Balthazar rode ahead of the quickly. He had to give the order to begin the attack to the centaurs on the front line.
When the rest of the party came out of the forest behind him, they found twelve centaurs with their bows at the ready oriented in a U-shape around the wide, low root covered entrance to the spiders lair. All of the centaurs had on belts filled with products of the DA's invention.
Two centaurs moved and made a gap in the formation to allow the mixed human-centaur group through.
"It is a steep drop into the cave, commander," one of the centaurs told him.
"If this is like their other holes, they will nest in the ceiling as well."
"So we smoke them out; smoke will rise and force them down quickly," Ron spoke, looking at the hole with very well veiled trepidation. "Then throw in a a bunch of gas grenades to incapacitate the smaller spiders completely. The larger ones won't be more bothered by it than they are by the smoke so we'll have to be ready for them."
"Lucas, Blaise, Amelia, tower defense. Blaise at the rear, overhead shielder," Harry ordered. "Ron, head the formation with your bloody flame thrower. Balthazar, we'll fall in by your warriors wherever you'd like."
The centaurs fell into their ranks quickly.
The DA cast bubblehead charms on all of the people present to protect them from the smoke and gas, even those centaurs who would be providing exterior cover (with permission from each of them).
When they were done, Balthazar gestured for the centaur who had spoken first (seemingly familiar with the insides of the cavern the spiders had chosen) to launch the smoke bombs. Immediately after, he launched an entire bandolier of the gas bombs that Ron had brought just for the occasion.
Soon, they could hear the sounds of spiders dying from the other side of a rocky root-bound outcropping that must have dropped into a cave as the centaur commander had explained. Ron heard the clicking of pincers and didn't hesitate to trigger his flame thrower.
"Die!" he yelled.
"Bloody hell," Harry muttered.
"Effective," Ramadi said.
The brilliant crimson flames seared their eyes and apparently more than ten large spiders. It was wide enough to block the entire entrance so the centaurs had more than enough time to notch their arrows or raise their weapons.
The flames continued for another thirty seconds before it became apparent that the spiders were shoring up on the other side just outside of their reach.
"We need to push them back, claim the ledge, and launch our attack from above," Balthazar declared. "Let them through before they overrun our brethren behind them."
Ron nodded and let his fire cease as soon as Harry nodded and gestured for him to do so. Let the hunt begin.
…
At the back exit of the spiders hideout, four centaurs had their bows drawn with arrows notched while another two wielded supplied provided by the wizards. They had yet to have a need to use them.
After killing the spider guards, they had trapped the narrow crevice-like exit with a ten foot long and three feet wide piece of tar carpet. So far the spiders had done nothing but fall into the tar.
After a few moments, the spiders got smart and attempted to crawl out along the walls. They were all swiftly dealt with via flaming arrows (another innovation delivered to them by two ginger twins). They stopped climbing up the walls and were forced to attempt to climb over the tar.
They had little success escaping until the amount of knee-high spiders inside the tar pit stretched the limits of the magic and began allowing carcasses to pile up. The fleeing spiders used these bodies like stepping stones.
None of them were allowed to escape but it soon became clear that they would be overrun and risk one or two getting away from them. That would be enough to eventually repopulate the forest so the centaurs were avoiding survivors at all costs.
"It is time," the dark black furred centaur in charge ordered the three wielding wizard items.
They all nodded and began unleashing the concrete spray. This time, it was with the intent to actually block the exit completely. It didn't take long to completely solidify then re-spray until the previous exit was no more than an airtight patch of concrete.
"There will be no more of them coming through here," the leader of the group declared. "Let us join our brothers. Let us join the hunt!"
…
Inside the cavern, smoke hung in a heavy layer around the ceiling. There was nothing to be heard aside from the sounds of a fight hard fought.
"Bloody hell," Ron grunted as he bludgeoned another knee-high spider to death. "I don't know how you talked me into this, Potter!"
"Oh come on Ron," Harry grunted back. "You've only been bitten a few times."
Harry, Ron, Magorian, and Ramadi were shored up along one wall of the lower cavern. On the other side, Blaise, Masson, and a small group of centaurs were working to eliminate the last of the spiders.
The other centaurs were maintaining their position on the ledge that they had barely pushed the spiders back from. Amelia was up there with them firing spell after spell into the corner where Aragog was shored up — they'd deal with him last. Until then, it was her job to keep him out of the fight.
All that was left of the spiders forces were three dozen of the larger and mid-range spiders and whatever Aragog had behind him. All of the others had been taken out by another round of bug bombing.
However, the ones that were left became much more desperate once they realized that their only escape had been blocked. This was their last frantic attempt to survive.
"Why are there so bloody many?" Blaise growled.
"Where there is one there is a hundred," Masson answered in his accented voice with heavy breath. "This is the way of the insect."
"On your flank, Ariadne," the Slytherin teen warned as he sliced two legs off of one of the acromantula with a nonstandard severing spell. He took better aim the next time because it was still attempting to scuttle angrily towards him.
Blaise's back was facing the corner Aragog was shored up in. The spider was shrouded in shadow and smoke but clearly visible. Around him, his larger children stood protective guard.
Amelia was keeping all of them at bay but even she couldn't have anticipated one of the larger spiders breaking away from the circle around Aragog to launch itself onto Bane's back.
The centaur bucked as soon as he felt the weight but the spider was undeterred. It began scuttling across the broad back of the centaur's horse half with clear plans to go for the neck or shoulder where its venomous bite would be most effective.
"Bane!" she shouted in warning while trying to get a clear shot.
It was Blaise that reacted by pulling his dagger and throwing it with precision into the main body of the spider. It fell off of Bane's back before it had a chance to sink it's mandibles into anything.
The centaur, whom had dropped one of his maces while attempting to remove the spider, stared at the human who had saved him with something akin to shock in his eyes. He hated humans more than almost any other centaur. That his life had just been saved by one made him feel very conflicted.
