Chapter 37 – Mischief Managed

The days passed quickly, and in what seemed like no time at all it was the Easter holiday. That was a welcome break for Harry, although it never really was a break since exams were right around the corner. Even worse was that it was OWL year, so Harry had to revise harder than ever before, which would have been fine if he didn't also have to manage the first years' Homework Club.

And go on prefect patrols, which Diggory seemed quite content to keep up with even during the Easter holiday. Which was admittedly the right thing to do, especially since the Inquisitorial Squad was out and about at every single opportunity, but the idea of it still felt a bit much to Harry.

"Oi, you two," Gemma Farley said, grabbing Harry and Daphne in the Common Room on the last day before the Easter holiday started. "I've got your patrol schedules for Easter here. Have a look and let me know if you can't make any of them so we can submit our changes to Cedric. But be fair—it's already hard managing you two because of the—because of the—er…" She glanced at Harry, and then sighed. "Oh, I'll just say it—because of you and Draco. We all know what's gone on, don't we? Not that I'm taking sides one way or another—but if I were, it wouldn't be Draco's side so don't worry about that—it's just… well, it makes things a bit more complicated, that's all."

"Right," Harry said, slightly embarrassed. "I'll… er… I'll make sure we arrange everything properly." He knew of course that the situation between him and Draco made scheduling a little bit awkward. Other sets of prefects in other Houses – even in Slytherin – were just paired up as necessary.

But Harry and Draco... well, nobody even tried to make that happen.

It was the same in clubs, too. But that was hardly Harry's fault. Still, it wasn't nice to pile on extra work for Farley and Shafiq – or Diggory and Thakkar – so the least Harry could do was be fair with his time.

"Nice one," Farley said. "Now I've got to find Malfoy and Parkinson… because of course they aren't here..." She left.

"Oh, these really aren't so bad," Daphne said as she looked over the schedule. "I'm sure there's a few we won't be able to do manage—you've definitely got Flight Club that afternoon and on that day Mrs Macmillan's organised a whole day's Art Club—but everything else looks fine."

"Except for this Tuesday here," Harry pointed out, "because Shafiq's got us doing Homework Club that afternoon."

"Oh, I'd forgotten all about that," Daphne said, sighing. "Well, I suppose we'll have to manage. We can figure out which days we need swapped and tell Gemma right away."

"Yeah, fair enough," Harry said. He had other things he wanted to get done over the Easter holiday as well, such as working with Fred and George on some more impressive bits of protest, and he wanted to get a proper look at the remnants of Slytherin's study in the Chamber. Some of the books looked to be very useful indeed, and even the ones that were just of historical interest seemed like they were worth a look.

The problem was just that Harry hadn't had nearly enough time to get all the things done that he wanted to get done. At least the Easter holiday was a bit of time for him to chill out.

Between his duties and revision, anyway.

"I'll have to make extra time for Alchemy stuff," Harry added, scanning over the parchment again. "This last practical is the big one and I want to get it perfect."

"Haven't you got top marks on every one so far?" Daphne asked.

Harry felt himself go red.

"Er, yeah," he said. "Full marks so far. But this last one is really hard… if you get it wrong and you test it, it can leave you brain dead. Er. Not that they'd let me test it if it was that bad, I don't think, but I don't even want to have a chance at that happening. So, you know."

"I just hope Arlecchino doesn't have us out too often," Blaise said once Harry and Daphne had sorted things out between themselves. Harry had told his friends that Arlecchino was really Corban Yaxley, but no one had had any real comments on that. They'd all decided it was best to call him Arlecchino still in public, anyway, just in case. "I almost wish I hadn't bothered joining the Squad."

"Oh, but it's been really useful," Tracey said, "so it's good that you did!"

Harry nodded along.

"Tracey's right. You sitting in on the meetings had been dead useful for us. You know, timings and all that. And you let us know about those searches Umbridge was going to do," Harry said. "So there's that."

"Searches which haven't even happened yet," Blaise said. "Honestly, I'm not sure if that was just her trying to see about any leaks, or… or what."

"I reckon she'll do it this week," Millie said, "you know, with the Easter holidays. Seems like a good time for it since everyone will be all happy and relaxed and she obviously can't be having that."

"You're probably right," Harry said. "I wish you weren't, but Easter's a great time for it. I wonder if we can… no, never mind; there's nothing we can do about it, is there? Although I was going to say if you lot have anything you want to hide we can stuff it in the—you know, the you know where." It was always tough remembering that he couldn't just talk about the Chamber of Secrets openly. Not that anyone seemed to be listening, but just in case.

And there was always the danger of them being overheard by a fourth or fifth year alchemist. A relatively rare danger, but Harry didn't want to be too blasé about it all.

"Thank you, Harry, but I just don't have anything I'm not supposed to have," Daphne said, smiling. Which to be fair was exactly what Harry expected from Daphne. Aside from her activities with the rest of the Fang, she really was an exemplary student who never got into any trouble or even seemed in any way inclined to mischief.

The perfect sort of student to make a prefect, really.

"D'you reckon I should hide my magazines and stuff?" Millie asked. "I've got that one about banned creature breeding practices and it cost me four months of my pocket money…"

"I'd hide it, personally," Tracey said. "You never know what they'll take as being against the rules."

"Wouldn't put it past them to change the rules based on what they find, either," Blaise said. He shrugged. "We're best off being squeaky clean for the foreseeable."

"Only with our stuff," Harry said. "We can still keep up with … everything else…"

"Well, obviously," Blaise said. "Aren't you meant to be out with the Weasleys tomorrow night?"

"I was planning on it," Harry said. "I've not managed to get out with them yet, though. What's it been like?"

Mille shrugged.

"I enjoyed when I went with them. They really know their way around the castle. Didn't even worry once that we'd get caught—but I was shitting myself the whole time," she said.

