the Inquisition on this matter will be rewarded immensely, and any students found guilty of wrongdoing will face the fullest extent of my disciplinary powers as Hogwarts High Inquisitor. Students and members of staff would be well served by reacquainting themselves with the Educational Decrees, copies of which may be found in both the Entrance Hall and outside of the Inquisitorial Lounge. I am pleased to announce, also, another round of student interviews which will begin after this weekend. That is all; you are dismissed."

Although the time allotted for breakfast wasn't quite up the food disappeared from the tables at Umbridge's words, and the High Inquisitor herself left the Great Hall.

"Back to the treason thing," muttered Blaise as they departed the Slytherin table. "Do you think the Ministry really would try students for treason over a bit of vandalism?" He sounded genuinely worried in a way Harry hadn't heard from him before.

"Usually, I'd say they never would," Tracey said, "but with how things have been lately…" She shrugged.

"I don't think they would," Harry said. "Fudge has to know that people won't stand for that—I mean that's a snapped wand and life in Azkaban. Sometimes they Kiss people for treason, don't they? The public won't go for it."

As bloodthirsty as the wizarding public of Great Britain and Ireland were, Harry didn't think they would clamour for the deaths or disensoulment of literal children.

"Yeah, I suppose…" Blaise said, although he didn't sound too convinced to Harry.

"Umbridge is just being dramatic," Tracey said. "I wouldn't get too worried by it. She's just trying to scare us." She turned to look at Harry. "We'll meet you to go look at the pictures before lunch, don't worry."

"See you later," Harry said, and went off on his own to his lessons.

At lunchtime Harry and Daphne met Tracey, Blaise, and Millicent to go have a look at the Weasley twins' handiwork. They caught it just right, making it to the Music Alcove ahead of a stream of students looking to do exactly the same thing. The instruments played music, but over the general din of the students jostling for space to look at the anti-Inquisition messages and art, Harry could barely hear it.

"Oh, so that's how they did Fudge as a shit," Blaise said once they'd got close enough to see. "Clever."

"It really is," Daphne said.

Beneath Tracey's 'FREE DUMBLEDORE' message was a pile of poo… dressed up in Cornelius Fudge's customary suit. The twins had matched their painting's colour to the suit Fudge usually wore, and they'd got the style exactly right. Even though the poo lacked any identifying features like hair or a nose, it was still recognisably Cornelius Fudge.

Harry stepped forward for a closer look. Then, remembering what the twins had said the night before, Harry sniffed and immediately regretted it – the twins really had used their modified fart charm to give Fudge an authentic smell.

"Ugh. That's… strong," Harry said. "It doesn't quite smell like—er—poo, but it's much stronger than the Bumbridge one. I feel like I'll be smelling it for weeks."

"Forget about shitty Fudge," Millicent said, "look at Arlecchino! I'll bet he's furious about that!"

Above the message was a picture of Arlecchino. Unlike with Fudge the twins had gone to some effort in recreating the Inquisitor's actual features for the drawing, and the likeness was quite good – all except for the nose, which was as they'd promised it would be, a willy.

"This is really well-done," Tracey said. "I wonder how long it took them."

"Whoever did it will have been at it all night, I reckon," Millie said. "You don't get something like that done in a few minutes. Well, maybe the poo, but Fudge's suit…"

"All happy we've seen it?" Harry said, glancing at his watch. "Only, it's still lunch, and we've not eaten yet…"

"I'm all done," Blaise said. "Honestly, I can't stand smelling that fart charm anymore. It's just awful."

"Me too," Tracey said, holding her nose. "It comes and goes, so you can't even get used to it!"

They pushed back out through the gathered throngs and made their way to lunch, satisfied that they'd seen – and been seen seeing – the latest bit of anti-Inquisition messaging. After a truncated lunch everyone returned to their lessons, and at the end of the school day it was simply a matter of waiting until they could all head down to the Chamber of Secrets for a meeting.