There was no time to focus on something as trivial as that for either Bane or Blaise though. In the melee, Amelia had let up her assault against Aragog's corner. The seven or so large spiders that had previously been surrounding the shadowy form of Aragog began making their way towards one of the groups on either side of the cavern.
Two of them were felled to centaur archers while Harry knocked another two out with a particularly large fire ball. The rest were taken down swiftly, their advantage gone.
For the first time, there was no longer any sound of spiders scuttling. Only the hooves of the centaurs and very heavy breathing could be heard.
Harry and Ron, however, were not going to forget about Aragog. "Keep your aim on the big one," the redhead grunted.
"Amelia, some fresh air if you don't mind?" Harry called to the woman on the top of the five foot ledge.
"Of course," she said whilst brandishing her wand. "Aerus ventosus."
The effect was immediately notable as the gas, smoke, and dust was swept out of the underground cavern. Bubblehead charms didn't make it any easier to see through smoke, after all.
"Lux lucis coma," Harry cast next. His spell took effect in the form of a ball of silver light that emitted rays bright enough to illuminate the entire area.
Closest to the large arachnid was Balthazar, who, with a spear handed to him by one of his warriors, stepped forward closer to Aragog.
"Great spider," the centaur called loudly. "Your time in this forest has come to an end. Rise and face me!"
Yet, Aragog did not even stir.
Sharing a look with Ron, Harry directed the ball of silver light closer to Balthazar and the centaurs gathering behind their commander with weapons drawn.
"Hm," Masson wondered before sending out a pulse of baby blue magic that passed through the larger unmoving spider. "It is as I thought - he is dead."
"Dead?" Blaise parroted.
"For no more than a half hour."
"He must have been too weak to fight off the effects of the gas," Ron theorized. "That and the smoke was pretty bad in his corner; looks like he's halfway out of his little hidey-hole."
"I don't think that qualifies as little, not with the amount of his children he had pouring out of there," Harry pointed out. "Though it makes sense for him to be weak. He's been around since Voldemort's Hogwarts years — Aragog's at least fifty-five years old."
"Many years even for a magical spider," Bane agreed thoughtfully. "Then it seems the spiders time in this forest has come to an end."
"Not just yet," Harry said. "Ron, get your torch and start singing anything that even looks like a spider or an egg. Wall to wall, ceiling to floor. Lucas, return to the castle and get the Hannah and Tracey to meet us in the usual clearing in the forest. Tell them to bring whoever and whatever the need to harvest a bunch of spider parts. Blaise, come help me levitate Aragog out of here."
As he spoke, he levitated four large dead spiders up to the edge and set them in front of Amelia.
"We'll bring those back too."
"You would take them for what purpose?" Bane asked, feet stomping in agitation (as he always did when near humans).
"Some parts of them are valuable potions ingredients. I know at least two healing potions that use them so we're not going to waste the chance while we've got it," Harry said with a shrug before turning to Balthazar. "Would your people have any use of some of the harvested parts? We can deliver them to you once it's done."
"I believe our healers would have interest in their uses," the centaur agreed with a nod of his head. He wasn't sure about it but he wasn't going to turn away their share of the spoils, so to say. "They are waiting for my warriors now with cures for the venom. We must go now."
"None of your men were seriously wounded?"
"Nothing the light of the moon will not heal," he answered before making his way somewhat awkwardly back to the top of the ledge.
Harry blinked at that bit of centaur-sounding nonsense. It'd been awhile since he'd heard it; the warrior centaurs heads were less, shall we say, in the stars.
"Your people fought well today," he said as the rest of his warriors joined him and prepared to leave, some looking worser for ware and most looking dirty and scuffed.
"We fought well together," Harry corrected.
"Perhaps we shall do so again," Balthazar agreed with a slight bow before he and his men turned and exited back into the forest proper.
Once they were gone, Harry and Blaise levitated Aragog up to Amelia. She moved his body outside with those of his fallen children while the other two climbed up to the ledge.
"I think you got everything, Ron," Harry called down to the insane wizard a moment later.
He was spinning in a circle, laughing (cackling) every now and then, while spewing fire in every direction. Even the ceiling was alight; the only thing that wasn't was the small shielded area Ron was standing in and even that was already singed.
As if he'd be fool enough not to secure his own space.
"Alright, alright," he agreed while turning it off and rejoining the group away from the active fires. "I think we did good."
"You look a little woozy, mate," Harry commented. "Let's get out of here and get you an antivenin."
"Come on, Weasley," Blaise urged when Ron still didn't move.
"Do you think you could give me a hand putting out these fires first?" he scratched his head. "Don't reckon we should leave them going."
Harry snorted while the Slytherin just rolled his eyes.
"Or is it actually because you set your only exit on fire?"
"That too," he said sheepishly.
…
It was well into the early morning hours when Ron and Harry finally fell back into their beds.
The spider bodies had been harvested and then incinerated, except for Aragog. Only his venom was harvested and then Harry left him beside Hagrid's hut on a large conjured bed of flowers with a note that said 'Condolences from a friend.'
Ron thought it was ridiculous but Harry thought the half giant deserved the closure.
"I swear, if I have to go to a spider funeral because you wouldn't let me burn the bloody thing, you'll end up with a thousand spiders in your bed."
Harry wondered for a moment if Ron didn't have more talent in divination than they'd given him credit for. The next morning, he had indeed received an invitation to Aragog's funeral from Hagrid.
Knowing that spider threats weren't something Ron delivered lightly, it was with a trudging sense of 'why me' that Harry dragged himself down to Hagrid's pumpkin patch. He was all alone; even Hermione wouldn't attend citing, funnily enough, a study date with Ron.
"I cried foul but Hermione still wouldn't come," Harry bemoaned to Harper and Noreen who were sitting at a small round study table in the DA Cathedral loft later that day.