Harry nodded along. That made sense, since they had the Map, but he didn't want to tell everyone about it. That was the twins' secret, after all, which Harry only knew about through Sirius. At least Harry wouldn't have to take his Cloak.

He needed to keep some secrets.

Still, Harry didn't want to avoid going out with the twins. It wasn't strictly speaking necessary for them all to coordinate in such a way, but it was definitely very helpful and more than that it helped solidify their alliance and make sure everyone was on the same page. Exposed to the same risks and all that.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Blaise said. "But enough about all that—have you lot realised how much homework we've been given for the holiday? It's nuts. I'm not even doing Triple As and my pile is a nightmare—can't imagine how you're going to cope with it, Harry."

"Ugh," grunted Harry. "Don't remind me. It's awful. Dee's homework wasn't so bad—just wants us going over all the ingredients for our Elixir—but Vector and Babbling have set loads of problems. And some essays as well. If I didn't think Snape would refuse I'd ask to drop Ancient Runes…"

Although so close to the OWL Harry didn't think he really would drop it. But he wanted to.

"Oh, it's not that bad," Tracey said. "The problems aren't even that hard!"

Talk turned to homework and exams after that, which was enough to get engrossed in for Harry even if it wasn't the most pleasant thing they could have talked about.

The next night Harry got ready to go out with the Weasley twins. He nipped to the Chamber and grabbed his Cloak. He didn't want to use it with the twins, but he'd need it until he actually met up with the twins. Cloak secured, Harry waited until it was time and slipped out of the Slytherin Common room just after curfew. He could have got away without it and, if caught, simply claimed he was going to use the Prefects' Bathroom… but that was always risky.

Especially since the Inquisitorial Squad were now allowed to use it.

But Harry took the route that went past it anyway, as it was faster than some of the others. And it would be nice to see if he could spot any prefects or Squaddies lurking around.

Harry went through secret passages and more hidden routes, then when he was close to the meeting point, stuffed his Invisibility Cloak into an enlarged pocket.

Through his somewhat circuitous route Harry joined the Weasley twins on the upper levels of the castle where Yaxley had been given an office. The twins had 'something special' to do, although not what that was.

Not long after Harry emerged the twins appeared. No doubt they'd seen Harry on the Map.

"Good of you to join us," said Fred.

"We thought you might have got cold feet. Took you ages."

"I don't have a Map like yours," Harry said. "Couldn't you see I was coming?"

"Well… we did look," admitted Fred. "But for a while you looked like you were off to the Prefects' Bathrooms."

"Wanted to check on the Inquisitorial Squad," Harry said. "Didn't see anyone."

The twins glanced at one another.

"We saw on the Map they're hanging around the courtyards," George said. "No idea why. We didn't want to risk checking."

"So the office is empty?" Harry asked.

"Yep," confirmed Fred. "He's hanging about the Greenhouses."

"And this is the big thing you've been working on?"

"Part of it," said George, somewhat cagey. "The full thing isn't ready yet. This is a…"

"Trial run," supplied Fred. "Something to get our feet wet. You'll see."

That sounded interesting. Harry looked around.

"Let's go, then," Harry suggested. It wasn't too far to Arlecchino's office so they went as a group. Once there, the twins took up positions at either side of the door.

They were stood in a perfectly ordinary corridor by Hogwarts standards – thick stone floors, portraits and other bits of decoration, with some wood panels on the walls. The door to Yaxley's office was an actual door rather than a portrait or statue guardian, so at least they didn't have to worry about it reporting them.

Harry waited for the twins to explain what they were going to do.

"Right, so… this is a bit complicated," George said.

"We weren't sure how good you are at transfiguration," Fred continued, "so we thought you could do the easiest bits. No offence."

"It's not my best subject," Harry admitted, "but I'm not bad at it. What do you need me to do?"

"He says that like he's not going to get a clean sweep for the OWLs," Fred said to George. "As if even Hermione Granger didn't worry about him beating her at exams."

Harry went red. He wasn't that good of a student, at least not with everything. And it wasn't his fault that, of the things he was good at, he was very good at. He was quite sure Hermione would beat him at more than a couple of his subjects.

Harry put that thought to one side and turned himself to more immediate concerns.

The twins' Bumbridge mural had been a combination of paint, charms, and transfiguration work, and it had gone down a storm. More of that, and perhaps Umbridge really would lose it.

"If you can we were hoping you'd transfigure the noticeboards into a driftwood sort of thing," George said. "While we get to work on… well, what we're going to work on."

"Which is?"

"You'll see," Fred said. "Honestly, our job for tonight is easier, but we did the hard work already. So can you do it?"

Harry shrugged.

"Probably." He'd never transfigured anything into driftwood before, but it didn't seem particularly difficult. McGonagall had had them transfiguring different bits of wood into other, more different, bits of wood anyway, so Harry didn't think it would be outside of his abilities. "And that's all?"

"All for now," George said.

"Fine," Harry said. "I can do that. I'll just, er, get a move on with that, then…" Harry took up a position in front of the noticeboard next to Yaxley's office. It wasn't nearly as full as the main Inquisition boards outside of the lounge, but it wasn't empty either. Still, Harry thought it would be easy enough to transfigure the frame to look like it was driftwood. Just a matter of proper visualisation.

So that's what Harry attended to, every so often looking out for teachers, prefects, Inquisitors, or the Squad. But most of his attention was devoted to warping the noticeboard's frame, creating a new frame made of driftwood. Quite why the Weasleys wanted him to do that Harry couldn't figure out, since they didn't appear to be doing much of anything themselves. They were placing little balls, no larger than a mid-sized pebble, at various intervals along the corridor.

Dungbombs? Harry wondered, but they seemed the wrong shape for that. Well, he supposed he'd find out sooner rather than later, but he still wondered. When he was finished – and it took him a little longer than he'd thought because he wanted to get the twisted, gnarled shapes just right – he carefully made his way back to the twins, who were by that point setting out more and different little balls.