Harry and Tracey ducked out first and made their way to the secret alcove where there was a secondary entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and were met short intervals later by everyone else. Although that part of the dungeons wasn't ever busy, nobody wanted to be caught on their way there. Ernie, Justin, and Susan had all agreed to pick up some food for the basilisk since the kitchens were more or less on their way from the Hufflepuff Common Room.

Once everyone had assembled, Harry opened the door to the Chamber and ushered everyone inside.

"I still love hearing you do that," Millie said as Harry spoke the password in Parseltongue. "I wish I could speak to snakes…"

"They don't say much that's interesting, to be fair," Harry said, although he'd told Millicent before and it hadn't done anything to dampen her enthusiasm.

"That's not the point," Millicent said. "Imagine missing what a snake has to say the one time it really does have something interesting for you!"

"Well, there's that, I suppose," Harry said. "The next time a snake says anything interesting to me, I promise I'll tell you what it said."

"You'd better," said Millie.

"I wonder if other animals have people who can speak to them," Daphne said as they walked down the winding stairway to the Chamber. "You know, birds. Or cats. Or even turtles."

"Who'd even want to speak with turtles?" Blaise asked. "Don't they live underwater?"

Everyone ignored him.

"I've never heard of anything like that," Tracey said. "Has anyone?"

Nobody had, although Harry didn't think that meant it was impossible. Just that it was rare or secret or… something. People didn't like talking about Parseltongue or Parselmouths, so it was entirely possible there were other taboos involving people who could speak to horses or cows.

Wizards were weird like that.

"I think I'd like to talk to cats," Susan said wistfully. "Or maybe butterflies. I don't suppose butterflies would have anything good to say, but they are pretty…"

"Wasn't there that bloke who could talk to augureys?" Blaise said. "He had that programme on the Wireless, what was it? Oh, well, I can't remember the name, but I'm sure it was augureys."

"I know what you're on about," Ernie said, "but it wasn't that he could talk to augureys—he taught an augurey to talk. I remember because Mum made me listen to his programme."

"Oh," said Blaise. "Well, then, I suppose it's just snakes."

"It might just be something we've never heard of," Justin said. "Since I doubt we've heard of even most things, even between us."

"Mr Hagrid might know," Millicent said. "I'll ask him next time I see him. At Creature Club, maybe."

It wasn't too long after that that they found themselves at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets proper, and Harry once again opened the doors to let everyone inside.

As it usually did, the basilisk came slithering out to meet them, happy – as far as a giant snake could be – to have some company. And no doubt it had smelled the food carried by Ernie, Susan, and Justin.

"Hello," Harry said as it approached. "We've brought some food for you."

"Thank you," responded the basilisk, edging its way forward. For a massive snake it was quite gentle, and very aware of its bulk. Even with its eyes closed it never bumped into anyone, which Harry thought was a small miracle. Before he'd made his Salve of Clear Sight Harry had been a menace without his glasses on and his eyes open, so quite how the basilisk managed without any vision at all he had no idea.

Once inside the Chamber, and after the basilisk had been given its meal, everyone retreated to Slytherin's private quarters. It was the most comfortable part of the Chamber and offered a good place to just hang out, especially since the rest of the Chamber was varying degrees of wet.

But the little lounge area was quite comfortable, especially since Harry and the others had restored the ancient furniture scattered around the room. They sat themselves around the room in their favoured places, some on the great Victorian bed and some on the chairs and divans. The room was intimate in its scale, anyway, so even spread out it was easy for them to talk.

"So, what's this about?" Justin said once they'd all settled in. "Not that it's not great all hanging out, but I assume it's about something a bit more substantial if we've all schlepped down here."

Harry nodded.

"Yeah. So, the Weasley twins caught me and Tracey writing the 'FREE DUMBLEDORE' message last night. Which is fine—they're no fans of Umbridge or the Inquisition—but they want to work with us. So I just thought it'd be a good idea to see what everyone thinks about it before we agreed."

"Oh, that was them? The art, I mean?" Ernie asked. "I suppose that makes sense—they do love a fart charm."