"So you had to sit through a twenty minute spider eulogy alone?" the fifth year Gryffindor Harper Lee asked with a laugh. "The day after you killed said spider?"
"Well Hagrid doesn't know that, does he?" Harry defended. "Besides, it was the gas that got to him anyhow. Blame Ron."
"Blame the twins, more like."
"Speaking of those two," Noreen said. "Did you see how excited they were about the acromantula venom you gave them?"
"I didn't like it a bit," Harper agreed. "Last time they got a new liquid to experiment with, they pranked Ginny and ended up coating our entire dorm with blue slime that smelt like stink sap and tasted like lemons."
"What?" Noreen laughed incredulously. The small, dark-haired brunette had blue eyes that sparkled in a lively manner every time she talked. "You tasted it?"
"I had my mouth open when it went off," she defended. "It's not like I wanted to."
"Any side effects?" Harry asked curiously.
"An orange tongue."
"Weird," he said, scratching his head.
"I know."
"So, why'd you skip out on lunch?" Noreen asked Harry.
"I wasn't going to join the traitors after they abandoned me to a spider funeral," he huffed before cracking a grin. "That and said funeral ran long so I didn't get back inside until everyone was already in the Great Hall."
"Didn't want to deal with the staring upon entrance?" the fifth year Ravenclaw asked perceptively.
"Exactly," he confirmed. "What about you two? I know you aren't up here just to listen to me complain."
"We were doing some research for Susan on a couple ministry regulations she thinks might be a problem for any werewolf facilities," Noreen answered.
"We took down all the raw data, did some cross referencing, then sent it off to Lils," Harper continued elaborating.
"Gonna let Lilian find all the loopholes?"
"Yep," Harper agreed. "We give her the raw data and she makes sense of the nonsense."
"Speaking of nonsense," Noreen said as she stood and shouldered her bag. "I've gotta see a blonde about a bird. Or a fish. Or a bird fish. She wasn't very clear."
"Luna?"
"Luna," Noreen agreed. "She's giving me a hand with some of the merpeople plans. At least I think she is. She said she was gonna lend me fin and I'm not sure if she was joking…"
"You'll figure it out," Harry shrugged.
"Thanks," the normally reserved Ravenclaw said with an eye roll.
"Anytime," the Gryffindor said helpfully. "Isn't Luna supposed to be working on that map we got from the woman in the forest?"
"She is but there's some complications," Noreen answered. "We have to align the points correctly on a map drawn in the same scale and we don't know where to start."
"They said one of the spots was Hogwarts; I thought it'd be easy to line up from there," Harry said.
"No," the slim raven shook her head. "Hogwarts isn't on any map other than ours and even we can't pinpoint where exactly on a standard map it is."
"Plus, aside from one of the fainter spots maybe being your relatives house, we don't know where exactly in Britain any of the rest of the spots correlate to. It's a puzzle, that's all."
"I'm sure Luna will get it," Harry shrugged.
"I'm sure," Noreen agreed. "I better get going to see her though."
"You coming, Harper?"
"Yeah, sure," the Gryffindor agreed. "Why not?"
"Hope Luna doesn't slap you with a fish fin," Harry said with a jaunty wave while he settled into one of the chairs that had just been vacated. "Have fun."
They laughed at his remark and Harper made a rather unkind hand gesture in good humor before walking away with Noreen.
"Back at you!" he shouted while he pulled out his charms essay.
Time to crack down. He'd gotten a little behind with the busy week he'd been having and he had three more inches to write on his assignment that was due next period.
That was one of the joys of being a Hogwarts student — war or not, there's no break from homework.
…
Monday night after classes found Harry enjoying a lovely cup of tea.
He was lounging on his previously unused chaise in front of the warm fire in his office at Firewall Castle. One foot was on the blue and cream carpet, toes curled into the luxurious material loosely, while the other was up on the chaise.
On the small table beside him, three completed essays sat. It had taken him forever but he was finally done and now he could finish his tea.
"Ah," he sighed peacefully.
There was nothing like a little Earl Grey and a sense of accomplishment.
Just as he'd set his empty cup onto the tray, Winky popped back into the room. He noticed that she had forgone the usual set of miniature armor and robes the house-elves favored.
"Hello, Winky," he greeted her with a small smile. "Feeling the Christmas spirit already, I see?"
Winky brightened a little, brushing down the front of her outfit. Her crimson dress had little Christmas trees embroidered along the bottom and the cuffed sleeves had tiny golden stars.
"Oh yes, Master," she nodded enthusiastically. "All of the elves is very excited for big Christmas in the castle."
"I am too," he said with a small smile.
"Master Harry be needing anything else?"
"Maybe a sandwich?" Harry requested. "And more tea on my desk, please."
"Winky be being right back," she said with a sharp nod and a determined look.
He shook his head at the dedicated little elf before rising from the chaise with a long stretch.
He crossed the room, ignoring the cold grey flagstones under his feet, and settled in behind his desk. He'd finished his Hogwarts homework but now he needed to work on all of his other paperwork.
It started with signing some checks for Mr. Dunbar — while the goblins built the long-standing structures, it was Mr. Dunbar's job to add walls, floors, and plumbing to make it look just as nice as the rest of Firewall.
That, apparently, involved quite a lot of checks.
"Glad I found that spell in the family grimoire," Harry muttered to himself as he signed the last check with his wand and some of the special ink from Gringotts.
Next, the folder containing the creature rights proposal became his next point of interest.
There was so much information contained within those 42 pages and most of it was in formal language that gave him a headache. Thus, he made his own plain-speak translation. He had to reread that copy many times before writing down ideas, suggestions, potential problems, and general questions.
"Master's sandwich and tea," Winky said as she popped back in with a floating serving tray.
"Let me clear off the desk some," he said as he pushed copies he needed to file to one side and put a few things into their assorted out trays. "There we are."