"We're almost ready," George said. "Taken us ages to work this out, but we've done it…"

"Finally," Fred said. "Well, we think. Probably. If this works we can do the big one for outside Umbridge's office."

"Ah, but we're getting ahead of ourselves," George said. He glanced back at Harry. "Ready to see if it's worked?"

"At this point I'm just looking forward to knowing what it is," Harry said.

"For the final version we want it to deploy on impact," Fred said, "but for now we've got to do it manually. So… stand back a bit since you're not going to want to get caught up in this."

Harry moved back past the noticeboards, Fred and George with him.

"Count me in, oh twin of mine!" said George. Fred counted down from three, and at zero, George gestured with his wand.

Smoke filled the corridor, thick and oddly cold. Harry covered his mouth and nose. The smoke eventually dissipated and left behind… sand. Lots and lots of sand. The ornate marble floor had been entirely covered – perhaps even replaced – by yellow sand, while several palm trees had sprouted up along the hallway.

A cool sea breeze wafted through the corridor tinged with the salt scent of the sea. He could even hear seagulls, although couldn't see any.

Harry stood there, blinking.

"That's not what I was expecting," Harry said.

"Good, innit?" said Fred. "We've got something much more impressive lined up for Umbridge, but we can't figure out how to do the water properly…"

"And the bog is too easily vanished," said George. "But this is good. Should take even Flitwick a few hours to unravel."

"But why a beach?" Harry asked.

"It's not just a beach," Fred explained. "It looks like one, but when Arlecchino—Yaxley—tries to go inside his office, he'll get stuck. It's quicksand. It'll suck him in and spit him out in the Great Hall wearing swimming trunks."

That was certainly a bold move. Far bolder than anything anyone had done to the Inquisitors or the Inquisition yet – they'd all stayed far away from targeting the actual Inquisitors themselves in favour of making rude jokes and things like that. So for the Weasley twins – and Harry as an accomplice – to go for a more direct attack… well, that was an escalation. A very big escalation, but Harry couldn't help but feel it was a necessary one.

And Arlecchino was really some bloke called Yaxley anyway, so Harry assumed he was working directly for Voldemort. Otherwise there'd be no real reason to hide his true identity with a false name – and likely a false face as well – in front of the school. But that raised another question.

"So, if it's going to strip him and switch his clothes," Harry wondered aloud to the twins, "what about stuff like Polyjuice?"

The twins looked at one another.

"We did think about that, but the spell—or there's a potion as well—to do that was too complicated," Fred said eventually.

"We even asked our brother Bill—he's a curse breaker—and he said it'd take ages to add in," finished George. "So we didn't do it. He might not even be using Polyjuice anyway. Sometimes people transfigure their bones and stuff to change their appearance."

"Or he might even be a Metamorphmagus, like that Tonks was," said George. "It's rare, but they are about."

Harry grunted in response. That was fair.

"We're hoping he'll go to his office right in the middle of breakfast," Fred said. "We've been watching him on the Map for ages now, and for the last fortnight or so he's been going to his office every day right in the middle of breakfast."

"So if we're lucky the entire school will see the results of our little trick. Not too shabby, eh?" George finished.

And it really wasn't. It was certainly much more spectacular than anything Harry and his friends had come up with, but then they'd steered well clear of anything quite so direct.

"How does it work?" Harry asked. For it to transport Yaxley from outside of his office to the Great Hall was definitely a bit of advanced magic. It couldn't be a Portkey, since Harry didn't think those worked on school grounds and he doubted the twins were able or willing to make one.

Some sort of Switching Spell? Harry wondered. That might have done it, but…

"That's a trade secret, I'm afraid," said Fred with a big grin.

"Can't go sharing all of our secrets now, can we?" George added. "Since you already know about the Map."

That was fair enough, Harry supposed. But he didn't push. He could always ask them again another time, anyway, when it was all less fresh.

"Do we have anything else to do tonight?" Harry asked. They'd been about half an hour actually getting the quicksand and everything else done, so there was still a bit of time.

"We wanted to charm Umbridge's office door to make fart noises and smells whenever she opens it," George said. "You can help us with that, if you want."

"Er, yeah, alright," Harry said. He could do that. And to tell the truth Harry was actually interested in how the twins would manage to do that. It wasn't a standard application of those charms at all, and the method might be more generally applicable to other things.

So Harry went along with the twins and helped them apply embarrassing charms to Umbridge's office.

They didn't have anything to worry about in terms of getting caught, anyway, since the twins kept checking the Map – almost religiously. But then, Harry supposed that was how they managed to get caught only very rarely.

When at last they parted ways Harry snuck off a short distance before donning his Invisibility Cloak for his trip to the dungeons. He didn't have a magic map and couldn't rely on it to sneak around. Even if the Map was technically his by right of inheritance.

Harry dropped his Cloak back into the Chamber of Secrets, then carefully made his way back to the Slytherin Common Room. That late only a handful of students would have even been inside, and Harry knew their activities well enough to know that it would be only a handful of fifth years tucked away in one of the alcoves. Nothing for Harry to worry about, certainly.

So Harry headed to bed.

The mood at breakfast the next morning was perfectly normal, at least for everyone who wasn't Harry. And normal relative to how breakfasts had been since the Inquisition had completed its full takeover of the school, anyway. But Harry sat there wondering when and whether Yaxley would come tumbling into the Great Hall via the Weasley twins' bit of magical quicksand.

The anticipation distracted him from the conversation at breakfast, too, which was only half a problem because Blaise was talking with Tracey about opera, and quite apart from not knowing anything about the topic, Harry thought it was boring. So he sat there half listening, half waiting, gaze fixed at the spot halfway through the Great Hall which the Weasleys had said would be ground zero.

Which paid off very nicely mid-way through breakfast, just as the Weasley twins had hoped it would.

Every head in the Great Hall turned at the sound of a crash. Yaxley, stripped and wearing only a pair of bright orange swimming trunks, crashed into the stone floor along with what appeared to be a never-ending stream of sand.