"The Bumbridge one was them too, wasn't it?" added Susan. "I knew it! If I could tell Hannah about this she'd owe me three sickles."

"It was," Harry said. "They even said they were working on 'something big' for outside Umbridge's office. They didn't say what, though."

"Knowing them I bet it's something ridiculous," Justin said. "So, what did they want to join us in?"

"Well…" Harry said. "I didn't—I don't, I mean—want to tell them about everything. It's not that I don't trust them not to say, but… well… I don't know, it doesn't feel like…" Harry paused. He didn't want to come across as if he distrusted the Weasley twins at all, but he also just didn't feel it was appropriate to tell them everything. Certainly not about Voldemort, not yet; definitely not about the horcrux or Lucius Malfoy's involvement; and since he'd agreed not to say anything about Arthur Weasley, nothing about the Order of the Phoenix either.

Which didn't leave a whole lot of things that they could be told. About the Basilisk's Fang, perhaps, although Harry wasn't too keen on telling them about being a Parselmouth.

"So, basically," Harry said, "I'm not planning on telling them about Voldemort or about the Order or horcruxes or anything like that. I just don't think it's a good idea, not yet. But I already told them about the graffiti—well, they caught us, so… didn't need to tell them exactly. But we left you lot out of it just in case you didn't want to join in with them."

"I don't mind working with the Weasley twins on this," Ernie said. "They're already at it, and if we can co-ordinate we can get a lot more done, can't we? So I vote yes." He paused. "Yes to working together, anyway. I agree with you that we shouldn't tell them everything. We should keep some things just among friends for now."

"I agree," Blaise said. "The Weasley twins aren't likely to go off telling anyone about things—God knows they've probably kept enough secrets of their own—but what we're doing is dangerous. And I don't think we should say anything about the Chamber, either."

"Oh, definitely not," agreed Tracey. "We should keep that just for us. It's safer if no one knows about it, at least for now."

"And we can use it to hang out in this way," Millie said. "I know it's a bit dingy, but this bit is nice…"

"If you can get past the giant snake," sniffed Daphne. "Although… to be fair, it is very polite."

"So we're all happy to work with the twins?" Harry continued, keen to get a clear answer from everyone. If everyone agreed that gave them some more options, and if they could put the twins' chaos to their own ends… well, that was good for everyone.

Except Umbridge and the Inquisition, but then that was the point.

Everyone agreed.

"Brilliant," Harry said.

"On the subject of bringing others in," Ernie said once everything was decided, "I've been sounding out some others and I think it might be time to start chatting them up. Not about the messaging and all that—I reckon that's a bit too deep in for most. But more along the lines of what we're doing in lessons. You know, asking questions and making the Inquisition look bad or silly."

Anti-Inquisition sentiment around the school was reaching a high, so Harry didn't think it was the worst of ideas. As long as they picked the right students to include, it could work.

"As long as we choose right," Harry said.

"Oh, absolutely," agreed Ernie. "These will all be people we've known for years or whom we know don't approve of the Inquisition. Some of the Wandwright's lot are quite vocal about not being its biggest fans, let me tell you."

"And I know most of the ones from Yr Ysgol aren't too happy, either," added Tracey, "so some of them would be happy to join in too. And—and I was going to wait before saying but now seems a good time—they're about ready to elect members to a Gorsedd. So they're going to be starting their own protests soon, completely without us! So everything's really coming together."

That was good news. Harry wasn't quite sure what form the Welsh students' protest would take, but anything was good, especially if it came from a totally unrelated group of people.

"Looks like the Inquisition's hens are coming home to roost," Justin said.

"Hopefully all this will convince the Ministry to get rid of it," Susan said. She paused. "Unlikely I know, but we can hope."

With everything sorted out they all spent an hour or so hanging out in Slytherin's private quarters, alternately lounging or browsing what was left of his private study. Harry even thought he'd found a book on the Mind Arts, although it was in an archaic Latin dialect so he couldn't get too stuck in. But by the time they all dispersed for dinner, Harry thought it had been a productive evening.