Winky set down the tray and bowed out of the room after blushing at Harry's thanks and praise.
Harry rubbed his hands together as he prepared to eat his sandwich. He'd taken two bites when a thick folder popped into existence above his in tray. It landed with an auspiciously loud sound.
Harry sighed.
That would probably be the file on their Wolfsbane potion efforts. It was gonna be a long night even with the special ink spell.
"Best get to it," he said while pushing away the sandwich with a forlorn look. "Work, work, work," he muttered before pulling the deceptively heavy folder in front of him.
…
In the DA Cathedral, a low fire burning in the hearthside and one small candle were the only sources of light. The others had been extinguished at curfew which was now thirty minutes past.
Sally Smith still had a few more plans to hammer out before she'd return to the Hufflepuff common room. She didn't want to leave them tomorrow — she wanted them on Hooch's desk by morning. The Quidditch professor probably knew the stands better than anyone else so she'd have some good insights on the quickest way to evacuate the students.
It was another five minutes before Sally sat back in the cushy chair and let her head fall back slightly, cracking her neck. As she did, her eyes caught on the interactive map of Hogwarts on the wall next to her.
What was Draco Malfoy doing sneaking out of his common room?
Pursuing her lips, she grabbed a clean sheet of parchment and noted the date and time. She proceeded to track and note his route through the castle until he reached his apparent destination.
"What?" she said aloud.
His dot had disappeared right in the middle of the seventh floor corridor. What was going on?
Fretting, she debated about waking someone up but decided against it. By all accounts, Malfoy was still in the castle and he'd have to return to the dorms eventually. Setting an alert on the map to go off as soon as his name appeared again, she set back to her paperwork.
…
It was two hours later that his dot reappeared on the fourth floor in a little used, dead end side corridor.
Sally noted this with shock before hurriedly noting down exactly where it was at. If she remembered correctly, there was a landscape portrait that was typically empty on that particular stretch of wall.
While it was too late to do anything about it now, she'd leave a note for Gareth, Sally-Anne, and Ron. They'd see it tomorrow.
…
"It's weird," Gareth said to Sally on their shared free period before lunch as they watched the map replay Draco's path last night. "I've been keeping up watch on him since we got back but I never thought the bugger would be ballsy enough to trek from the dungeons to the top floor after curfew."
"Why not?" Sally asked. "We do it."
"True," he said. "But still…"
"What hours have you been tracking him from?"
"Pretty much curfew hours only," Gareth answered. "Blaise's been helping since he shares a dorm with a bugger and has an unhealthy attachment to his copy of the map."
"He's not in charge of the Castle Security squad for nothing," Sally said. "Obviously, we'll need to have a meeting tonight."
"Agreed."
…
Near the blank stretch of wall that marked the entrance to the Slytherin common room, a disillusioned figure sat under one of carved arches of Hogwarts dungeon.
Though you couldn't tell it (as the betraying shimmer of the disillusionment charm could hardly be seen in the dark), the figure was very uncomfortable. His butt was both numb and cold and he didn't quite enjoy the sensation. He was very tired but the wakefulness charm took care of that at the cost of a cheery mood.
All in all, Dean Thomas was not too pleased to have drawn the short stick on Malfoy watch. If (Ha. If.) Malfoy was causing trouble, he'd be the first one cursing the ferret as retribution for hours of butt numbing boredom.
In the end, he wasted his Wednesday for nothing. The blonde junior Death Eater hadn't even left his dorm room for so much as a midnight piss according to Blaise and the monitoring charms he'd set.
When dawn broke, a thoroughly displeased Dean Thomas retired to his bed for four hours rest. Thankfully, his first period was free and you could bet he was skipping breakfast.
…
"Weird," Ron said to Dean at lunch the next day. "Maybe this is a one off thing?"
"It's not," he said. "Haven't you checked your journal? Gareth and Blaise went through hours of the maps recordings last night while I was on watch."
"Explains why they look as zombified as you," Harry muttered before going back to his meal.
"Haven't had a chance to go over the journal between practical lessons and my mum's early morning essay on how much trouble I'll be in for running away over the summer. Apparently, I'll have no desserts this break, Christmas or no Christmas," Ron grumbled. "Anyways, what'd they find?"
"We've only got up to last Wednesday; he disappeared in the same place last Thursday and reappeared on the fourth floor," Dean said.
"Hm," Ron said before shoveling food in his mouth with only slightly more decorum than he'd ever had. "You taking watch again tonight?"
"Ruddy hell no," Dean answered vehemently. "It's Zabini's turn tonight. Except that lazy bastard gets to do it from the common room. I swear I still can't feel my bum."
"You could've used a cushioning charm…" Harry told him.
"I didn't have one of the twin's stealth bombs to conceal the magic and I didn't want to take any chances outside of Snape's common room."
"Why didn't you have one?"
"Apparently they have a recently discovered shelf life," Dean answered. "We'll have more by tomorrow."
"That needs to hit the journals," Harry spoke up again. "Can't have everyone carrying expired products."
"I'll have the twins do it," Ron said. "It's their product, they'll be able to give us an exact shelf life and probably a way to check if any of them are still any good. No point wasting."
Professor Flitwick entered the Great Hall a little late and walked between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to get to his seat.
The cluster of DA students quickly let their privacy wards fall while returning to normal conversation. The sharp charms professor would probably be able to tell if he walked right through a privacy ward as advanced as the one they used. Talking about the DA in the Great Hall was risky business, after all.
"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked while blinking, looking around. "Shouldn't she have been here from Ancient Runes by now?"
Ron checked the watch he'd taken to wearing, a gift from the twins on his last birthday charmed with a few special features. It was great now that all of the hidden pranks had been sprung.
"Reckon she should be, yeah. Should we go look for her?"
Harry frowned slightly but shook his head. "Probably just being paranoid."