"I'm fucking stuck!" complained Yaxley from the floor. He thrashed about, seemingly trying to extricate himself from the sand, but he didn't manage it. He only seemed to be getting more stuck.

"This—fucking—for fuck's sake!" Yaxley shouted from his pile on the Great Hall floor. "When I catch the little fuckers who did this, I swear, they'll have—"

"Hem, hem," coughed Umbridge, interrupting Yaxley's tirade. She turned towards Professor Flitwick who was sat a few spaces to her left. "Filius, if you would attend to this mess?"

Laughter immediately from all corners of the Hall, Harry included. He glanced from Yaxley to Umbridge, and then along the rest of the High Table. Several of the teachers were openly laughing, while others had a much more retrained smile. Some appeared totally indifferent, but Harry thought that was probably due to political reasons.

"Now, please," continued Umbridge, still looking at Flitwick.

Flitwick got up and climbed down from the dais to see to the sand and everything else that had been dropped into the Great Hall. The sand and other debris – bits of shell, pieces of driftwood – Flitwick cleared up quickly enough. That was just a matter of waving his wand with a little sigh.

But Yaxley, stuck as he was to the Great Hall floor, proved much more difficult. At first Harry had assumed the sand was what was sticking him down, but with it gone, Yaxley was still stuck.

Which meant the twins had figured out some other mechanism for sticking him down. A permanent sticking charm of some sort, maybe, which would take even Flitwick a little while to remove.

"Hem, hem!" coughed Umbridge. Harry reluctantly looked up at her. Yaxley would wait. "As … distracting … as events within the Hall may be, I would like to remind all students that this is a place for eating and not for gawking. Students will finish their breakfasts and then leave the Hall promptly."

Harry didn't think there was any danger of anyone actually complying with Umbridge's command. For one, it was the Easter holiday, and people came and went from breakfast throughout the entire span. There would be students still yet to arrive at breakfast. And for another thing, Harry doubted rather a lot that anyone wanted to miss seeing 'Inquisitor Arlecchino' in such an embarrassing state.

The man had been responsible for Stinging Jinxes and all sorts of other punishments: even the students who hadn't experienced them would want to see him brought down a bit.

"Now that's embarrassing," Blaise said, staring at Yaxley and Flitwick. "Good bit of work, though," he added in an undertone.

"I didn't know about the sticking," Harry said. "Well, I thought the sand would do it, but once it was gone… But this is better."

"I do feel kind of sorry for him, though, actually," Tracey said. "I mean, not that sorry, but… that would be awful, wouldn't it? People are just laughing and pointing."

"Can't see how his authority will be respected at all after this," Blaise said, "which is great for us. Less for him."

That was a thought Harry hadn't had, but it was a very good point. After seeing Yaxley in such a ridiculous position Harry doubted students would be keen to listen to his instructions. Granted, the Inquisition's wide-ranging powers would probably persuade most students to listen, but the image of Inquisitor Arlecchino had been smashed to pieces.

And that was worth something.

"Ooh, that's a good point," said Tracey. "Not that I think it'll stop him for long, mind, since nobody wants to get a Stinging Jinx… but…"

Well, that was also true, Harry supposed. As pleased as he was to have avoided the Inquisition's new corporal punishments, Harry knew there were those in the castle far less fortunate. Stinging Jinxes and blood quills and in one notable case, the manacles Filch had been begging to use for years.

"Hurry up, man!" Harry heard Yaxley whisper to Flitwick. Thanks to his augmented hearing he could hear the pair talk with ease, even above the din of the Great Hall. Not that there was anything interesting about their conversation. "Or are you trying to drag this out? I'll have your job for this!"

"The precise mechanism is… complex," Flitwick said hesitantly. "I am quite sure I can remove the charm, but I'm trying to do it without any damage to your skin."

Harry grimaced. That was bleak. But then it wasn't as if Yaxley didn't deserve it, especially as he'd been doling out many of the punishments since Umbridge's promotion.

"I wonder how long it'll take to get him out," Blaise said, still looking at the fuss in the Hall.

"I just heard Flitwick say it's complicated," Harry said, "so I reckon we've got a while yet."

It ended up taking Flitwick under twenty minutes to undo the Weasley twins' sticking charm, although whether that really was due to the complexity or because he wanted to drag out the humiliation, Harry couldn't say. But even the normally mild-mannered Flitwick had been having some less than pleasant words to say about the Inquisition of late, so Harry wouldn't have put it past him.

When at last he was free, Yaxley got up, glared around the Great Hall, and then immediately stormed out, wand in hand.

"Well, that was… definitely something," Harry said. He hadn't expected the pay off from his night's activities with the twins to be quite so satisfying, but the simple knowledge that Yaxley had hated every moment was enough to put a smile on Harry's face. It couldn't quite make up for all the literal pain he'd been doling out to rule breaking students, but it was a start.

And if he really was working directly for Voldemort, well, it was nowhere near enough. That would require a life sentence to Azkaban at the very least.

"Is that all you did last night?" Blaise asked. "Not that it wasn't enough, or anything—just curious."

"We charmed Umbridge's office door to smell and sound like it was farting," Harry said. "But that's all."

"Fair," Blaise said. "Bet she'll hate that."

"Mm," agreed Harry.

Once the Hall had settled somewhat after Yaxley's hasty exit, Umbridge stood up and coughed for everyone's attention.

"It is now very clear that a segment of the study body here at Hogwarts School is engaged in persistent and wholly unacceptable levels of subversive activity. This cannot and will not be tolerated any further," Umbridge said. "We have been lenient. We have been friendly. We have been supportive and caring. And yet behaviour from certain people here at the school has been getting worse. You were warned," Umbridge said.

"You were told of the consequences and there are those among you who have completely ignored them. To those of you who are following the rules: I can only say that you must blame your peers for what is to come, because although it is not your fault, we must apply the rules equally. If you are as concerned and disappointed in events as we are here on the staff please do not hesitate to contact myself or an Inquisitor if you know anything at all about the identities of these ne'er-do-wells. If the Inquisition knows the identity of the perpetrators punishments can be applied much more selectively. That is all."

Umbridge left the Great Hall. It wasn't customary for the Headmaster to do so until the end of breakfast, which ran a little later on holidays, but Umbridge left anyway.

"What do you think she means by consequences?" Tracey asked as Umbridge was leaving. "It's not like there's anything else she can do, is there? She's already using jinxes and other stuff on us; she already cancels clubs whenever she wants; and she even got Dumbledore sacked. What else is left?"

"They still haven't done those searches," Harry pointed out. "I bet that's what she means. Or it could be something even worse than that, I suppose—she usually does manage to go one worse every time, doesn't she?"

"Ugh," said Blaise. "You're probably right about the searches. And about finding something worse. She's always got some new horrible thing she can pull out of her arse."

Tracey stared at the Great Hall doors.

"I bet she's gone to organise the searches now," Tracey said. "I reckon they'll be doing them before breakfast ends properly."

The three of them shared glances.

"Shit," Harry said. Well, at least he didn't have any contraband in his dormitory, and he didn't think he'd done anything that would make Umbridge target him with planted evidence. Or rather, he didn't think that Umbridge knew Harry had done anything she needed to be angry about. Harry was quite proud of his reputation for being an upstanding student of generally good moral fibre – even if it did make him look a bit of prig to certain students – because it let him get away with so much more.

"If they are going to do the searches I want to be there when it happens," Blaise said. "No telling what they'll get up to and it seems better to watch."

"Agreed," Harry said. "We should let Daph and Millie know what we think, too—I'm not sure if Millie's hidden her magazines but she probably will want to…"

"I'll do it," Tracey said. "Meet you back at the Common Room?"

Harry nodded, and the three of them got up. Tracey went to speak with Daphne and Millicent at another part of the table while Harry and Blaise left the Great Hall. Other students were leaving in small groups too, although it wasn't quite an exodus. It seemed more like the normal state of affairs which was a pity because Harry would have wanted the student body to watch the Inquisition at its activities.

At least that way someone would be there to give witness to the whole sorry affair.

Just before they left the Great Hall, Harry paused.

"Er, I'm going to warn Ernie," Harry said to Blaise. "Hang on a sec." Ernie was still sat at the Hufflepuff Table along with Justin, although Susan was elsewhere. Harry tapped Ernie on the shoulder.

"Hey, Ern," Harry said, voice low as he could get it while still being heard over the noise of the Hufflepuff Table. "You know that thing Blaise warned us about? We think it's going to happen now. Since… er… what happened with Arlecchino just now."

Ernie looked thoughtful.

"Yes, that would make sense," Ernie said after a few moments. "We'd been wondering why it hadn't happened yet… I suppose now is as good a time as any."

"I'm just glad I've not got anything I shouldn't have," murmured Justin. "Nor will Sue, I expect." He glanced at Ernie.

"I've got nothing," Ernie said. "With Mum being a teacher now, well… thought it best not to push my luck. Not with, you know, everything else."

"Definitely," agreed Harry. "Well, just thought I'd let you know. I'll be off then—Blaise is waiting. And we want to be there if the Inquisition really does… you know."

Ernie and Justin nodded, and Harry left them where they were, meeting up again with Blaise at the doors. By that time Tracey had finished up with the other two girls, so the five Slytherins made their way back to the Slytherin Common Room to sit and wait.

Once inside they took up their usual spot, although Harry angled himself so that he could see the Common Room doors. He didn't want any surprises at all when it came to the Inquisition's arrival, and he was quite sure that it would come.

It was the only logical step left.

But it didn't happen just after breakfast. Harry and his friends sat in the Common Room for a couple of hours after breakfast watching and waiting, but nothing at all happened.

"Umbridge must be waiting for people to come forward," Blaise suggested about an hour into their waiting.

No one had had any better suggestions, although Harry wondered whether she'd go through with it at all. Searching the staff quarters and their offices was one thing – it could easily be justified if the teachers were causing the students to go astray or putting them in danger – but searching the students' rooms? Harry couldn't think of many legitimate reasons to do that, especially given the situation. It was just a bit of graffiti.

And technically an assault now that he and the twins had embarrassed Yaxley like that, Harry supposed, but…

Eventually they stopped watching the Common Room door anxiously and settled in for a more normal morning of activities. Harry and Blaise played cards – Goblin's Ear, a game Blaise had learned from his great-great-aunt over Christmas – while Daphne and Tracey painted each other's nails and Millicent flicked through a magazine.

It even ended up being a pleasant morning, just so long as Harry remembered to forget about the threat of the Inquisition.

"Oi!" Harry said, interrupting Blaise. "You can't do that—that's an illegal move, you've got to have three dragons and a unicorn to do that and you've only got two dragons."

"What?" said Blaise. "That's not how the rule works. You only learned about the game half an hour ago so I won't be too harsh but you can do it if you've only got two dragons as long as you've got the jarvey—"

"That's absolute bollocks," Harry said. "You're just trying to cheat. I remember how you explained it and the jarvey card's only important when you've got the full sack of ears and you don't even have a single pair."

"Well, it was worth a try," Blaise said. "Although I don't know why I bothered—you pay too much attention." He sighed. "Well, fine. I don't have enough for the Goblin's Ear. Pick up a card."

Harry reached forward and grabbed another card from the spares pile.

"Nice!" Harry said. He'd pulled a dragon, which meant he had enough cards for the Ear. "That's an Ear—"

"Attention, members of Slytherin House!" called a voice from the Common Room door. Harry looked up. It was Snape. "The Inquisition has seen fit—in what is surely a wise and completely appropriate move wholly unrelated to recent embarrassments—to conduct searches of the Common Rooms and of the students' dormitories," Snape said, though his tone told Harry he felt like it was anything but.