"Not paranoia when they're really out to get you," Ron muttered, repeating a phrase he'd picked up from Moody during the summer before fifth year spent in Grimmauld place.
Shooting a quick privacy charm, Ron tapped his ear to activate the communication unit all DA members had taken to wearing in case of emergency.
"Hermione," he muttered to activate it.
He listened to something for a few moments before his eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Did she answer?" Harry asked, concerned.
He nodded. "Guys, turn your thingies on and get Hermione."
Harry, Dean, and Neville (who, up until now, had been silently reading a herbology book) all tapped their ears and said the young witches name.
One by one, as they pieced together both sides of the conversation Hermione was having with another girl, their eyebrows rose.
"Interesting…"
…
At that nights DA meeting, Hermione withdrew the memories related to the days events and placed them into the presentation pensieve. Then, she played it for everyone to see.
Hermione's Memory:
It was breakfast in the Great Hall.
A great black owl had delivered a letter to a cooly surprised Slytherin girl and caused a minor disturbance with its exit. Its wings caused such powerful buffets of air that many students had to rearrange their own letters or newspapers.
It was this that attracted her attention.
What kept her attention was the girls reaction.
Her hands fisted around the obviously expensive piece of parchment bearing some sort of black wax seal. Her jaw clenched, trembled, and her face reddened as she momentarily forgot to breathe. Her eyes watered for a brief moment before she seemed to force composure. Her face went cold, almost dead, in an impressive display of Occlumency that Hermione easily recognized.
The memory faded and shifted until it showed the hall outside of the girls bathroom near the Ancient Rune's classroom.
Hermione walked into the washroom to find the Slytherin girl bent over the sink, the sound of the running water almost covering the panicky breathing and sobs.
The two girls met eyes in the mirror before the Slytherin hastily feigned washing up and conspicuously dried her hands and face with a napkin.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked before the girl could beat her retreat.
"I don't need any help from the likes of you, Granger."
"But you do need help?" the Gryffindor couldn't help but ask. The only answer was the slamming of the heavy bathroom door.
The next memory was of Hermione's Ancient Runes class. According to the clock it was near the end of the period.
Hermione was sitting behind and to the left of the Slytherin girl from before and was watching her carefully. Her cold mask, however, gave nothing away.
When the bell rang, the girl exited the room at a quick pace behind the main body of the class. Hermione's gaze caught on the heavy cream of a parchment sticking out of one of the textbooks hanging out of the girl's half-closed bag. Her hazel eyes narrowed in thought.
It was clear the brunette had a moment of indecision and struggle but the DA watched as she activated her wrist holster and then used her wand to quickly slide the folded letter from between the pages of the textbook. She let it fall to the ground, as no one else had noticed, and discreetly picked it up on her way out of the classroom.
Stopping a corridor away in a hidden alcove behind a tapestry, Hermione read the letter by wand light. The DA listened as actual-Hermione read the letter aloud.
By the end of it, all they could say was "Bloody fuck." They didn't have long to simmer in their surprise, however, as the next and last memory began playing.
Hermione had cornered the girl in question in the corner of the library further from Madam Pince. In one hand she held the open letter and in the other she held her wand.
"Granger, what are you-"
"Shh," Hermione shushed her with a jab of her wand before beginning a complicated wand movement.
The Slytherin girl had a long moment to worry about being on the business end of Hermione Granger's wand. Everyone, even the Slytherins, knew that wasn't the best place to be.
A momentarily visible transparent shield of magic appeared in a bubble around them before fading from view.
"There," Hermione said as she put away her wand. "Now we can't be overheard."
"You stole my letter," she said, snatching said letter and stuffing it into her pocket.
"It came out of your bag," Hermione said in such a way that she wasn't really lying.
The other girl didn't seem to believe it but glanced over it in favor of other things. Namely, leaving.
"I have nothing to say to you."
At this point, Hermione reached up conspicuously and tapped her ear once to answer Ron's call.
"Good, then shut up and listen," the Gryffindor said forcefully. "That letter I was holding in my hand is from the Dark Lord himself, isn't it?"
"That's none of your business," she deflected. "It's just a prank or something from my sister. That's all it is…"
"No, it isn't," Hermione cut her off. "And you don't have a sister."
"I do," she spat back.
"Then why have I never heard of her?"
Brown eyes met brown for a long moment before the taller girl huffed. "Because she's a squib."
"Oh," Hermione blinked before blinking again and reaching up to her ear once more. "Ohh. Oh. Oh no…that's what the Dark Lord meant about purifying your line. He's holding your parents hostage and threatening your sister."
Tears bubbled in her eyes at the reminder of the terrifying letter.
"Millicent," Hermione said as gently as she could to the Bulstrode heiress without being patronizing. "If you let me, I promise I can help you."
"And how are you going to help me?" she spat back, feeling cornered but still willing to listen on the barest chance of saving her family.
"Do you know who my best friend is?"
Of course Millicent knew Harry Potter was her best friend; everyone knew that. But why would the Gryffindor golden boy help a Slytherin?
"Millicent," Hermione called as she attempted to regain the girl's attention. "Bulstrode, hey."
Her eyes came to focus and she flushed slightly at her lapse in attention.
"Yeah, I know who your best friend is Granger. What's he going to do to help me?"
"Find out. Meet me outside your common room an hour after curfew."
"But-"
Hermione didn't let Millicent finish her sentence. According to her charm, the librarian was approaching and she needed to be at lunch.
The open mouthed snake was left to watch the intelligent Gryffindor stride away as if nothing had ever happened.
The memories ended and the projection pensieve turned off.
"I'm sorry about setting a meeting without consulting anyone."
"You only had the one chance, Mione," Ron assured her. "Don't think anyone blames you. Besides, this is a good bit of intel."
"Well," Harry said in summation. "We've got a lot to talk about before we can even think about talking to Ms. Bulstrode. To start — Daphne, pull the file you made up on her. Have we ever heard anything about her squib sister?"