"Unfortunately for us all such an occurrence must be overseen by the students' Head of House which means I am to be inconvenienced along with you all in what is going to be a completely pointless endeavour." He glanced around the room. "In what I am sure is going to be a completely pointless endeavour, and which will occur in precisely three minutes. So, if there is any doubt in your minds whether or not you have something hidden which you should not have, fix it now." He paused. He seemed to look directly at Harry then, but Harry held his gaze. He had nothing to fear from either Umbridge's goons or Snape's legilimency. "Have I made myself clear?"

Immediately a dozen or so students got up and left the Common Room for the dormitories. People who hadn't already heard the rumours about searches, or who hadn't been told by friends in the Squad, or perhaps they had and hadn't believed it… but there were quite a few people who seemed surprised at the turn of events, and the Common Room emptied fairly quickly after that.

Snape stayed where he was at the door.

With the chaos in the rest of the room, Harry and his friends stayed put. There was no sense getting up and mucking about with anything, since none of them had anything to worry about anyway. Harry had made quite sure that his own affairs were totally clean. As far as the Inquisition knew, Harry was a model student. There was whatever problem Umbridge had, but that seemed to be more about Dumbledore than Harry, so Harry wasn't worried about that.

Minutes after Snape's announcement the Common Room door opened, this time revealing Inquisitors Vipera and Arlecchino. Yaxley.

"Ah, you're here already," Yaxley said to Snape. "So we can get started right away."

"Indeed," Snape said.

"We'll start with the fifth years and work our way down," Yaxley said to Vipera.

Harry – along with everyone else in the Common Room – watched the pair of Inquisitors cross to where the dorms were and went their separate ways. It made sense that there were two, Harry supposed, as it wouldn't be proper for Yaxley to go rummaging around the girls' rooms. Although Harry didn't think it appropriate for the searches to be going ahead at all, so perhaps his opinion was well and truly out of step with the rest of the wizarding world's.

A great many students made as if to follow, but a gesture and a few sharp words from Snape stopped them.

"You will not enflame the situation by watching en masse," Snape said. "If it is your dormitory being searched you may be present; otherwise, do not interfere." He paused. "I cannot help you if the Inquisition takes offence."

That was reasonable, Harry supposed. He stayed put. With the number of students that year, and with how large the dormitories were, Harry would be waiting a while until his own turn. And he intended to see what the Inquisition was doing just in case anything was damaged. Not that he had anything important in his trunk, but it was the principle of it.

Evidently many of the fifth years had the same or similar thoughts and made their way into the dorms to watch. Snape followed behind lazily, as if he was totally uninterested in what was happening. Harry assumed that was a front, since Snape was apparently a close ally of Dumbledore and would presumably be against the Inquisition and its goals.

"Well," Daphne said after Snape had gone, "at least it's happened now. We can relax a little bit."

"Er… what?" Blaise said. "This isn't my idea of relaxation, Daphne."

"I'm just saying," Daphne continued, "that now they've gone and done their searches finally we don't have to worry about that anymore. We can get on with everything else because they've already done the searches. Millie won't have to worry about her magazines and Harry can get on with things as well." She shrugged. "I'm not saying it's a good thing that this has happened, but at least it has happened."

"I get what you're saying," Tracey said. "At least now that it's happened, we know what to expect. And hopefully it won't happen again. But even if it does we'll be used to it."

"I doubt anyone will let themselves be caught with anything banned after this," Harry said. Assuming that anyone who was caught in the first round of searches wasn't expelled, anyway. Harry wouldn't put it past Umbridge to do that.

"We'll have to see how this goes, I suppose," Blaise said. "It's properly shit for anyone who wasn't prepared for it but…"

"I think the searches were a really badly kept secret," Tracey said. "I mean, you told us, but loads of people have friends on the Inquisitorial Squad and you can't have been the only one to say anything about the searches." She paused. "Can you?"

Blaise shrugged.

"Dunno. Some of the others are really into the Squad bollocks—like they actually believe in it. Which is mad but some people are like that," Blaise said. "But you're probably right. It's not like we'd be telling each other about it anyway since we're supposed to report each other back to the Inquisitors."

"What do you reckon they're actually looking for?" Millicent asked. "Obviously stuff on the banned list—that goes without saying. But apart from that, I mean. Since I doubt they're going to go through all this just to catch someone with a Fanged Frisbee or dungbombs…"

"Paint stuff, maybe?" Tracey said. "And there's the normal list of banned things and then that new list, isn't there? So probably things on the new list. I've got a few books in Welsh I'm sure the Inquisition won't like but I've checked and none of them are on the list. They probably just want to make a fuss…"

"Daddy said at Christmas that I need to be watching what letters I keep in my trunk," Daphne said. "I made sure to get rid of all of them—I sent them home when I got back—but I bet the Inquisitors are looking for letters and things like that which could incriminate people's parents. Especially if they work at the Ministry."

"That sounds right," Blaise said. He glanced at Harry. "You've hidden all your shit, right? The letters from… er… well, you know."

Harry nodded. He'd stuck all of his potentially dangerous materials down in the Chamber of Secrets which was probably the best hiding place for them. His two way mirror, his Invisibility Cloak, the book on the Mind Arts, and even all his letters from Sirius. Some of those mentioned Dumbledore as well, so Harry was glad to have moved them.

"Hidden in the Chamber," Harry said. But Harry wasn't worried about that anyway. He looked over at Tracey. "You've made sure all your letters to your mum are safe, right?" Harry asked. He knew Tracey had sometimes discussed things with her mother, and her mother worked at the Ministry of Magic. If Tracey were to be caught with something…

"Mam told me before Christmas to stop talking about things in letters, and I took all the other ones home at Christmas anyway," confirmed Tracey. "So I think I'm safe. I don't have anything else that might be what they're looking for, anyway."

That was good. That meant none of his friends would have anything they didn't want to get caught with. Susan was unlikely to have kept anything incriminating around, and aside from their nocturnal indiscretions Ernie was making sure to be totally above reproach due to his mother's position at the school. Harry didn't think Justin did anything that was against the rules, and apart from that it was really only Harry and Millie who had anything on the banned list.

So that was all good.

A little while later Yaxley came marching back into the Common Room followed by one of the new fifth years. Monksfoot, Harry thought his name was.

"It's not a bloody treasonous publication," Monksfoot was protesting to little avail. "It's Chansonnier's Movements in Magic—it's a classic book of famous songs. It's a standard part of the music curriculum at Wandwright's—the Ministry approved it. Or it did before this year, anyway. Look, it's really not… The instruments in the Music Alcove play these songs! It's really nothing to worry about, I swear—"

"That remains to be seen," Yaxley said. "The book is in French, and I have detected an enchantment on it which will need to be broken to ascertain the true nature of this book."

"It's not against the rules to have a French book!" Monksfoot said, although his protests fell on deaf ears. Still, Harry thought he looked a little more afraid than someone whose book really wasn't against the rules would be. Which made Harry wonder what the enchantment on the book was, and what it was hiding.

"Sit there and wait until we have finished," Yaxley said, pointing at an unoccupied section of chairs and sofas along one of the Common Room's many walls. Monksfoot did as he was told and Yaxley disappeared once more into the dormitories. It wasn't long after that that Yaxley, Vipera, and Snape reappeared in the Common Room to announce the search of the fourth year dorms.

Which meant Harry's turn wasn't far away. A handful of other students were found in possession of 'restricted materials', although as far as Harry could tell it was all something out of nothing. Nothing he'd seen was anything that looked at all seditious, the worst of it being a manifesto from a goblin rights group in one of the Mexicos.

When it was the third years' turn, Harry got up and went to his dormitory straight away so that he didn't miss a thing. He didn't relish the thought of Yaxley poking around his room, let alone in his school trunk, but it was better to be there than not. And Harry didn't have anything there to worry about anyway. But that wasn't the point.

Fortunately Yaxley had elected to search the other third years' dorms first, so Harry was able to wait inside his own dorm with Blaise and the other boys. Only Charlie had been out of the Common Room when the Inquisitors had arrived, but even he'd made it back.

"You lads have anything unwise?" Capability asked the room at large. "I didn't think I had anything, but after seeing what some of the others have been pulled up for, I'm a bit worried now."

Silence at first, and then John FitzRoy spoke.

"I thought I'd be fine—I've checked the list of bans weekly since that madwoman started it—but if they're rounding up people for having books in French then I'm out of luck…"

"That's rough," Charlie said. "I've got a few bits, but nothing on Umbridge's treason list." He shrugged. "I reckon I'll get detention, maybe, or a go on the blood quill…"

Harry grimaced. The blood quill was infamous – an enchanted quill that used the user's own blood to write on parchment and cut the hand with each stroke. Not that Harry had ever experienced it, of course. But everyone who had spoke of how unpleasant it was. Not quite as bad as a stretching on the rack, but worse than Stinging Jinxes because it could leave a cursed scar.

"I've got nothing," said Blaise.

"Well, you're on her Squad, so that checks out," muttered Plumm.

"Oh, don't be like that," Blaise said. "It's all about getting on her good side."

"Fair enough," Plumm said. "It's not how I'd do it, but…"

Silence again. Then everyone glanced at Harry, who felt suddenly on display.

"Er… right… me," Harry said. "I've not got anything." More looks. "No, really—I don't know why everyone thinks I'm up to something because I never am. I really don't have anything."

FitzRoy snorted.

"I actually don't," Harry started to say, but Yaxley barged his way into the room, Snape close behind him.

"Stand at the foot of your beds," Yaxley commanded, "and don't get in my way."

Everyone moved. Harry took one last look at his trunk before getting out of the way but felt happy enough that he didn't have anything there to find.

Yaxley didn't waste any time once the five boys had stood aside. He tackled the far end of the room first, giving Harry a bit of breathing room. Charlie and Capability's trunks were searched without incident, the only thing found being a few joke items of Charlie's which, while banned items, were on the regular list and not the super special sedition edition of it.

Lucky bugger, thought Harry. Charlie at least had managed to avoid anything particularly bad.

Yaxley began rifling around FitzRoy's trunk easily enough but paused after a little while. He seemed to have run into a locked compartment, but it was evidently one quite far in as his entire arm had disappeared.

"How many chambers are there? And how bloody deep do they go?" Yaxley said, exasperated. "This is ridiculous." He withdrew his arm.

FitzRoy sniffed.

"Seven, as is good and proper," said FitzRoy.

Seven. Harry stifled a laugh. FitzRoy had seven compartments in his trunk, and no doubt they were magically expanded as well. It suddenly made perfect sense that FitzRoy had seemingly endless numbers of different outfits and an infinite supply of books and other odds and ends.

"Open them all," said Yaxley with a sigh. "And hurry up—I've got loads more to do after you."

"That's hardly my fault, is it?" said FitzRoy. "I'm not the one who ordered a search of all the students' things. This wouldn't have happened at Beauxbatons, you know; the school charter is quite robust and not even the French Ministry would dare—"

"Just do it," said Yaxley. "No need for commentary."

FitzRoy moved and unlocked each of the compartments of his trunk in turn, although it took him quite a while longer than Harry thought was strictly necessary. He was pushing it, but Harry could respect that. Impotent though the protest was, it was at least a protest.

Yaxley returned to his search. He eventually extricated a whole stack of books from FitzRoy's trunk, along with what was clearly a French wizarding board game.

Yaxley looked gleeful.

"These will need to be checked," Yaxley said to FitzRoy, who was protesting. "No arguments. You know the rules."