"Nothing," the elegant blonde girl said as she rose from her conjured royal purple armchair to walk over to the DA file cabinets. "And I've even been inside Bulstrode manor a few times at holiday events and parties and such."
"Then let's do our research guys," Harry said as he looked around at the many faces of his friends and allies. "We haven't got too long."
…
"While we still have time," Harry interjected some time later as discussion on Millicent Bulstrode came to a close. "Luna, what have you got on that map from the woman in the forest?"
"The map is more…complex than I originally thought," the slim blonde said to the group at large. "We have no starting point, no idea of which spot in the High Realm correlates to Hogwarts or any other point. While we know which spot the Huldra pointed out as Hogwarts, we don't know where that is on our map."
She spread out a large map with Hogwarts marked roughly at the center. Even as Lord Gryffindor, Harry hadn't been able to mark the location of the castle more clearly than that. Around that point were concentric circles that didn't make much sense to anyone other than Luna.
"Depending on the way the High Realm map is rotated, the points we are looking for are somewhere along here," she explained. "If we could narrow down even one more of those dots, we could align the map and we'd know exactly where to look."
"We're going to need to get back to researching Tom Riddle," Harry said as he rubbed his jaw line. "If these dark spots have anything to do with him, their physical locations may have some significance to him too."
"I have not yet explored that option," Luna told them.
"Then that's what we'll do," Harry nodded.
"I'll add in some of my personal research too," Colin Creevey piped up.
"Personal research?" Hermione asked with interest.
"On the Dark Lord's childhood and Hogwarts years," the blonde Gryffindor noted. "I've been writing an article on all of it I just need more verifiable sources."
"You have?" Su Li, one of those who were part of the informal press squad group, asked.
"In case we ever want to release it."
"It'd piss him right off," Ron said with a frown.
"That's why I haven't suggested it yet," Colin agreed.
"Actually," Harry thought with a heavy indentation in his brow. "That could be useful very soon. Work on getting it finished, Colin."
"You got it," the younger Gryffindor agreed with some surprise.
"Why would we want to piss him off again?" Ron asked with some concern.
"The creature bill that we've been working on is going to be revealed over Christmas break; that's already gonna piss him off. If we release an article about his muggle heritage, it may distract his followers and confuse any other neutral dark swing votes we've been worrying about."
"That isn't a bad idea," Daphne Greengrass agreed speculatively. "Sow dissent in the ranks and further distract the Dark Lord. We must be careful and prepared though; he will surely make some display of force after that."
"Against who? Muggles, wizards, or newspapers and journalists?" Ella Wilkins asked.
"There's a lot of variables," Harry agreed with a wince. "And there's no way to know who he'll strike at if not all of them. It's just an idea at the moment that we can talk about more later. For now, I believe we have a certain Slytherin to talk to."
They looked at the clock and, indeed, the time had come for Hermione to meet the girl outside of her common room. The Gryffindor bookworm stood up and began putting away her notes from the meeting. She was readying herself to make the trek into the dungeons when Harry stood from his seat.
"I'll go," Harry said, stopping her with a gentle hand on the arm.
"She's expecting me."
"Didn't you pretty much drop my name? I think Bulstrode will be okay with the switch."
Hermione gave her long time friend a look that said she clearly knew there was some reason for Harry wanting to go meet the girl in the dungeons in her stead. She raised a well-plucked eyebrow that said she clearly wanted an explanation.
"Blaise already laid eyes on Malfoy tonight — he's disappeared in that corridor and there's no telling when he'll go back to his dorm. I don't want you right outside the Slytherin common room tonight."
"Harry-"
"I know you're perfectly capable Hermione but I'd rather do it. Get the semi-circle sitting room behind Seasil's portrait ready?"
She stared him down for a few more seconds before nodding in agreement. He wasn't being ridiculous and insisting she stay in the common room or Cathedral, at least.
As she turned, Harry looked towards Ron and waved his hand, flicking two fingers towards Hermione.
He nodded without question. "You got it," he mouthed silently.
Ron had already been planning on keeping watch over her anyway and began quickly trotting after the brunette. A few minutes later, Harry exited the room as well and made his way into the heart of Hogwart's dungeons.
…
When Millicent Bulstrode stepped out of her common room at the appointed time, she looked around hesitantly.
After several careful sweeps of the area in front of her, she was sure that Hermione Granger wasn't going to show up. Just as she was about to step back into her common room, a shadowy figure stepped up next to her.
She couldn't help but jump and let out an undignified meep.
"Bloody hell-" she cursed before composing herself with typical Slytherin repose. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"
She couldn't identify any features because the male figure was cloaked in shadows from head to toe. Like, cloaked with literal shadows. They seemed to stick to him and swirl around him in a way that made it impossible to narrow down even his skin tone.
"Not to worry, Ms. Bulstrode," one of the most recognizable voices in the school said as he took her elbow. "Our contact is waiting for us."
"Why didn't she come herself?" she asked the guy she now recognized as Harry Potter.
"Because I decided to come on my own."
As if hearing something, his hand flew up to his ear and his head jerked towards one of the upcoming corners of the dark dungeon corridor. Then, Millicent saw someone else's shadow.
"In here," Harry hissed while pulling sharply on her elbow. He dragged her into a small alcove hidden behind a column; unless you were standing right by it, you wouldn't notice that there was a gap big enough for a person to fit behind it.
"Huh," Millicent whispered as she looked around the ovular alcove. It was a tight fit but comfortable enough for two people. "I didn't even know this was here."
"I like to think I know a fair bit about this castle," Harry said with some humor as he watched Professor Snape pass by. "Now let's go, he won't come back this way just yet."
They snuck back out of the alcove and stole up the staircase, slipping into a secret passage behind a tapestry that led up to the next level of Hogwarts and allowed them to avoid the main staircase. Eventually, their long trek led them to a portrait of a tree on a shrub-covered hill.