"And I haven't broken any of them," FitzRoy said. "They're novels. If you weren't such an uncultured swi—"

"Ahem," interrupted Snape with a well-timed cough. "Be that as it may, Mr FitzRoy, the Inquisition has decided that all books in foreign languages—or indeed languages other than English, foreign or not—are to be deemed suspicious. I am sure you will have no problems."

FitzRoy looked ready to push the issue, but wisely in Harry's opinion decided to drop it, so Yaxley moved on. Harry was next, so Harry stood aside and let Yaxley rummage around his trunk – despite that being the very last thing he wanted the man to do.

But he didn't need to worry, anyway, since his trunk was filled with all the usual sorts of mundane things. Clothes, both muggle and magical; his spare shoes and the trainers his aunt had bought him for Christmas; and all sorts of odds and ends from spare parchment to broom wax.

Just about the only thing Harry was worried about was that he'd have to pack everything back into his trunk all nice and neat. He could use the packing spell Tracey had taught them all, he supposed, but he didn't really like what it did with his socks. But he wondered if maybe—

"And what's this, then?" said Yaxley, pulling a stack of parchment from the trunk. "Letters from Dumbledore—they have his seal on them. These will have to be checked, of course. Potentially treasonous material you've got here, Potter."

"I don't have any letters from Dumbledore," Harry said immediately, although he wasn't at all sure. Did he have letters from Dumbledore? He didn't think so, but… Taking a breath, Harry tried to occlude. He put up a decent effort although it probably wouldn't have stood up to Snape, who was just standing there in the corner looking angrier than usual.

But the occlusion held, and Harry was able to think around his panic. Letters from Dumbledore. Letters from Dumbledore which were obviously not Harry's, since not only did Dumbledore not send letters to Harry very often, on the very rare occasions he did he didn't use his official seal and usually made the letters burn themselves after Harry had read them.

So whatever Yaxley had found couldn't be Harry's letters. Which meant Yaxley had planted them himself.

If Harry hadn't already assumed he was Voldemort's man on the inside he'd have found brand new reasons to. As it was, Yaxley had only confirmed everything to Harry there and then. The only question was, how effective would Yaxley's little trick be? Harry couldn't say. On the one hand, Umbridge was looking for reasons to punish people, and Harry thought she was very ready to believe the worst.

But on the other hand, Umbridge had been fairly keen to court Harry's good opinion. It hadn't worked, but in none of the interviews Harry had had with her had she seemed angry at Harry. Merely… disappointed that her tactics weren't working.

So perhaps Harry didn't have much to worry about.

"Then what are these?" said Yaxley waving the stack of letters around.

"I don't know what they are," Harry said slowly, "because I've never seen them before. They're not mine, whatever they are."

"I'm sure the investigation will come out in your favour," Yaxley said, "but there's no denying that these were found inside your school trunk. I think everyone here saw that."

Harry glanced around the room. His dorm mates – Blaise excepted – seemed unsure of what to do or where to look. The letters clearly had been found in Harry's trunk, and everyone knew that Harry had been meeting with Dumbledore. And everyone had read the papers, where Skeeter had been insinuating all sorts of things about Harry, her highly publicised attacks on Dumbledore notwithstanding.

Snape glared alternately at Harry and Yaxley, seemingly unsure which of them should be the target of his ire. The problem was, Harry supposed, that Snape knew very well that Harry was in contact with Dumbledore. It was entirely possible that Dumbledore had sent Harry letters, and that Harry had kept them.

Quite apart from how that hadn't happened, it was a plausible scenario.

But Harry had told Dumbledore about Yaxley through Sirius, and Snape worked for Dumbledore as part of the Order. So Harry thought that he could know of Yaxley's identity too.

"Letters from the Headmaster are, while an unusual item for students to possess, not wholly out of the ordinary," Snape said eventually. "Is there really a need for—"

"That's what the investigation will have to find out," interrupted Yaxley. "Once we've read the letters and checked them for any funny business we'll have something to go on, won't we?"

"You can use Veritaserum," Harry offered quickly. As an occlumens he could lie under Veritaserum anyway. So there was no danger from being asked any other questions either. "I'll testify under Veritaserum that those letters aren't mine. Because they're not mine. I'll even—"

"Now, now," said Snape. "There will be no need for—that," he said. "Are you quite satisfied that you have found what you wanted, Inquisitor?" Snape paused. "There are, after all, a considerable number of other students whose belongings you have not tampered with."

"As you say," said Yaxley, inclining his head. "But first these lads need to join their peers so that they may be questioned later on by the High Inquisitor."

Harry felt like arguing further, but Yaxley had said his bit and planted his evidence. There was nothing more to say. So Harry, along with FitzRoy, joined the growing number of Slytherins in the Common Room who'd been caught with banned or otherwise incriminating materials for further questioning.

"Ugh," groaned FitzRoy as he and Harry sat with the others. "At least you were caught conspiring with traitors to the realm—that's a proper reason to get in trouble like this. All I'm here for is books in a language they don't like. It's a bloody farce."

Harry felt like he should have a scathing response to that, or at least protest that he wasn't conspiring with anyone, least of all enemies of the state… but that was what he'd been 'caught' doing. And he was actually doing it.

"You know what, John," Harry said, "that's actually fair enough." He didn't have to like it, but it was exactly how it looked to everyone else, and FitzRoy actually hadn't done anything wrong.

"So… what?" Harry said after a silence. "We're just supposed to sit here and wait?"

The Common Room was all abuzz as many students had yet to be searched, while those who had been subjected to it already were complaining to each other about it. And in the middle of it all the students who'd been caught out with something – anything – were sat in the Common Room waiting.

"I suppose," FitzRoy said. "With any luck they'll see to you first and realise there's no point going after the rest of us." He paused. "No offence, but I just think you're the only one who's going to go down for conspiracy and 'having books in French' is a piss poor excuse for punishments next to that."

Harry sighed.

"Well, you're not wrong," Harry said. He settled in to wait.