Harry waited for a long moment before he rolled his eyes lightly.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat.
Slowly, a small figure rose from the bushes. All Millicent could see were a pair of eyes and a wild head of hair, leaves, and twigs.
"Good evening, Seasil," he greeted the small figure. "Dei gratia."
The little girl slid back down into her bush very slowly with a distrustful gaze, portrait swinging open at the same pace. Inside, Millicent could see a well lit Hufflepuff themed semicircle sitting room.
"Please, go on in," Harry said politely while he held the portrait open for her.
She peered between him and the room distrustfully before she caught sight of a familiar head of hair. She'd been tempted to call it bushy but Granger's hair had sleeked down considerably since first year.
With one more look around the empty corridor, the broad shouldered girl stooped down and entered the room. The Gryffindor sixth year stepped in behind her, pulling the portrait shut as he did.
She was mildly impressed by the array of complex privacy wards he cast right after that to protect their coming conversation.
"Granger," Millicent greeted as politely as she could.
"Hello, Ms. Bulstrode," Hermione greeted more formally than she usually did, causing the Slytherin teen's eyebrow to raise.
"What do you want?"
"To help you," Harry answered. "And to defeat the Dark Lord."
"I can't help with that."
"Defeating the Dark Lord also involves ruining as many of his plots as we can," Harry said with a wink before he sat down on the plush ottoman across from the couch Millicent had warily sat down on. "Including his trying to hurt and manipulate your family."
She didn't say anything, just holding her gaze distrustfully.
"Why don't you just listen to what I have to say, okay?" Harry asked. "Then, if you decide you want our help, you can sign this secrecy contract and we can take you to people who can help more."
"More Gryffindors?"
Harry shrugged. "Find out."
She held his eyes with stone cold seriousness for a long moment.
She was weighing her choices and their consequences and his credibility all at once, thoughts raging like a storm. Eventually, she reached a concession with herself and gave him one sharp nod.
"Alright, Potter."
"Thank you," he said seriously. "Now…"
…
Millicent signed the contract.
She just needed to know if he could back up his assurances. She needed to know that he could really help with this before she said yes.
All in all, it couldn't hurt too bad to keep a secret for the Gryffindor golden boy. If it turned out he could help her, signing the contract was a good idea. If not, than she didn't really lose anything.
As soon as she'd finished signing it, Hermione had rolled it up and tapped it with her wand causing it to disappear.
"Let's go," Harry said as he stood and held out a hand to help her up. He was nothing if not polite.
She took it warily again but he ignored her reserve and helped her to her feet before letting go of her hand and gesturing to the door.
"Come on," he urged. "We don't have too long."
She followed them through the winding corridors of Hogwarts until they reached a portrait set into the wall and hidden behind a door (apparently to protect the austere Lady Margrave's zealously guarded privacy; "This is my bedchamber, after all, and I am a Lady!").
"Welcome," Harry said with a grin. "To the DA."
The portrait swung open and Hermione and Harry stepped into the large room beyond it.
"Watch your step," Hermione warned.
In the end, her warning didn't matter much because Millicent still stumbled upon entrance to the obviously well-used, grand, gigantic room.
"What…" she spun around, taking in the well stocked hospital area, dueling platform, desks strewn with paperwork, huge tomes, and interesting whirring devices with wide eyes. "What is this place?"
Her eyes landed on a cluster of people around a table by a large fireplace. She also recognized a happily waving boy in a portrait as former Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory. There was even a library on the loft area.
"Hello, Millicent," her dorm mate greeted her.
"Daphne?" she blinked in shock. "Lilian?" she asked again when she caught sight of the slim dark haired Slytherin.
"Hey Milly," she greeted with a wink.
"What are you doing here?" she asked as she looked at the mixed house group in front of her. "And who are all of you?" she asked as she looked at the ten or so very intimidating looking adults.
Aside from Daphne and Lilian from Slytherin, Neville, Ron, Sally-Anne Perks, Susan Bones, and Megan Jones were there. She didn't recognize any of the adults though the oldest looked somewhat familiar and intimidating in a gentlemanly way.
"This is Lucas Masson and his second in command Marcus Theron," Harry introduced the older man and his right hand who looked just as intimidating though more rugged. "With them are Marcus' team — we can get down to introductions later."
"We need some of your blood, Millicent."
"What?" she gawked at Sally-Anne. Blood was not something you asked someone for, especially not a pureblood heiress.
"We need to take a look at the wards on Bulstrode Manor."
"Why?"
"If we get that, we can see if there are any Death Eaters inside," Harry answered. "We have a device that will examine your wards and then add them to our map here," he pointed to the map spread out on the table. "That way we know if they get attacked or if someone inside needs help."
"How is that going to help my family?" she asked in a low voice.
"It's going to give us a map of the property and probably the house on this smaller parchment we've prepared," Ron Weasley answered. "We need to know what we're looking at."
"So you need my blood to get access to the wards."
"Yes," Sally-Anne agreed. "It won't give us any control over them, just information."
"Okay…" Millicent agreed hesitantly.
Ron placed a device that looked sort of like a bear trap with a gem in the center in front of Millicent and handed her a pin to prick her finger. "Just rub your finger over the gem."
"How does it work?"
"Craven here," Marcus spoke up as he gestured to a burly, brutish looking man. "Will find the ward line around the manor and push half of this device through it. The other half will stick out so the device can get info from inside the wards and send it back out of them."
She nodded in understanding and pricked her finger. She rubbed it over the orangey gem and watched as is flared with red light and absorbed her blood. She could see it floating in the amber gem like a dark ruby at its core.
"Okay," she said.
"Here," Daphne said as she grabbed Millicent's hand with both of hers. She focused very, very hard and her hands started to glow with a yellowy light. The pinprick on Millicent's finger stopped stinging and closed over with the blood disappearing.
"Wandless?" Harry whistled. "Nicely done, Daph."
"Can't let you be the only one who can do a wandless healing spell or two," she bantered back while Millicent looked at them both in mild shock. It may have only been a pinprick but that spell would have healed any minor cut and her dorm mate of six years had done it wandlessly.
"What is going on here?" Millicent asked in shock as Craven portkeyed out of Hogwarts with the device in tow. "He can't do that. This is- what is going on?"
"We're fighting a war," Neville answered her. "And we're gonna win it."
"But I thought you two were neutral," Millicent said as she stared between Lilian and Daphne.
"Things changed," Lilian answered. "I didn't like where our world was going so I got involved."
"But," Millicent looked at Susan Bones and Lucas Masson. "How?"
"Study group originally," Harry answered. "But when Cedric died things changed."
"Changed a lot," Megan agreed as she looked at Cedric's painting with no small amount of nostalgia.
"This school is bound to be the center focus of the war because Dumbledore and Voldemort are intent on making it so," the Boy-Who-Lived continued. "And you've been here long enough to realize, Millicent, that if you don't learn to protect yourself on your own then you never will. We learned to protect ourselves, each other, and those around us who cannot defend themselves. Hence our name, the Defense Association."
"How are you supposed to be able to rescue my family?"
"I can't tell you that until I know what we're looking at," Harry said truthfully. "But I can guarantee that we'll try and that we'll be more effective than any of the Ministry or Dumbledore's people ever would be."
"Is that acceptable?" Daphne Greengrass asked her dorm mate seriously.
"Yes, I think it is," Millicent said as she looked around the strange, surprising room. Little did she know, she'd become quite familiar with it in the future as today marked the beginning of her involvement in the DA.
…
The next four hours gave the Slytherin newcomer a lot of perspective.
For one, she was far out of her depth. The complexity of the arithmancy and runic configurations they were discussing flew right over her head.
Secondly, the communication between them all was impossible to follow as pocket conversations sprung up then split apart moment to moment. They all had a part of some sort though she certainly couldn't figure out what it was.
By no means was she left to observe quietly, however.
They wanted her help getting a better picture of the layout of each room of the house and the grounds — she'd been surprised to see a perfect floor plan of her home interspersed with moving dots.
To her relief, it seemed her family was alive if imprisoned in their own tower. Unlike most English purebloods, the Bulstrode's invested in a dungeon tower rather than basement; their gothic home was very unique.
"It seems control of the wards has transferred recently," Bill Weasley said with a furrowed brow. "That means we'll have to take them down completely."
"Only defensive wards transfer," Craven said as he pointed to a specific spot in the ward scheme. "Sub wards and offensive wards are still reactive to the girl's blood."
"What does that mean?" Millicent asked as she tried not to take offense at being called a girl by the burly Russian mercenary (she'd gotten a more clear answer on who the intimidating adults were).
"It means the wards can be turned on them if we can lower the defensive ones," Bill answered for Craven. "But we have to get your family out first otherwise the wards will turn on them too. Thankfully, it seems the elves have already left. Your family has a very…violent ward scheme."
"It was my great grandfather's proudest accomplishment," she said with a smirk.
"I'll apologize ahead of time for the havoc that we're about to unleash on them," the elder redhead said as he turned back to his pages. "Thankfully, we can get decently far into the estate before reaching the defensive wards. The offensive wards are the outer wards and can only be triggered by your father whom, I assume, does not have his wand to do so. Since we don't have any ill intent towards your family and we're not muggles, we shouldn't trigger the passive wards."
"How long is this going to take you?" Harry asked. "How long is Voldemort going to be willing to wait, really?"
"He needs me to get my father to do what he wants," Millicent voiced without a trace of the fear she probably felt. "If he kills my father, I'll inherit. My sister cannot inherit nor can my mother as a stipulation of her bridal contract. But I know my father — he is too proud to allow that man to be the end of our family's name and status."
"But if he could get his hands on you…"
"He could blackmail my father into doing whatever he wants."
"Which is the exact reason you won't be going anywhere near him or his Death Eaters."
"I'm going with you to save my family."
"No, you are not," Harry shot her down seriously. "We have trained together for years. We have the tools, the skills, and the experience with these sorts of things. Until you've trained with us, we're not going to put you in the line of fire."
"There's currently twenty Death Eaters in your house," Ron took over. "Your family is locked in the tallest tower in a room with no windows with guards outside their cell and on the stairs and all over the rest of the estate and we've got a limited amount of time to get them out. As an extra bonus, the entire tower is protected by separate anti apparition and portkey wards so we'll have to fly them out. That'll be hard enough for our broom teams without having to change their flight formations and maneuvers."
"We need your insight, not your wand," Hermione told her.
After a long moment of contemplating the words of each member of the so called Golden Trio, Millicent nodded shortly.
"Alright, good," Harry returned the nod. "Back on track. Bill, how long will it take you?"
"I need at least till the morning to figure out the best way to crack this scheme while leaving the offensive wards up and not triggering them. Once I figure that out, it'll probably take me half an hour with an extra wand to actually bring down the wards on site. Once you're out, I can trigger the offensive wards remotely through the device with Millicent's blood."
"Then let's get planning," Harry said as he pulled one of the copies of the maps of the grounds closer to himself. "We have until morning to finalize our plans. Then we've got classes after which means we should probably try to rest until after curfew. That's when we'll go. Katie, get Oliver here because we're gonna need both broom squads in the air on this one."
She nodded in agreement as everyone settled in to begin consulting the maps and throwing out ideas whilst Bill continued his ward work.
Hermione took the liberty to start bringing Millicent up to speed on some relevant things (like signing the Firewall contract and learning the secret).
The night passed quickly into morning and the next day came and went in a rush of activity. Soon, it was time to carry out their mission.